Casey Swails
Deputy Associate Administrator for Business Operations
NASA
Casey Swails is NASA’s deputy associate administrator. In this role, she leads and integrates mission support functions across the agency, builds and advances the agency’s industry partnerships, and acts as the deputy and principal advisor to the associate administrator on overall day-to-day operations and NASA’s long-term strategic direction. Previously, Swails served as the chief of staff and senior advisor to the associate administrator, as well as the agency’s acting deputy chief of staff during the presidential transition. In those positions, she ensured the effective flow of operations across NASA’s workforce and represented the agency in the alignment of policy, strategy, priorities and program development.
Prior to joining the administrator’s office at NASA, she led many of the agency’s significant change management initiatives. This included leadership of the largest human capital transformation effort in NASA’s history, resulting in the successful merger of 10 separate human resources offices into one enterprise organization and the realignment of more than 500 human capital employees and corresponding $90 million budget.
Also noteworthy was her leadership in the design and creation of the agencywide Executive Services Division, which manages programs for attracting, retaining, and developing NASA’s executive cadre of more than 600 senior leaders. With over 17 years at NASA, Swails has had substantial involvement working across multiple NASA centers and with many of the agency’s human spaceflight programs, including the early Commercial Crew and Gateway programs, which are recognized as leading models for the agency today.
Swails holds a bachelor of science degree in management from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master’s in business administration from Duke University. Her work has garnered several awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Silver Achievement Medal, Silver Snoopy Award, and the Johnson Space Center Director’s Innovation Award.
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