Burton R. Summerfield

Burton R. Summerfield serves as Associate Director, Management, of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center. In this role, Summerfield develops and executes the center’s strategic analysis, planning, business development and communications capability that guide key center decisions and relationships. He is also responsible for the management of Kennedy’s Center Management and Operations (CMO) budget.

Experience

Summerfield began his career at the center in 1982, working in the field of environmental health, and joined NASA in 1989 as Kennedy’s pollution control and sanitation officer. In 1997 he was selected as the associate director of the Biomedical Office, overseeing occupational medicine and environmental and advanced life support operations and research. Summerfield also served as the chief of the Safety, Occupational Health, and Environmental Division of the Center Operations Directorate. His office provided and coordinated medical, environmental health, and environmental management activities at the center.

From 2009 to 2013, Summerfield served as associate director for Institutional Services for the Center Operations Directorate at Kennedy. He assisted in developing directorate structure and policy, requirements analysis and project management for institutional projects. In addition, he was responsible for evaluating current and long-range objectives, plans, studies and policies; and he oversaw institutional contracts that were managed by the directorate.

Summerfield served, from 2013 to 2018, as Senior Advisor for Institutional Management, Kennedy. He provided specialized expertise to a wide range of mission support areas across the agency and was responsible for reducing the institutional risk of current and future missions by improving processes, stimulating efficiency, and providing consistency and uniformity across organizational capabilities and services.

Education

Summerfield graduated from Old Dominion University in Virginia in 1982 with a bachelor’s in environmental health. In 1996, he earned a master’s in business administration from the Florida Institute of Technology. Summerfield was board certified in the comprehensive practice of industrial hygiene in 1988 and is a diplomat of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene, as well as a member of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Personal

Summerfield was born and grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia. He currently lives in Titusville, Florida, with his wife Dianna, and he is the father of two children.

Biography last updated November 2018