Joan A. “Jody” Singer, a native of Hartselle, Alabama, has been named manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Joan A. “Jody” Singer is manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Image credit: NASA/MSFC
In her new position, Singer is responsible for overall management and direction of the office, including an annual budget of $108 million and a combined workforce of more than 500 civil servants and contractors. She oversees the work of the Marshall Center in the areas of human exploration projects and tasks; flight mission programs and projects; and International Space Station hardware integration and operations. The office also is tasked with creating and maintaining value-added partnerships with other government agencies and international and commercial partners that will help achieve NASA’s vision.
“I am excited to be part of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office, which has a hand in all NASA’s primary space missions—lifting from Earth, living and working in space and enhancing our understanding of our world and the cosmos we live in,” Singer said. “I look forward to continuing to serve our nation, NASA and our partners in science and space exploration.”
Singer was deputy program manager of the Space Launch System Program Office at Marshall from 2011 to 2013. She helped oversee a combined workforce of almost 3,000 civil servants and contractors, and guided activities that will lead to construction and flight-testing of the nation’s next heavy-lift launch vehicle — set to carry human explorers to space in the decade to come.
From 2007 to 2011, Singer was deputy manager of Marshall’s Space Shuttle Propulsion Office, where she helped lead the organization responsible for manufacturing, assembling and operating all shuttle propulsion elements, including the successful conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program.
Singer was manager of the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project Office at Marshall from 2002 to 2007, overseeing work tied to the flight safety, performance, hardware integrity and ground test program of the shuttle’s reusable solid rocket booster hardware, including critical return-to-flight activities after the loss of space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
In 2002, Singer was appointed to the Senior Executive Service, the personnel system covering top managerial positions in federal agencies.
From 2000 to 2002, she was the assistant/deputy manager of the Shuttle Propulsion Office. She held various positions in the External Tank Project Office from 1990 to 2002, including deputy manager from 1998 to 2000; project assistant manager from 1996 to 1998; and business manager from 1990 to 1996. From 1986 to 1990, she worked as an engineer in the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project Office, responsible for tracking and evaluating contractor hardware deliveries. She joined NASA in 1985 as an engineer in the professional intern program.
Singer began her engineering career in 1984 as a methods engineer at Packard Electric, a division of General Motors, in Jackson, Mississippi, responsible for planning layout and assembly of automobile electrical wiring harnesses.
Singer earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1983, and has completed numerous executive management training and certification. She has also completed two NASA fellowship courses with Pennsylvania State University in University Park and Simmons Graduate School of Management in Boston.
She has been received numerous awards during her NASA career, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2011 and the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive Award—the highest honor for career federal employees—in 2007. She also received the Silver Snoopy Award in 2011, presented by NASA’s astronaut corps for service benefiting the agency’s human spaceflight endeavors; the Space Flight Awareness Leadership Award in 2005 for leading the Shuttle Propulsion Office to strive for excellence and continuous improvement; another NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2002 for her contributions to the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office; and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1993 for outstanding management of the Space Shuttle External Tank Project’s business office.
Singer is married to Christopher Singer, director of the Engineering Directorate at the Marshall Center. They have three children. The Singers live in Huntsville.
