For Release: March 28, 1996

Dave Drachlis
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034
dave.drachlis@msfc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 96-20

MARSHALL CENTER ANNOUNCES KEY MANAGEMENT APPOINTMENTS

Susan McGuire Smith has been appointed Associate Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. In this position, she will provide executive leadership to the project and institutional management of the center.

Smith had served as Marshall Center Chief Counsel since 1982.

William A. Hicks had been appointed to succeed her in that position. Hicks has served as Deputy Chief Counsel since 1984.

Smith joined the Marshall Center in 1980 as Deputy Chief Counsel. Her previous Federal employment includes service as Assistant Counsel for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics and as Deputy Assistant General Counsel for General Law at NASA Headquarters.

Her awards include two NASA Exceptional Service Medals, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the Marshall Center Equal Opportunity Award, the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive, and the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.

Hicks joined the Marshall Center in 1983 as Associate Chief Counsel. Previously, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army with the office of the Staff Judge Advocate, was a trial attorney with the Office of the General Counsel for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and served as an attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. He has completed the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program.

Hick’s awards include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.

Marshall serves as NASA’s lead center for space transportation systems development, and is the agency’s center of excellence for space propulsion. It is also NASA’s lead center for microgravity research, specializing in materials science and biotechnology.

Through these roles and missions, Marshall is responsible for the production of the Space Shuttle main engines, solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank. It manages Spacelab science research missions and other Shuttle payloads. The center is also managing the development of the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, and is supporting development of the International Space Station, part of which is being built at Marshall.