Michele Judd is the Managing Director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS), a joint institute of JPL and Caltech. The primary purpose of KISS is to develop new planetary, Earth, and astrophysics space mission concepts and technology by bringing together a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers for sustained scientific and technical interaction. This unique organization links the study elements of a think tank with the implementation elements of designing and developing prototypes.

The Institute is centered on the intellectual, instrumentation, and research strengths of Caltech and JPL - and augments those strengths by inviting external experts from academia, government, and industry to engage in its programs. The Institute also provides opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to actively participate in cutting edge space mission research and learning. The Institute will support significant outreach to the public and the wider technical/scientific community via open lectures and the Internet.

Michele is nationally certified by the American Society of Quality as a Quality Manager, and is licensed in the state of California as a Professional Engineer.

Prior to joining KISS, Michele was in JPL's Science Division where she worked on several special projects to improve the environment for researchers and helped manage the AEGIS, OASIS, and QuakeSim research teams. In 2011, the AEGIS team received the NASA Software of the Year Award and a NASA Group Achievement Award. In 2009, Asteroid 185641 was renamed "Judd" in honor of her work at JPL. Before coming to JPL, she managed her own consulting business and had a twelve-year career at Mobil Oil, where she held positions in the areas of strategic planning, quality management, engineering and field operations.