Irene Duhart Long, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer and Associate Director
Center Operations
Irene Duhart Long, M.D., is the Kennedy Space Center Chief Medical Officer and the Associate Director of Center Operations. Dr. Long has been at the Center since 1982. She is responsible for the Directorate level coordination and Center-wide integration of Center Operations elements providing Occupational Health and Environmental functions. Dr. Long provides executive leadership and direction serving as the Directorate's interface with Center senior management and organizations to assure support to employee health and the environment. She provides long-range and strategic planning and develops related initiatives to assure proactive, preventative approaches to comprehensive medical and environmental programs.
From 1994 to 2000, Dr. Long served as the Director, Biomedical Office, John F. Kennedy Space Center. The Biomedical Office (JJ) provided program management of the Center's Aerospace and Occupational Medicine, life sciences research, and environmental health programs, and operational management of the life sciences support facilities. The Biomedical Office provided and coordinated medical, environmental health, and environmental/ecological monitoring support to launch and landing activities and day-to-day institutional functions.
Prior to her assignment as Director of JJ in July 1994, Dr. Long was the Chief, Medical and Environmental Health Office in JJ. The Medical and Environmental Health Office was responsible for assuring a comprehensive Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health program directed toward the maintenance of the health of the KSC workforce. Medical operations activities included the provision and planning of emergency medical services in support of STS launch and landing activities. Additional responsibilities included coordination of human Life Sciences Flight Experiment requirements and operational management of the Baseline Data Collection Facility used for pre- and post-flight physiological data collection. Research related activities included medical screening and monitoring of research laboratory subjects and participation in operational research protocol development and implementation.
Dr. Long graduated from East High School in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Pre-medicine/Biology in 1973. She received a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1977. After two years of a General Surgery residency at the Cleveland Clinic and the Mount Sinai Hospital of Cleveland, she completed a three-year residency in Aerospace Medicine through Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio, and received a Masters of Science (M.S.) degree in Aerospace Medicine.
Dr. Long's previous NASA experience during her Aerospace Medicine residency includes rotations at the Ames Research Center from July 1981 until March 1982, and at KSC from April 1982 until her appointment in July 1982.
Dr. Long is a member of the Aerospace Medical Association and its affiliated Space Medicine Branch, and the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons. She received the Society Presidential Award in 1995, and served as its President in 1999. In 1986 she received the Equal Opportunity Action Committee Group Achievement Award, and the KSC Federal Woman of the Year Award. In 1998, Dr. Long was presented with the Women in Aerospace Outstanding Achievement Award.
Dr. Long, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, presently lives in Merritt Island, Fla.
March 2005
Biograhies - Current Employees