National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Biography

Image Credit: NASA

Kate McMurtry is the deputy director for the Integrated Aviation Systems Program within 

ARMD at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. In collaboration with the program 

director, McMurtry supports the overall planning, management, and evaluation of the 

directorate’s efforts to conduct experimental flight research, and to test the most promising 

concepts and technologies from across the ARMD portfolio at an integrated system 

level. McMurtry is responsible for day-to-day operations in the program office, including 

coordinating with NASA and industry personnel to ensure that program efforts are 

aligned with ARMD strategy and complementary to other ARMD initiatives.

Prior to her deputy director role, Kate served as the branch chief of operations engineering 

at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California and was responsible for the 

technical authority for airworthiness of flight vehicles throughout maintenance and project 

lifecycles. She served in two temporary detail positions at Armstrong during her ten-year 

supervisory role in the branch. First, she fulfilled an acting Center Chief Engineer position 

responsible or the airworthiness and safety review of Armstrong and Jet Propulsion Lab 

aircraft flight operations. Later she served as the Acting Deputy Director for Safety and 

Mission Assurance. 

Earlier in her Armstrong career, McMurtry was an operations engineer responsible for 

the airworthiness, research requirement development, hardware design and integration, 

environmental testing, and flight test planning for the Center’s F-18 and F-15 research 

aircraft. Notable project work includes leading the F-18 Full Scaled Advanced System 

Testbed (FAST) which enabled the safe and successful flight test evaluation of state-ofthe-art adaptive control technologies for safe flight in the presence of adverse conductions 

such as structural damage, control surface failures, or aerodynamic upsets. As the lead 

operations engineer of the F-15 supersonic research testbed, McMurtry contributed to 

the success of experiment validation efforts to include flow field characterization for inlet 

technologies, supersonic natural laminar flow for wing concept demonstrations, and 

aerostructural efficiency determination for experimental aeroelastic modeling and control. 

She became certified and performed in the role of mission controller for all associated 

projects.

Prior to her time with NASA, McMurtry commissioned through the Air Force Reserve 

Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program and served in the U. S. Air Force at Edwards 

Air Force Base, California. While active duty, she worked as a developmental engineer for 

the Airborne Laser Program in the role of High Energy Laser Integrated Team Lead. In 

the role she supported the chemical batch process development necessary to enable the 

megawatt-class chemical laser, System Integration Lab testing, and then the operational 

test of low power beacon and tracking lasers which preceded the successful fire of the highenergy laser in flight. She earned the Air Force Commendation Medal, National Defense 

Service Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal upon service completion. 

Kate M. McMurtry

Deputy Director, Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP)

NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Biography

Kate received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from 

the University of Pittsburgh yet found her true interest in aeronautics while serving 

with the Air Force and NASA. This sparked her pursuit and achievement of a private 

pilot certification (single-engine land and single-engine sea). She continued her formal 

education with a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Management 

and Leadership, both from Webster University. McMurtry is a Federal Executive Institute 

alumna and is the recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and four Group 

Achievement Awards. 

Kate M. McMurtry (continued)

Deputy Director, Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP)

NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD)