Ken Atchison
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                
October 3, 1991
(Phone:  202/453-8400)


RELEASE:  91-160

NASA ADMINISTRATOR ANNOUNCES NEW OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND 
FACILITIES 


     NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly announced today the 
intended creation of the Office of Management Systems and 
Facilities.  This Office will represent the consolidation of the 
Offices of Management and Headquarters Operations.  

     Benita A. Cooper has been selected to be the Associate 
Administrator for this new organization.  She is currently the 
Assistant Administrator for the Office of Headquarters Operations.  
Prior to assuming her current position at Headquarters, Cooper was 
the Director of Management Operations at Goddard Space Flight 
Center from 1980-88.

     Dr. C. Howard Robins, Jr., currently the Associate 
Administrator for the Office of Management, will be on a special 
assignment to assist the Deputy Administrator in ensuring the 
smooth organizational transition activities at NASA Headquarters, 
and then will be returning to a senior technical position. Dr. 
Robins worked at the Langley Research Center and the Johnson Space 
Center prior to transferring to Headquarters in 1976 where he 
managed programs in the Offices of Aeronautics and Space Technology 
and Space Science and Applications.

     This new Office of Management Systems and Facilities will 
provide synergy between operational responsibilities and Agency 
policy development in the areas of Information Systems, Facilities 
and Maintenance, Logistics, Aircraft Management, and Security.  The 
Office also will be responsible for Industrial Relations, the Board 
of Contract Appeals, and the Inventions and Contributions Board.  
The NASA Headquarters Equal Opportunity function will be 
consolidated within the existing Office of Equal Opportunity 
Programs.

     In announcing this intended consolidation, Admiral Truly said, 
"Benita Cooper is a natural choice to lead this new organization, 
which will nicely complement our Office of Human Resources and 
Education.  Both she and Howard Robins have played a major role in 
making this consolidation a success.  This will greatly facilitate 
our efforts to enhance total quality management in NASA's 
institutional management." 

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