Biden Appoints Ellen Stofan to Lead NASA Agency Review Team

• Former astronaut Pam Melroy and Kathryn Sullivan also named to review teams
• Former XPRIZE vice president leads OSTP team

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

President-elect Joe Biden has appointed former NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan to lead the review team assigned to the space agency.

Stofan, a planetary scientist who became the first female director of the National Air and Space Museum in 2018, leads an eight-member team that includes former NASA astronaut Pam Melroy and former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati.

Biden has also appointed Kathryn Sullivan, who was part of the first group of women recruited as NASA astronauts, to serve on the agency review team for the Department of Commerce.

Cristin Dorgelo, a former XPRIZE vice president who helped to managed the Google Lunar XPRIZE lunar lander competition, is leading the agency review team for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

“Agency review teams are responsible for understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect [Kamala] Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One,” the Biden-Harris transition website said.

“These teams are composed of highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government. The teams have been crafted to ensure they not only reflect the values and priorities of the incoming administration, but reflect the diversity of perspectives crucial for addressing America’s most urgent and complex challenges,” the website added.

NASA Agency Review Team

Stofan served as NASA chief scientist from 2013 to 2016 after a successful career in planetary science where she held senior positions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Stofan was “the principal advisor to former Administrator Charles Bolden on NASA’s strategic planning and programs,” according to biography on the Smithsonian Institution website. “She helped guide the development of a long-range plan to get humans to Mars, and worked on strategies for NASA to support commercial activity in low Earth orbit as it transitions from the International Space Station (ISS) to sending humans to the moon and Mars in the mid-2020s.

“She supported NASA’s overall science programs in heliophysics, Earth science, planetary science and astrophysics. While at NASA, she worked with President Barack Obama’s science advisor and the National Science and Technology Council on science policy,” the biography said.

Melroy is a retired United States Air Force officer who flew as the pilot of the STS-92 and STS-112 space shuttle missions and commanded the STS-120 flight.

After leaving NASA, Melroy served as a senior advisor and director of field operations for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation from 2011 to 2013.

Melroy served as deputy director of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Tactical Technology Office from 2013 to 2017.

Abdalati currently serves as director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, an environmental research institute supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Abdalati served as NASA’s chief scientist from January 2011 until December 2012. He had previously served as head of cryospheric sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Former NASA astronaut Sullivan is one of 21 individuals assigned to the Commerce agency review team. A veteran of the STS-41-G, STS-31 and STS-45 space shuttle missions, she became the first American woman to walk in space in 1984.

Commerce Department Agency Review Team

The Department of Commerce team will also review the Export-Import Bank.

Sullivan served as the administrator of NOAA from 2014 until 2017. NOAA is part of the Commerce Department.

The Commerce Department review team is led by Geovette Washington, who is the vice chancellor and chief legal officer at the University of Pittsburgh.

OSTP Agency Review Team

Dorgelo is leading an eight-person team reviewing OSTP, which is a White House office that oversees science and technology policy.

Dorgelo is president emeritus at the Association of Science and Technology Centers. The association’s mission is the increased understanding of—and engagement with—science and technology among all people.

Dorgelo served as OSTP chief of staff during the Obama Administration. She was assistant Director for the White House’s Grand Challenges initiative before becoming chief of staff.

Dorgelo came to OSTP after a six-year stint as the XPrize’s vice president of prize operations. She helped to manage the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE for the first private mission to reach the lunar surface. (The prize was ended with no winner.)

Dorgelo also oversaw the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander XCHALLENGE, which involved privately built landing vehicles. The competition was won by Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace.