Jody Singer

Jody Singer is the former director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Appointed in September 2018 as the 14^th director of MSFC and first female director, Singer managed one of NASA’s largest field installations, with nearly 7,000 on- and near-site civil service and contractor employees and an annual budget of over $4.5 billion. Prior to being named to the position, Singer served as Marshall’s acting director starting in July 2018 and was deputy director from February 2016 to July 2018, assisting the director with the daily management of the center’s workforce and operations.

During her 38-year NASA career, Singer has held leadership roles of increasing responsibility in human spaceflight, technology and science flight mission programs and projects and was appointed in 2002 to the Senior Executive Service, the personnel system covering top managerial positions in federal agencies. 

Singer began her NASA engineering career in 1985 through the professional intern program in the mission planning and development office. In 1986, she joined the Space Shuttle Program office, where she was an engineer in the Space Shuttle Main Engine office and involved with Return to Flight activities after the Challenger accident. 

From 1990 to 2002, she was the business manager, technical assistant and deputy manager in the External Tank project office. From 2002 to 2007, Singer served as the first female project manager for the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project and led the team during the Columbia Return to Flight activities. In 2008, until the shuttle’s successful retirement in 2011, she served as the deputy manager in the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office.

From 2010 to 2012, she held deputy positions for three concurrent major programs: the Space Shuttle, Ares and the start-up of the Space Launch System (SLS). As deputy for the Shuttle Propulsion Office, she guided successful fly-out and retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 as the deputy of the Ares Project Office. 

Singer was responsible for the transition of the workforce and assets after project cancellation. Singer was also integral to the start-up of SLS. As the deputy program manager of SLS at Marshall, she helped oversee nearly 3,000 civil servants and contractors involved in the developing and testing of the vehicle, the most powerful rocket ever built. In November 2022, as Marshall’s center director, Singer led the team through the successful launch of SLS. The historic Artemis I mission restored America’s capability to send humans to the Moon, a feat we have not undertaken since 1972.

From 2013 to 2016, Singer served as manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at Marshall, where she held primary responsibility for the center’s work with human advanced exploration projects, science flight mission programs, technology demonstration missions, commercial crew, and International Space Station life support systems, research facilities and payload operations. Singer also was responsible for identifying opportunities to develop and maintain partnerships with government agencies, academia, and international and commercial partners to help achieve NASA’s vision.

Singer, a native of Hartselle, Alabama, earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama in 1983. She has completed two NASA Fellowships, one at Pennsylvania State University in State College and another at the Simmons College Graduate School of Management in Boston.

She has received numerous awards throughout her NASA career, including NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals and two Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive Awards, the highest honor for career federal employees. She received the Space Flight Awareness Leadership Award in 2005 for inspiring the Shuttle Propulsion Office to strive for excellence and continuous improvement; and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1993 while managing the External Tank Project’s business office. For her dedication and commitment to excellence and achievement in support of the human space program, she received the Silver Snoopy Award from the NASA astronaut corps and was named a Space Flight Awareness Launch Honoree.

External Awards include Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, Stellar Award; Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame; Distinguished Fellow by the University of Alabama College of Engineering; Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC) Outstanding SES Leadership Award; Women in Leadership, and Morgan County Hall of Fame; Gardner Award (2020); 2022 AIAA Associate Fellow and 2022 Engineer of the Year. Singer was also named in Alabama Magazine’s “Top 40 Over 40!” and Business Alabama’s “20 Who Make Alabama Business Tick.” She serves as a board member for Leadership Alabama and is a member of the University of Alabama President’s Cabinet.

Singer and her husband, Chris, live in Huntsville. They have three children and five grandchildren.