2025 Annual Conference: VPR Research Workshop Featured Speakers

Learn more about our speakers for the TAMEST VPR Research Workshop: ARPA-H, GURI and Texas Space Commission.

Nancy Currie Gregg

Colin Boone

Finance Specialist

Office of the Governor

Governor’s University Research Initiative (GURI)

Colin Boone is a Program Specialist in the Economic Development and Tourism division within the Office of the Governor. He has been with the Office of the Governor for almost 3 years. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Texas A&M University and enjoys golfing and fishing in his free time.
Nancy Currie Gregg

Nancy Currie-Gregg, Ph.D.

Member, Texas Space Commission Board of Directors

Director, Texas A&M Space Institute

Departments of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Aerospace Engineering

Texas A&M University

Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg is the Director at Texas A&M University’s Space Institute, a unique collaboration facility featuring the world’s largest indoor lunar and Mars ‘scapes. Through her appointment to the Texas Space Commission, she contributes to initiatives to promote growth in all sectors of the Texas space economy. As the Don Lummus ‘58 Professor of Practice in Engineering, she holds appointments in the Industrial and Systems Engineering and Aerospace Engineering departments. Her research activities focus on optimizing human performance and safety in aerospace systems.

Before joining Texas A&M University, Dr. Currie-Gregg dedicated the majority of her career to supporting NASA’s human spaceflight programs and projects. Selected as an astronaut in 1990, she logged 1,000 hours in space as a mission specialist on four space shuttle missions. Following the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy in 2002, she led the Space Shuttle Program Safety and Mission Assurance Office, directing safety, reliability, and quality assurance efforts to enable the safe return to flight of the Space Shuttle. She also served as a senior executive member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, where she spent more than a decade as a Principal Engineer and Chief Engineer at the Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Currie-Gregg earned her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from The Ohio State University, a Master of Science degree in Safety Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston. A retired U.S. Army Colonel and Master Army Aviator, she has accumulated over 4,000 flight hours in rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.

Eva Garland, Ph.D.

Eva Garland, Ph.D.

Founder

Eva Garland Consulting

Dr. Eva Garland established Eva Garland Consulting (EGC) in 2013 with the goal of helping innovators secure and manage non-dilutive funding to further their scientific advancements. Today, the EGC team consists of over 45 Ph.D.-level Scientific Grant Experts and 12 Accountants who support over 3,000 clients including small and large businesses, technology incubators, academic institutions, and research institutes throughout 50 states and 5 continents. To date, EGC’s clients have collectively secured over $2 billion in grant funding.

Dr. Garland actively participates on Federal and State grant review panels and has served as a reviewer for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report on the DOE SBIR/STTR program. She is the lead author for EGC’s three best-selling books on the SBIR/STTR program.

Prior to EGC, Dr. Garland held positions on the Chemistry Faculty at NC State University and as Vice President of Research & Development at Agile Sciences. At Agile, she oversaw a grant program that generated over $15M in non-dilutive funding to support the company’s pre-clinical development of a new class of compounds for addressing drug-resistant bacterial infections. Dr. Garland holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Caltech.

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