NASA’s Glenn Research Center Director Dr. Janet Kavandi has appointed Dr. Marla E. Pérez-Davis as the next deputy director of the Glenn Center in Cleveland. Pérez-Davis, a 33-year veteran of NASA, most recently served as Glenn’s Deputy Director of Research and Engineering. She succeeds Kavandi, who was named center director in March.
“Marla’s demonstrated leadership in managing all phases of Glenn’s research and engineering activities, combined with her experience in the areas of aeronautics, business management and safety assurance, makes her ideally suited to meet the demands required of the deputy director,” said Kavandi.
Pérez-Davis will assume duties as deputy director immediately. She will share with the center director responsibility for planning, organizing and managing the agency level programs and projects assigned to the center.
Since joining Glenn in 1983, Pérez-Davis has held a number of other key positions including director of the Aeronautics Research Office; chief of the Project Liaison and Integration Office and chief of the Electrochemistry Branch. She also participated in the NASA Administrator’s Fellowship Program and served her tenure at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus, where she developed and implemented initiatives leading to K-12 teacher’s professional development and other outreach activities in Puerto Rico.
Pérez-Davis, a native of Puerto Rico, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico; a Master of Science degree from the University of Toledo and a Ph. D. from Case Western Reserve University in Chemical Engineering. In 2004, she completed NASA’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program and the Office of Personnel Management Program.
Pérez-Davis is the recipient of several awards including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal; the Top 25 Elite Business Women, Hispanic Business Magazine; Women of Color Career Achievement; Distinguished Alumni Award Alumni Association of University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez; Women in Aerospace Award for Aerospace Awareness; Women of Color Technology Award for Career Achievement; and the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Santiago Rodriguez Diversity Award. She is also a certified NASA Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
For Pérez-Davis’s biography, visit:
For more information about NASA Glenn, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn
Frank Jennings Jr
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-433-8806
francis.t.jennings@nasa.gov