Cheryl Quinn Deputy Director, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate NASA

Cheryl Quinn is the deputy director for the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) within ARMD at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. In collaboration with the program director, Quinn supports the overall planning, management and evaluation of NASA’s aviation operations and safety research portfolio across four research centers.

AOSP works with the Federal Aviation Administration, and industry and academic partners, to conceive and develop Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) technologies that will further improve the safety of current and future aircraft moving through the National Airspace System. NextGen activity includes research to enable service oriented architecture and integrated demand management operational efficiencies in the surface, terminal, en route, and oceanic operational domains for traditional aircraft, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and future autonomous systems.

AOSP is also responsible for aviation safety research in the areas of aircraft state awareness, prevention of aircraft loss of control, verification and validation of complex systems, prognostic safety through data mining, and real-time system-wide safety assurance. A key focus is on developing and demonstrating enhanced systems that will enable routine access to the airspace by emergent users of UAS, especially in support of evolving urban air mobility concepts.

Quinn was previously the NASA Ames Research Center, and then ARMD, representative to NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) office. She has also served as the associate director for aeronautics at Ames.

Quinn began her NASA career at Ames conducting air traffic management research. She has served in project management positions within ARMD’s former Airspace Systems Program including project planning lead and deputy project manager for the Efficient Flight Path Management project, and as manager for terminal and surface systems and operations under the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies project.

Quinn holds a degree from Stanford University.

Official Bio