Nancy Conrad

Nancy Conrad is Chairman and Founder of the Conrad Foundation.
 
The Conrad Foundation hosts an online global competition for teams of students 13–18. The Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge combines innovation, education, and entrepreneurship as it invites students to create commercially viable products in education that work to solve complex global, national, or local issues in one of four categories: aerospace, energy, cyber security, or health. Finalists in this competition attend the Innovation Summit hosted at Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex where they present their products before industry leaders. This is Shark Tank meets the Academy Awards for high school students.
 
In 1996, Nancy helped her husband Pete Conrad to create companies engaged in the commercialization of space in order to make space travel more accessible. These companies included Universal Space Network (USN), Universal Spacelines, Universal Spaceware, and Rocket Development Company. She was the Director of Communications for Universal Space Network which is now SSC Space US, Inc.
 
Nancy also founded Universal Spaceworks, an astronaut licensing company representing 20 astronauts who worked in NASA. Universal Spaceworks produced educational products based on the exploration of space including the book, Heroes of Space, published in 1999 by Intervisual Books. Under her leadership, Universal Spaceworks collaborated with Bandai America and Saban Entertainment toy licensee for the Power Rangers in Space, in 1998 to create a line of action figures called Heroes of Space. The line portrayed former astronauts of America’s space program including moonwalker Pete Conrad from Apollo 12, Charles Duke from Apollo 16, and Alan Bean from Apollo 12.
 
Nancy interviewed 11 moonwalkers for “One Giant Leap for Mankind”, a publication chosen by NASA as the official book for the 25th anniversary of the first lunar landing. She also co-founded Pepper Pike Graphix, an educational comic book publishing company that produced “Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 12,” which was used by filmmaker and actor Tom Hanks as a source of research for the HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon. Nancy coauthored her husband’s posthumous biography, Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad’s Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond, with Space Cowboys screenwriter, Howard Klausner. It was published by Penguin Books USA in 2005.
 
Following Pete Conrad’s death after a motorcycle accident in 1999, Nancy shared Pete’s story with global audiences and in the Discovery Channel documentary “Surfing the Healthcare Tsunami”. She cofounded the Community Emergency Healthcare Initiative through the Texas Medical Institute of Technology, to assist small and rural hospital emergency services. The Pete Conrad National Patient Safety Award was established by Nancy, which is awarded to extraordinary health care leaders and institutions that bring life saving solutions into frontline healthcare use.
 
Nancy is a published author and Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Patient Safety and a member of the Patient Engagement Board of the Global Patient Safety Team. She serves on the President’s Circle of the National Academies of Sciences, Explorer’s Club, and the Cosmos Club. She has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology discussing how the Conrad Foundation uses partnership and mentorship to improve STEM education.
 
She also serves on the Advisory Board of the B612 Foundation. She is a founding partner of the Global Patient Safety team advisory Board. She served as a co-chair of the U.S. News & World Report STEMS Solutions 2012. She has been affiliated with the STEM Education Coalition, STEMconnector, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and the Presidential Scholars. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report and STEMconnector named Nancy one of 100 Top Women Leaders in STEM and inducted her into the 100 Top Women Leaders in STEM Hall of Fame.
 
Listen to her on The Space Show. Watch her YouTube channel. Read her LinkedIn profile and her Wikipedia profile. Follow her Twitter feed.