As the former Director of MIT's Technology and Policy Program, Professor Newman led the Institute's largest multidisciplinary graduate research program. Newman served as NASA Deputy Administrator from May 2015 through January 2017. She was the first female engineer and scientist to serve as NASA Deputy Administrator, and focused on articulating the human Journey to Mars, highlighting scientific missions, advocating for transformative aeronautics capabilities, developing and implementing a strategic innovation framework, and advocating for diversity and inclusion for NASA and the nation's STEM initiatives. Her research expertise is in aerospace biomedical engineering investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity, and she is a leader in advanced space suit design, dynamics and control of astronaut motion, leadership development, innovation and space policy.