Krista Paquin

Krista Paquin

NASA (Ret.)
Former NASA Deputy Associate Administrator

Krista Paquin served as NASA’s Deputy Associate Administrator from November 2017 through May 2018, when she retired from NASA. In this position, she assisted the NASA Administrator and senior managers in implementing all aspects of the Agency’s functions, policy and integration of programs. She chaired the NASA Mission Support Council (MSC), the Agency’s senior decision-making body regarding the integrated Agency mission support portfolio.

Paquin had been Associate Administrator for the NASA Mission Support Directorate since April 2015, where she was responsible for the leadership and integration of NASA mission support functions with an annual budget of more than $3 billion. She oversaw agency-wide human capital management, strategic infrastructure, procurement, protective services, audit liaison, agency directives management, NASA Headquarters operations, the NASA Shared Services Center and NASA partnerships, including Space Act Agreements. After four years in the private sector as an executive of a high-tech small business, Paquin returned to NASA in May 2014 as Deputy Associate Administrator for the Mission Support Directorate, where she led the design of the Business Services Assessment process and implementation of the agency IT pilot. Before leaving NASA in 2010, Paquin served as the NASA Assistant Associate Administrator and Deputy of the Office of Program and Institutional Integration at NASA Headquarters.

Paquin began her career at NASA as a Presidential Management Intern at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1984, and held a variety of progressively responsible positions during her 22 years at Goddard before joining NASA Headquarters in 2006. As a senior executive at Goddard, she was assigned the roles of Associate Director of Management Operations, Deputy Director of the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate, Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management of Flight Programs, and Goddard Associate Center Director. Paquin received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2018, the Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive in 2006, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2000. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in urban planning and management from the University of Maryland.