For Release: April 10, 1996

Angela Storey
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034
angela.storey@msfc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 96-24

SUSAN M. SMITH NAMED ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

Susan McGuire Smith has been named Associate Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

In this position, Smith will provide executive leadership to project and institutional management of the center.

Smith had served as Marshall Center Chief Counsel since 1982 where she was responsible for providing legal advice and support to the Marshall Center director and his entire staff on all matters of law and legal policy and procedures.

Marshall Space Flight Center 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.

A graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D. C., Smith received a bachelor of arts degree in history and Soviet studies in 1969 and a doctor of jurisprudence in 1973.

Smith began her professional legal career as an associate of the law firm of Kuder, Sherman, Fox and Meehan in Washington, D.C. prior to joining NASA Headquarters also in Washington in July 1974.

From May 1977 to January 1978, she served as assistant counsel to the Select Committee on Ethics of the U.S. Senate and subsequently became deputy assistant general counsel for General Law at NASA Headquarters.

She transferred to the Marshall Center as deputy chief counsel in October 1980.

Smith's awards include the NASA Exceptional Performance Award, two Marshall Space Flight Center Equal Opportunity Awards, two NASA Exceptional Service Medals, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. She also was awarded the rank of Meritorious Executive and the rank of Distinguished Executive.

Smith is a former Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society, Order of the Coif and Law Review at George Washington University National Law Center, a member of the Virginia Bar, District of Columbia Bar, the Supreme Court Bar and the Senior Executives Association. She has authored a book on "Practical Ethics for the Federal Employee."

Smith and her husband, Ralph R. Smith, reside in Huntsville and have one son, Ian.