NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

James Stofan, Deputy Associate Administrator for Program Integration, NASA Headquarters. Photo credit: NASA

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As the Deputy Associate Administrator for Integration, James Stofan reports to the Assistant Administrator for Education. He shares responsibility for providing executive leadership, functional management and coordination of NASA's education programs and activities. The agency's goal is to meet national education needs and ensure a sufficient talent pool to preserve U.S. leadership in space exploration, aeronautical technology and science.

Stofan joined NASA in September 2003, first as the agency’s Informal Education Division Director, and until April 2010 as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Education Integration.

Prior to joining NASA, Stofan served as the Senior Vice President for Education Programs at the National Wildlife Federation. In this role, Stofan oversaw all of NWF's educational endeavors, including the award-winning Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby magazines; community education efforts like the Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Earth Tomorrow and Habitat Stewards programs; and classroom projects such as Schoolyard Habitats and Campus Ecology.

Subsequent to joining NWF, Stofan was a faculty member and Director of Distance Education at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. There he pioneered the use of the World Wide Web as an educational tool. Johns Hopkins was the first university to offer the Master of Public Health degree to a global audience via the Internet. Stofan is a recognized speaker on the educational uses and opportunities presented by the Internet and other technologies.

Earlier in his career, Stofan had spent seven years at Sea World of Florida. At Sea World he helped develop state-of-the-art environmental education programs, including the Emmy award-winning Shamu TV®. He also developed science education materials used by 14 million students nationwide, as well as a ground-breaking Internet initiative to educate people about marine science.

Stofan has served on the National Partners Council of the Points of Light Foundation, Board of Directors of National Wildlife Productions and on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of eNature.com. He is also the past Chair of the Environmental Education Coalition. He is a member of the honor societies Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi.

A native of San Francisco, Stofan graduated in 1989 from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in behavioral biology and sociology. He earned a master's degree in instructional technology from the University of Central Florida. He is an experienced science instructor, as well as a volunteer scuba diver at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.