Full Name
Jody Singer
Job Title
Director
Company
Marshall Space Flight Center, AL
Speaker Bio
Jody Singer is the director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Appointed in September 2018 as the first female Marshall center director, Singer manages one of NASA's largest field installations, with nearly 6,000 on- and near-site civil service and contractor employees and an annual budget of approximately $3.6 billion. Prior to being named to the position, Singer had served as Marshall acting director since July 2018 and was deputy director from February 2016 to July 2018, assisting the director with the daily management of the center’s workforce and operations.

During her 35-year NASA career, Singer has held leadership roles of increasing responsibility in human spaceflight, technology and science flight missions programs and projects and was appointed in 2002 to the Senior Executive Service, the personnel system covering top managerial positions in federal agencies. She began her NASA engineering career in 1985 through the professional intern program in the mission planning and development office.

In 1986, she joined the Space Shuttle Program office, where she was an engineer in the Space Shuttle Main Engine office. From 2002 to 2007, she served as the first female project manager for the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project and led the team during the Columbia Return to Flight activities. From 2010 through 2012, she held deputy positions for three concurrent major programs: The Space Shuttle, Ares, and the start-up of the Space Launch System (SLS).

Singer, a native of Hartselle, Alabama, earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama in 1983, and she is a 2017 Distinguished Engineering Fellow. She has completed two NASA Fellowships, and has been recognized with numerous awards during her NASA career, including a Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive and Meritorious Executive, the highest honor for career federal employees.

Singer and her husband, Chris, live in Huntsville. They have three children and four grandchildren.
Jody Singer