Director, Precision Medicine Center of Excellence in Patient Safety and Quality

Co-lead, Ambient Intelligence to Enhance Safety and Success in the Operating Room and Critical Care Settings

Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety

Research Interests:

• Artificial intelligence
• Assured autonomy
• Precision medicine
• Systems engineering
• Risk management
• Mission assurance

Richard Day is a nationally recognized leader in program management, system engineering, system safety, reliability, risk management, and mission assurance. He has decades of experience in the successful development and operation of complex, advanced technology systems of national importance. His passion for excellence and unique experience with high-reliability organizations led him to Johns Hopkins Medicine, where he now provides leadership for the Armstrong Institute’s precision medicine and artificial intelligence initiatives.

Day’s deep intuitive understanding of safety, quality, risk management, and organizational governance developed over three decades at NASA, where he led large interdisciplinary teams to develop state-of-the-art space science and Earth science research satellite systems and was promoted to senior executive leadership roles in oversight, independent review, and risk assessment for the entire portfolio of space flight programs at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Day served as Goddard’s assistant center director for management systems, director of mission success, acting director/deputy director of systems safety and mission assurance, Systems Management Office director, chair of the Management System Council, and head of the Spacecraft Programs and Payload Systems Management Offices.

Day subsequently served for five years at the Applied Physics Laboratory as chief of mission assurance for civilian and national security space programs and deputy chief quality officer. Part-time faculty appointments include the Whiting School of Engineering in Space Systems Engineering and the School of Medicine in Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine. Day created an innovative engineering graduate degree course, Assuring Success of Aerospace Programs, that he continues to teach each semester.

Among his various awards are the U.S. Presidential Rank Award for Senior Executive Service, the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.

Day earned an MS in space technology from the Johns Hopkins University and a BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. His postgraduate executive education includes the Contemporary Executive Development Program at the George Washington University, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Building Relationships That Work at Wharton Executive Education, and Inside Washington: Business and Public Policy at the Brookings Institution.