Karen St. Germain, deputy assistant administrator for systems at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) satellite and information service, will formally join NASA on June 8 as director of the Earth science division within the space agency's science mission directorate.
She will help oversee the division's portfolio and its integration with interagency, commercial and international efforts, according to a NASA blog post published Tuesday.
In her current role, St. Germain works for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service and leads the development of systems meant to support the Joint Polar Satellite System, Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite-R series, COSMIC-2 and Space Weather Follow-On programs.
Before NESDIS, St. Germain previously directed the NOAA Office of Systems Architecture and Advanced Planning. She also led the agency's work on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership system from 2006 through 2011.
She also worked in the Department of Defense's Space, Strategic and Intelligence Systems Office, where she oversaw the space portfolio review in 2014 and helped DoD craft a framework to address evolving space domain challenges.