Former astronaut and first African American to conduct a spacewalk, Bernard has served as mission specialist (STS-55) and payload commander (STS-63). He is a former vice president/chief scientist of SPACEHAB, Inc. and vice president of business development for Space Media, Inc. He is currently president/CEO of Vesalius Ventures, Inc., a venture capital accelerator for Medical Informatics and Technology, and founder of the Harris Foundation.