Drew Garza, Acting Chief of the Administration Branch
Mr. Drew Garza serves as the Acting Chief of the Administration Branch within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). He provides leadership related to the management and operations of SMD, including human resources, procurement, facilities, information technology, and other strategic cross-cutting initiatives.
He has served as a Program Manager for SMD since 2020, leading and managing several SMD and Agency support capabilities, including research grant solicitation and selection, science expertise procurement, and independent programmatic assessments. He also serves as the SMD representative for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) performance evaluation group, responsible for coordinating SMD’s performance assessments of JPL science missions.
Mr. Garza joined NASA Headquarters (HQ) in 2018 as a Program Manager in the Mission Support Directorate (MSD), where he managed research support for multiple NASA Directorates, and served as the lead analyst for the HQ Operations budget in support of the NASA HQ Executive Director. Before NASA, he served as a Program Manager for the Department of Defense at Headquarters, Marine Corps. Prior to his civilian service, he served for ten years on active duty with the US Army as an engineer, deploying multiple times to Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other locations worldwide. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Combat Action Badge for his service in Afghanistan.
Mr. Garza graduated from American Military University with a Bachelor of Science (Cum Laude) in Space Science. He also holds a Master of Arts in International Space Policy and a Master of Business Administration, both from George Washington University (GWU). He is also a current PhD student in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at GWU, researching trustworthy artificial intelligence in space sustainability systems.