Cathy Richardson

Cathy Richardson has over 25 years of experience in program/project management and space flight instrument development at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Cathy currently serves as the Director of the Flight Projects Directorate (FPD). Prior to February 2022, Cathy served as FPD’s Deputy Director of Planning and Business Management and had served as its Acting Deputy Director from February 2021 to April 2021.

In these positions, she was responsible for business and programmatic management and institutional planning and strategy for FPD. This consisted of leading the development and maintenance of tools and best practices for integrated project performance assessments and oversight, configuration and data management, earned value management, risk management, and project resource and schedule management. She oversees the Program, Planning, Budgeting, and Execution process for over 80 projects, programs, divisions, and offices and is responsible for the strategic workforce management, including organizational and employee development, for approximately 250 civil servants within the Directorate.

Prior to joining FPD, Cathy served as the Program Manager of NASA’s Earth Systematic Missions Program, responsible for the management and coordination of all systematic Earth observation missions and the Reimbursable Projects Program for U.S. partner agency funded projects. In this role, she also served as the Associate Director of Flight Projects for Earth Science Projects at GSFC supervising GSFC project managers. She provided oversight for multiple projects in all phases of formulation and implementation, including mission studies and operations. She coordinated a number of international and interagency partnerships and collaborates with other NASA field centers. She also focused on assessing cross cutting technical issues and risks across Earth science projects and provided regular reporting to both GSFC management and NASA Headquarters.

She has in-depth experience with GSFC in-house instrument development, serving as the Instrument Project Manager of the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, the largest and most complex instrument built by GSFC, from its Preliminary Design Review through environmental testing. Through her leadership, a comprehensive rebaseline was performed, resulting in a new commitment that was met by the instrument delivery. Cathy also served as the in-house Instrument Manager for the Thermal Infrared Sensor, leading its development from inception to delivery, meeting all technical and programmatic commitments. Based on her experience leading these two instruments and demonstrated ability to meet commitments, she was asked to develop the cost and schedule estimating and programmatic monitoring modules for GSFC’s Product Development Lead training. Additionally, Cathy was the Instrument Manager for two contracted instruments, the Space Environment In-Situ Suite and the Solar Imaging Suite, for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) series during its formulation phase; and for two contracted instrument series, the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder instruments and the Advanced High Resolution Radiometers, for the Polar Orbiting Operational nvironmental Satellite project. She also previously served as the Chief of the Instrument Management and Systems Office.

Cathy started her career as a structural analyst for multiple space flight projects supporting GSFC, the Naval Research Lab, and Johns Hopkins University. She holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2012 and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2016 and 2019.