Leigh Forbes

Leigh Forbes is the Deputy Director for the Flight Projects Directorate. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the Directorate, having held several leadership positions at Goddard for nearly a decade.

Prior to FPD Leigh was the Associate Director for the Earth Science Projects Division as well as Program Manager for EMSPO-G, RPP and ESEP. She served as Goddard’s Engineering and Technology Directorate’s Mission Engineering and Systems Analysis Division (Code 590) Chief where she provided leadership and expertise for guidance, navigation, and control; flight dynamics; propulsion; and systems engineering, providing products, services, technology development, and mission operations.  

Her experience includes oversight of more than six hundred civil servant and contractor staff and management of the engineering support for more than twenty projects, including those within the Earth science portfolio. Prior to that role she served as Associate Division Chief in the Software Engineering Division and held various management and engineering positions within the Navigation and Mission Design Branch at GSFC. Her experience gathering engineering disciplines to support missions enables her to provide oversight on technical, cost, and schedule requirements to Goddard, NASA’s Earth Science Division stakeholders, and our mission partners.