Heidi Parris

Heidi Parris serves as a key procurement professional at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, supporting the agency’s mission to advance human spaceflight systems and life sciences research. She manages complex acquisitions in research and development, focusing on cutting-edge technologies that enable crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. Her work spans the full lifecycle of contract actions—from market research and solicitation to award and performance oversight—ensuring alignment with NASA’s strategic priorities in microgravity physiology, radiation biology, and spacecraft systems engineering. She plays a critical role in securing innovative solutions that support astronaut health, mission operations, and next-generation spacecraft development. Parris maintains enduring relationships with specialized contractors including Sierra Space Corp, Aspera Biomedicines, Inc., and Single Crystal Diamond Inc., each bringing unique technical capabilities in space habitat design, biomedical research tools, and advanced materials. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for high-technical-risk, high-reward partnerships with firms possessing deep domain expertise in aerospace engineering and life sciences. These collaborations are typically structured as cost-reimbursement or fixed-price incentive contracts, emphasizing performance-based outcomes and technical innovation over commodity procurement. Her procurement portfolio shows no reliance on socioeconomic set-asides, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition. This reflects a mission-driven focus on technical excellence and mission-critical capability over socioeconomic categorization, prioritizing the most qualified vendors regardless of business size or certification status. Parris’s primary procurement activity centers on NAICS 541715—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences. She routinely sources advanced laboratory instrumentation, computational modeling services, radiation shielding materials, and human performance monitoring systems. Her domain expertise lies at the intersection of aerospace engineering and biomedical science, ensuring that contracted R&D directly supports NASA’s human exploration goals for lunar and deep space missions.