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Marlo Maddox Invests in People and Facilitates Science at Goddard

Man with tan skin and black facial hair, with a shaved head, wears a grey suit jacket, NASA pin, blue and grey patterned tie, and white dress shirt against a light tan background.
Marlo Maddox
NASA

Name: Marlo Maddox
Title: Deputy Director for Institutions, Programs and Business Management for the Sciences and Exploration Directorate
Formal Job Classification: Aerospace technician
Organization: Code 600, Sciences and Exploration Directorate

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?

I enable and facilitate science at Goddard. I support the entire Sciences and Exploration Directorate by strategically investing in our people first, to make sure we can address large scientific challenges. These investments extend into laboratories, digital infrastructure, new business partnerships, and general technologies. My job is very broad and all encompassing.

Where did you go to school?

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Morgan State University. I have a master’s degree in computer science from The Johns Hopkins University.

How did you come to Goddard?

My undergraduate research at Morgan State was in high performance computing. The dean of computer science knew someone at Goddard who was working on new high performance computer cluster technologies. In 2000 when I was a rising senior, I interned at Goddard’s Community Coordinated Modeling Center in the Science Directorate.

I went from a college student to a subject matter expert. In 2001, Goddard hired me fresh out of college.

At the time, all new hires coming through the Engineering Directorate were part of the professional intern program. This program defined milestones and goals for all the new hires during their first eighteen months. Each new hire was assigned a mentor who checked our progress, and we had to present to senior management who evaluated our work. It was really a great program; it gave you a sense of belonging to the larger center mission and gave you visibility with your senior leadership.

In 2007, while working full time, Goddard paid for me to get a master’s degree. I worked during the day and took classes in the evening.

What positions have you held at Goddard?

Initially, in 2001, I worked for the Information Systems Division, now called the Software Engineering Division. I was matrixed to the Sciences and Exploration Directorate supporting the Polar Wind and Geotail science missions by reengineering their ground systems.

In 2003, I returned to the group I had interned with originally as a software developer. The group was engaged in space science research with a specific emphasis on space weather modeling and forescasting. I invented a science data format framework and software library for space weather simulation data, which standardized disparate space weather model data. In 2012, I became the deputy director for the Community Coordinated Modeling Center.

Also during that timeframe, in 2008, I was the principal investigator for the Integrated Space Weather Analysis Project. We created a tool that allowed mission operators and space weather forecasters to quickly access the space weather environment for specific past, present, and future time ranges and specific locations. This tool was originally developed for NASA use, but is now also used by the Department of Defense and international space agencies.

How did you transition from developing complex computer science tools to leading a science organization?

Over about 15 years, I developed great relationships within the Science Directorate. In 2016, I joined the Heliophysics Science Division as the assistant director. I was already supporting the Science Directorate and my new position allowed me to do so in a closer capacity and on a wider scale. Instead of being embedded in one specific area of space weather, I supported the entire heliophysics division, which represents a significant portion of our agency’s heliophysics science.

What makes you most proud about your current position as the deputy director for institutions, programs and business management for the Sciences and Exploration Directorate?

I transitioned to my current position in May 2020, joining the senior leadership cadre at Goddard. It was a very proud moment. At every different level of my career, I have always felt good about contributing to a larger mission. At the beginning, it was a very specific and targeted contribution. Now I am literally contributing to enabling science at Goddard, the largest concentration of Earth and space scientists in the world.

I now represent the directorate on center-level committees to strategically determine the center’s needs for near-term and long-term resources. We coordinate across the entire center. We consider personnel, infrastructure and computing resourcing. We try to look five to 10 years out, think about what kinds of missions we may be doing, and then try to identify and acquire resources to achieve our goals. We try to strategically plan to make sure we will have the workforce to support the new business opportunities, new technologies, and new science that we are pursuing.

I am also very excited about the digital transformation activities taking place across Goddard. We are optimizing both our business and technical processes to make it easier for scientists and engineers to collaborate. This is extremely important because the scientific and engineering community, from Goddard to the international level, relies on our ability to effectively collaborate.

What else are you doing to help make Goddard an even better place to work?

I do not just want to make technical or managerial contributions. I also want to make higher-level service contributions towards making Goddard an even better place to work. Goddard is always trying to be better, to improve, and we have support from all levels. It is a given that we strive for excellence both technically and for our people, our Goddard family, which includes every single person at Goddard Space Flight Center.

I am a member of the Goddard Equity Thought Leaders Group, a really important activity that reports directly to Goddard’s Equity Task Force. Our most important resource is our people. It is very important that we have an environment that is diverse, inclusive, and equitable to achieve our fullest potential. We want to create an environment where everyone thrives and contributes to the best of their abilities.

I am also currently in training to become a settlement official for the center. In this role, I’ll be able to help resolve workplace disputes.

Person on a stationary orange motorcycle. The person is wearing a helmet, so you cannot see their face, and riding gear. Buildings at NASA Goddard are in the background.
Marlo Maddox sits on his orange motorcycle at NASA Goddard
Courtesy of M. Maddox

How are you enabling your directorate’s mentoring program?

We are looking at specific ways to establish relationships with underrepresented minority institutions, which are an excellent resource to bolster our early-career scientist programs. I am passionate about increasing representation among our scientists from as many groups as possible.

Is there something surprising about your hobbies that people do not generally know?

I have a huge vinyl music collection, primarily jazz classics. I also have a motorcycle, which I try to ride every Sunday morning. I have a flower garden in the front yard and a vegetable garden in the back.   

What books are on your nightstand?

I just bought two books by Dr. Ibram Kendi, which are about the history of racism in America. One is titled “Stamped from the Beginning” and the other is titled “Stamped.”

What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.

Calm. Insightful. Passionate. Family. Inquisitive. Kind.

By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center