Speaker Profile

In August 2021, the Board of Directors for the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation selected Chris Cassidy to be President and CEO, where he now leads the project to build to build the iconic Museum, Monument, and Institute. Our team is on a mission to inspire America, promoting the belief everyone is born with the potential to be extraordinary. Chris is the embodiment of this truth. From humble beginnings in the upper Northeast, he chose a life of service to country. First, as an elite Navy SEAL and then as NASA's Chief Astronaut, he has always put others first and given back to the country which gave him boundless opportunities.

Christopher J. Cassidy was born in Salem, Massachusetts on January 4, 1970 and considers nearby York, Maine, where he grew up, to be his hometown. A graduate of York High School, Chris completed Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, Rhode lsland in 1989 and received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1993. He later received a Master of Science in Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts lnstitute of Technology and has Honorary PhD's from Husson University and the University of Maine at Augusta.

Captain Cassidy is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL. During his service, he was awarded the Bronze Star with combat 'V' and received a second Bronze Star for combat leadership service in Afghanistan. In 2004, the platoon he commanded was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for a nine-day operation at the Zharwar Kili Cave on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.

Cassidy was selected as an astronaut in 2004. He is a veteran of three space flights and ten space walks. Chris has flown to the lnternational Space Station (ISS) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He has accumulated 377 days in space to include his most recent six-month spaceflight in 2020. In 2015, he became NASA's 14th Chief Astronaut and served in this capacity for two years.