As the Director of the Aviation Safety Program, Dr. Pritchett is responsible for the overall planning, management and evaluation of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's efforts to conduct high-quality, cutting-edge research that produces innovative concepts, methods, and technologies to improve the intrinsic safety attributes of current and future aircraft, and to overcome aviation safety challenges that would otherwise constrain the full realization of the Next Generation Air Transportation System. In addition, Dr. Pritchett supports a broad range of mission directorate activities, including strategic and program planning, budget development, program review and evaluation, and external coordination.
Before coming to NASA on an Intergovernmental Personnel Agreement (IPA), Dr. Pritchett was the Davis S. Lewis Associate Professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, with a joint appointment in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. She was the founder and director of the Georgia Tech Cognitive Engineering Center where she conducted and administered an interdisciplinary research and education program spanning several domains in aerospace including cognitive engineering, piloted control, flight mechanics, guidance, navigation, automatic control, and aerospace design methods.
Her research foci include: an application of knowledge of human cognition and performance in the design of aerospace systems to improve the human contribution to aviation safety and to human-machine system performance; innovative, intelligent flight deck systems with particular focus on safety systems such as collision avoidance and intelligent vehicle system monitoring; air traffic operations with particular focus to ensuring human performance is supported for large-scale system robustness; and novel methods of simulating large-scale systems, such as air traffic control systems, to examine system performance and safety in nominal and off-nominal conditions.
Dr. Pritchett is the author of over 170 technical publications and presentations and established seven new courses in cognitive engineering, air traffic control, and aerospace simulation methods. She is the recipient of awards including the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award for Top Young Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Tech Excellence Faculty Award, the RTCA William E. Jackson Award, Top Young Alumni of MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Wings Club of America Merit Award. She has served on the Human Factors Sub-Committee of the FAA Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee, and on committees and boards such as the AIAA Digital Avionics Technical Committee, National Research Council Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, and the Independent Assessment Team of the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO).
Dr. Pritchett received bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, 1994, and 1997, respectively.
