Alumna to Serve as Chief of Staff

Denise Smithers has been appointed as the Center Executive Officer for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center effective August 9, 2024. Smithers will oversee the office's management and operations within the Center Director’s Office, coordinate center-wide actions, and serve as Marshall’s Chief of Staff. This six-month detail is part of an ongoing effort to support the Office of the Center Director.

Smithers, who joined Marshall as a summer intern at age 18, has over 30 years of experience at Marshall, where she has held various strategic, budgetary, and leadership roles. Since July 2020, she has served as a Supervisory Budget Analyst for the Mission Support Office, where she led a team responsible for managing budgets across institutional support offices.

During her tenure with the Budget, Integration, and Analysis Team in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), Smithers was instrumental in developing strategic guidance, managing processes, and conducting in-depth analyses for the annual Planning, Programming, Budget, and Execution (PPBE) process. Her role also included financial performance reporting, trend analysis, cost-cutting issue resolution, risk identification, and strategic budgetary decision-making.

A native of Athens, Alabama, Smithers has deep ties to the academic community, having earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a Master of Business Administration from Alabama A&M University in 1999. Her exemplary service has been recognized with numerous awards, including the prestigious Silver Snoopy in 2011, a Director’s Commendation in 2019, and the Agency DEIA Medal in 2023.

Read more at: https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-august-7-2024/#hds-sidebar-nav-3

(Photo Courtesy of NASA)