Our Executive Mentors

Erika Wagner, PHD

Dr. Erika Wagner serves as the Lead for US Business Development at The Exploration Company, one of the fastest growing space companies globally, building reusable space capsules and lunar landers. Previously, Dr. Wagner spent more than a decade at Blue Origin, where she helped drive the company’s go-to-market strategies in suborbital research, commercial space stations, and lunar technologies. Earlier, she worked with the X PRIZE Foundation as Senior Director of Exploration Prize Development and founding Executive Director of the X PRIZE Lab@MIT. She also served at MIT as Science Director and Executive Director of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program.

In the community, Dr. Wagner has worked with The National Academies since 2014, including her current seat on the Steering Committee for A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars. Her Board service currently focuses on STEM/STEAM engagement and innovation with The Museum of Flight and Aurelia Institute. She is an advocate for gender diversity in tech with the International Women’s Forum and Brooke Owens Fellowship.

Dr. Wagner’s interdisciplinary academic background includes studies in Biomedical and Aerospace Engineering from Vanderbilt University, MIT, International Space University, and the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Her research spanned both human and mammalian adaptation to microgravity, partial gravity, and centrifugation; as well as organizational innovation and prize theory. She has been named a Fellow of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) and the Explorers Club, and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).