More Leadership Changes at NASA

NASA announced today that Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche is now Acting Associate Administrator, succeeding Jim Free who retired over the weekend.  Cathy Koerner, who has been leading the mission directorate that manages the Artemis program, will retire this Friday. Her Deputy, Lori Glaze, will take over on an acting basis.

Leadership changes at government agencies are not at all uncommon during a presidential transition.

Janet Petro announced these in a press release today.  The former Director of Kennedy Space Center, Petro took over as NASA Acting Administrator on January 20 in what is said to have been a surprise both to her and Jim Free, then NASA’s Associate Administrator who by tradition would have filled that spot. Free retired on Saturday.

Like Petro, Wyche is an experienced Center Director having led JSC since June 2021 and serving as deputy director for three years before that. With a B.S. in engineering and a master’s in bioengineering and biomedical engineering from Clemson University, she worked at the Food and Drug Administration before joining NASA in 1989. Petro said today that “Vanessa will bring exceptional leadership to NASA’s senior ranks, helping guide our workforce toward the opportunities that lie ahead.”

As Associate Administrator, she is the agency’s chief operating officer overseeing all 10 NASA Centers (nine civil servant field Centers plus the Jet Propulsion Lab, which is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology) as well as the Associate Administrators for the Mission Directorates at NASA Headquarters.

The leadership of one of those Mission Directorates is also changing. Cathy Koerner, Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD), will retire on Friday.

Petro praised Koerner’s “unwavering dedication to human spaceflight and we are grateful for her years of service.” A former flight director, Koerner rose to become Orion Program Manager at JSC before moving to headquarters first as Deputy Associate Administrator for ESDMD and then taking the top job.

Koerner’s husband, Stephen Koerner, has been JSC’s Deputy Director since 2021 and now will be Acting Director there.

ESDMD manages the Artemis program to return astronauts to the lunar surface and the broader Moon-to-Mars program.

Koerner’s deputy, Lori Glaze, will take over on an acting basis.

Glaze is a scientist who headed the Science Mission Directorate’s planetary science division for six years after a long career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  Last year she accepted what was to have been a six-month detail to ESDMD, but decided to stay on as Deputy Associate Administrator.

Glaze has a master’s in physics from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Ph.D. in Volcanic Eruption Plume Dynamics from the U.K.’s Lancaster University.  She joined NASA in 2007 after a decade at Proxemy Research Inc.

Petro also announced that Jackie Jester will be NASA’s new Associate Administrator for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs.  Jester most recently was at Relativity Space, but previously was a policy adviser at NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Before that she was a professional staff member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.  A graduate of Boston College, she has a bachelor’s degree in political science and minored in economics and international studies.  In her new role, Petro said Jester will “ensure we remain closely aligned with  national priorities as we work with Congress.”