Former President and CEO
Dr. Austin has been a director since 2024; she serves on the audit and finance committee. She is the retired president and chief executive officer of The Aerospace Corporation, an independent nonprofit organization performing objective technical analyses and assessments for a variety of government, civil, and commercial customers, operating the only federally funded research and development center committed exclusively to the space enterprise. Dr. Austin served in this role from January 2008 until October 2016. Dr. Austin joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1979, serving in various positions of increasing responsibility.
Dr. Austin is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a co-founder of MakingSpace, Inc., a leadership and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) consulting firm. Dr. Austin was the interim president of the University of Southern California from 2018 to 2019 and has served on the American Energy Innovation Council since 2017. Dr. Austin also served on the Defense Policy Board from 2017 to 2019, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2015 to 2017, the Defense Science Board from 2009 to 2017, and the NASA Advisory Council from 2005 to 2007 and 2014 to 2016.