Krista Kinnard currently serves as the Culture & Communications Lead for NASA Digital Transformation. In her role, she shepherds the refinement and integration of NASA’s digital transformation strategy, plans and policies and helps coordinate the implementation of transformation activities across the NASA enterprise in a number of strategic areas including data, inclusive teaming, intelligent automation, artificial intelligence/machine learning, process transformation, and culture and workforce.

Prior to joining NASA, Krista served as the Director of Innovation and Engineering at the Department of Labor (DOL). In this role, she leads the DOL in the discovery and adoption of new technologies and solutions to meet the unique business challenges face by the many sub-agencies that make up the department. She established and directed the AI Center of Excellence, the Automation Center of Excellence and the department’s Innovation Incubator to foster the exploration, development and operations of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), and other emerging technologies. She also serves as the Responsible AI Official for DOL, representing the department in White House working groups for the implementation of Executive Order 13960: Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government. In 2022, she was honored with the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal as an emerging leader in the federal government.

Prior to joining DOL, Krista was a director at GSA’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, where she partnered with federal agencies to enable the adoption of AI and automation capabilities. She also helped lead the Artificial Intelligence Community of Practice (CoP) and continues to serve as a Steering Committee member. She led the creation of GSA’s “AI Guide for Government” to serve as a tool to help educate the federal government on AI adoption.

Before joining the federal government, she worked for IBM’s Federal Watson AI and Data Platforms team as a Data Scientist and Technical project lead, leading the design and development of machine learning based systems to government clients. She worked with the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Postal Service, several Defense and Intelligence agencies, San Diego County, The United Way Worldwide and Florida 2-1-1. During her time at IBM, she earned a patent for helping develop a Convolutional Neural Network with Augmentation Features.