Richard Danks
NASA Glenn Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio
Phone: 216-433-8055
Fax: 216-433-3124
Email: richard.a.danks@nasa.gov
Richard Danks is the Deputy Chief, Facilities Division at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Danks is responsible for managing facilities operations, maintenance, facilities engineering, and construction, for the Center. Mr. Danks is a member, and past vice-chair, of the NASA Engineering and Construction Committee (ECIC), a member of the NASA Operations and Engineering Panel (OEP), and an instructor for the NASA CoF Management course and the NASA Sustainability course. He has performed facilities and maintenance program assessments for NASA, the Smithsonian Institution and the US Department of State. Mr. Danks has been with NASA since 1990.

Before joining NASA, Mr. Danks was employed for ten years at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland Ohio, and was responsible for managing the operation and maintenance of HVAC systems and other critical medical systems for this large, tertiary health care campus. Prior to that, Mr. Danks worked for the Gilbane Building Company (a construction management firm) in Cleveland, Ohio as a field superintendent and estimator working on health care facilities and automotive assembly plants. Also, Mr. Danks worked for the Austin Company, a design-build firm, as a mechanical engineer, estimator and field superintendent working on industrial, commercial and health care facilities.

Mr. Danks is an active member of ASHRAE participating on Technical Committee 7.3 – Operation and Maintenance Management where he contributed to the 2003 Applications Handbook, Chapter 38, Technical Committee 8.2 - Centrifugal Machines, Technical Committee 7.1 – Integrated Building Design. Mr. Danks is also a member of ASME.

He is active with the Construction Industry Institute (CII) and a past Chairman of Research Team 142 - Design and Construct for Maintainability and Chairman of Education Team 142, which developed an education module for design for maintainability. During this time he was principal author of two CII publications on design for maintainability. He is also a member of the CII Education Committee. Mr. Danks has also had a paper published in the Society for Machinery Failure Prevention Technology proceedings. In addition Mr. Danks has given numerous presentations at ASHRAE meetings, maintenance conferences, NASA conferences, and at the University of Wisconsin - School of Professional Development.

Mr. Danks graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. with a BSME, and has earned an MBA from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Danks is a egistered Professional Engineer in Ohio and Pennsylvania and has a Third Class Stationary Engineer’s License from Ohio.

Mr. Danks received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2001, was named Federal Engineer of the Year for NASA by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 2000, and has been recognized by the Association of Facilities Engineers in 1997 for his maintenance work while at NASA.

Mr. Danks lives in Kirtland, Ohio with his wife and daughter.