Larry Leopard, a 28-year veteran at NASA, was appointed director of the Engineering Directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., NASA said Friday.
The move follows Preston Jones’ appointment as the center’s associate director and designates Lisa Watson-Morgan as the directorate’s new deputy director. Leopard previously worked on various projects at Marshall including space shuttle propulsion, International Space Station payloads, ISS life support systems and small-satellite technology. He served as deputy director from 2016 to 2018, and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2008.
Watson-Morgan, previously the Engineering Directorate’s associate director of operations, joined NASA in 1989 and was appointed to the SES in 2013. She has held senior leadership roles such as director of Marshall’s Spacecraft and Vehicle Systems Department and manager of the chief engineer’s office.
The Marshall Space Flight Center’s Engineering Directorate is comprised of over 2K civil service and contractor personnel working on the development, testing and operation of components and software for spacecraft, science instruments and payloads.