Christine Powell

Christine Powell serves as acting center director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. In this role, Powell provides executive leadership, overall direction, and management of the center. She is responsible for implementing NASA’s mission in rocket propulsion testing, and for developing and maintaining NASA’s world-class rocket propulsion test facilities. Powell also oversees a unique federal city that is home to more than 50 federal, state, academic, and private organizations, and numerous technology-based companies.

Experience

Powell began her career in 1991 as an intern at NASA Stennis. Prior to being selected as acting center director, she served as NASA Stennis’ deputy director. In this role, she was responsible for supporting the center director in coordinating NASA Stennis’ rocket propulsion test capabilities as well as managing the center. Previously, Powell served as the Rocket Propulsion Test program manager, responsible for managing the agency’s propulsion assets and capabilities at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Sandusky, Ohio; White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and NASA Stennis. This included management of the program’s annual budget, risks, and test assignments, as well as strategic planning for NASA’s key objectives.

Previously, she served as assistant director of the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate from 2018 through May 2021. In this role, she was responsible for leading the Office of Project Formulation, Planning, and Control; and managing Project Formulation and Contractor oversight, as well as budgetary planning, strategy development, risk management, and various rocket propulsion test activities at NASA Stennis. She supported various teams and initiatives, including serving on the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-2) Core Stage Green Run Operational Readiness Committee for Artemis I. Additional responsibilities encompassed overseeing staffing plans, as well as personnel training and development. Powell led the NASA Stennis Systems Engineering and Project Management Leadership Development Program and was the NASA Stennis Advocate for the Agency’s Systems and Engineering Leadership Program.

Powell served as a NASA Stennis instrumentation engineer from 1995 to 2001 and a systems integration engineer from 2001 to 2003. She moved into a leadership role in 2004, serving as the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate representative for NASA Stennis until 2006. From 2006 through 2018, Powell served as lead of the Systems and Test Integration branch; manager of the Product Data and Lifecycle Management; chair on the Information Technology Services Source Evaluation Board; and chief of the Systems Engineering Branch.

Awards

Powell has received the following recognitions: NASA SE-Excellence Award for Techniques and Methodology; NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for Exceptional Achievement in the Development of the NASA SE Procedural Requirements Document and Its Implementation at NASA Stennis; NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for providing an extremely effective approach to ensuring workforce development and growth; and numerous On-the-Spot and Group Achievement awards.

Education

Powell received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Mississippi State University in May 1995 and furthered her education with a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of New Orleans in December 1998.

Personal

Powell is a native of Biloxi, Mississippi, and resides in Carriere, Mississippi, with her husband,
Ben. They have one daughter and three sons.