WASHINGTON, May 21, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA
Administrator Jim Bridenstine has
named Steve Jurczyk as associate
administrator, the agency's highest-ranking civil servant position.
Jurczyk has been serving in the position in an acting capacity
since March 10. In addition, Deputy
Associate Administrator Krista
Paquin will retire from NASA at the end of May. Melanie W. Saunders has been assigned as the
acting deputy associate administrator, effective June 10.
"I want to thank Steve for stepping up to the plate as acting
associate administrator these past months, and look forward to his
counsel going forward," said Bridenstine. "I also want to thank
Krista for her distinguished service to NASA and welcome Melanie to
Headquarters. The agency has greatly benefited from the talents of
all these dedicated civil servants."
Until his appointment as associate administrator, Jurczyk had
been associate administrator of the Space Technology Mission
Directorate since June 2015. In this position, he formulated
and executed the agency's space technology programs, focusing on
developing and demonstrating transformative technologies for human
and robotic exploration of the solar system in partnership with
industry and academia.
He previously was director at NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Virginia. Named to this
position in May 2014, he headed
NASA's first center, which plays a critical role in NASA's
aeronautics research, exploration and science missions.
Jurczyk served as Langley's deputy center director from
August 2006 until his appointment as
director.
Jurczyk began his NASA career in 1988 at Langley in the
Electronic Systems Branch as a design and integration and test
engineer developing several space-based Earth remote sensing
systems. From 2002 to 2004 Jurczyk was director of engineering, and
from 2004 to 2006 he was director of research and technology at
Langley, where he led the organizations' contributions to a broad
range of research, technology and engineering disciplines
contributing to all NASA mission areas.
He has received many awards during his career, including two
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals, the Presidential Rank Award for
Meritorious Executive in 2006, and the Presidential Rank Award for
Distinguished Executive in 2016 -- the highest honors attainable
for federal government leadership. He is an associate fellow of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a graduate
of the University of Virginia, where he
received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in
Electrical Engineering in 1984 and 1986.
In an agency career spanning more than 30 years, Paquin has
served in many critical roles. She started at NASA in 1984 as a
Presidential Management Intern, and spent 22 years of her career at
the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. As a senior executive at
Goddard, she was assigned the roles of associate director of
management operations, deputy director of the Applied Engineering
and Technology Directorate, deputy director for Planning and
Business Management of Flight Programs, and Goddard associate
center director.
In her latest role as deputy associate administrator at
Headquarters, she chairs the NASA Mission Support Council, which
serves as the senior decision-making body regarding the integrated
agency mission support portfolio. Paquin also was associate
administrator for the Mission Support Directorate from
April 2015, where she was responsible
for the leadership and integration of NASA mission support
functions with an annual budget of more than $3 billion. She oversaw
agencywide human capital management, strategic infrastructure,
procurement, protective services, audit liaison, agency directives
management, NASA Headquarters operations, the NASA Shared Services
Center and NASA partnerships, including Space Act Agreements.
Appointed to the Senior Executive Service (SES) in 1999, Paquin
was the recipient of numerous awards, including NASA's
Distinguished Service Medal, the SES Presidential Rank Award for
Meritorious Executive, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.
She holds bachelors and masters degrees in Urban Planning and
Management from the University of
Maryland.
Saunders has been acting deputy center director at the Johnson
Space Center in Houston since
Feb. 1, where she helps to manage one
of NASA's largest installations, with almost 11,000 civil service
and contractor employees – including those at White Sands Test
Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico
– and an annual budget of approximately $5
billion. She was previously Johnson's associate director,
and oversaw a broad range of human spaceflight activities.
Prior to being named associate center director, Saunders served
as associate manager of the International Space Station Program
from 2005 to 2009, during the most intensive phases of space
station assembly. From 2003 to 2005, she was deputy manager of the
station's External Relations Office. Saunders began her NASA career
in 1994 as the manager for International Policies for the
International Space Station Program, where she negotiated
international agreements.
During her NASA career, Saunders has been recognized with the
Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, two NASA Outstanding
Leadership Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, a Silver
Snoopy, and numerous other individual and group achievement awards.
She also was profiled in the inaugural edition of Women@NASA, and
in Summer 2017 was featured in Profiles in Diversity, Women
Worth Watching. She holds a bachelor's degree in history from the
University of California, Santa Barbara
and a Juris Doctorate from the University of
California, Davis.
For information about NASA and its missions and activities,
visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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SOURCE NASA