GOES-R Series Program Team

Pam Sullivan System Program Director, NOAA

Pam Sullivan is the System Program Director for the GOES-R Series Program. In this role, Sullivan oversees the development, acquisition, integration, installation, and acceptance of major system elements (spacecraft, instruments, launch services and ground systems) for the GOES-R Series satellites.

Sullivan joined NOAA in May 2018. Previously, she managed the GOES-R Series Flight project for NASA, directing the development of the spacecraft, Instruments, and launch services for the four satellites in the GOES-R series. Sullivan has broad space flight development experience that includes serving as the Deputy Project Manager for the Joint Polar Satellite System Project, Program Manager for the National Polar Operational Environmental Satellite System Visible/Infrared Imager/Sounder System, and Manager of the James Webb Space Telescope Integrated Science Instrument Module, the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera, and GOES-IM Imager and Sounder instruments.

Prior to starting her NASA career, Sullivan served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, training as a space shuttle flight controller and supporting military space experiments using the shuttle. Pam is a four-time recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael Stringer Assistant System Program Director, NOAA

Michael Stringer is the Assistant System Program Director for the GOES-R Series Program. In this role, he supports the System Program Director with oversight of the program and ground and flight projects.

Prior to joining GOES-R, Stringer was with the United States Air Force for nearly 30 years. Most recently, he was the Branch Chief Systems Engineer for the Global Command and Control Systems Branch at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In 1986, Stringer started his career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where he worked in the High Speed Aero Performance Branch conducting various flight performance studies. He moved on to Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1994, to work in the First Space Control Squadron as an orbital analyst, keeping track of geosynchronous satellites. Stringer held several positions there until 2007, including technical director for the squadron. When the squadron moved to Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2007, he became the technical director of the Joint Space Operation Center, which tracks all of the objects in space, performs conjunction assessment of on-orbit assets, and gives strategic direction for Air Force space assets.

Stringer received an undergraduate degree in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering from the Ohio State University and a Master of Science Degree in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

Edward Grigsby Deputy System Program Director, NASA

As Deputy System Program Director since September 2016, Edward Grigsby supports the System Program Director in every aspect of the GOES-R Series Program to ensure effective programmatic and technical implementation of the development, launch and fielding of the GOES-R mission systems.

Prior to assuming the role of Deputy SPD, Grigsby was the GOES-R Program Systems Engineering Lead and technical authority since 2010, overseeing overall mission systems integration, planning, verification/validation and engineering processes and products for the program.

Before joining the GOES-R Series Program, Grigsby worked within NASA, DoD and the commercial sector serving in several technical and engineering management positions including: Program Director for the NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Program and Program Executive for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission at NASA Headquarters; Project Manager for the NASA/NMP EO3 Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) Project at the NASA Langley Research Center; System Engineer for the GOES-R Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) at NASA GSFC; Project Manager and Test Director for the Integration Test Directorate at Worldcom; Manager of the Generic Radar Target Generator Project for the Electronic Warfare Directorate at Edwards AFB and also held systems/instrument/observatory engineering management positions for the development of the Miniature Sensor Technology Integration (MSTI) spacecraft missions at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Grigsby holds a Master of Science degree in Electro-Optic Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic/Computer Engineering from the University of Wyoming.

Daniel Lindsey, Ph.D. Program Scientist, NOAA

As the GOES-R Program Scientist, Dan Lindsey serves as the primary science authority for the program. Lindsey is a research meteorologist who worked for the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research for 15 years before moving to the GOES-R Program in March 2020. In this capacity, he manages the GOES-R science portfolio and is helping in the early stages of the Geostationary and Extended Orbits (GEO-XO) program.

His research interests include remote sensing of mesoscale phenomena, especially convective storms, cloud physics, and algorithm development. Prior to the launch of GOES-R, he helped lead an evaluation of the utility of one-minute imagery from GOES-14 by the National Weather Service.

Dan began his NOAA career in 2004. He is a 2016 recipient of the NOAA David Johnson Award for his work in preparing for the optimal use of data and imagery from GOES-R's ABI prior to launch. Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Georgia, a Master of Science in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University, and a doctorate in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University.

Candace Carlisle, Flight Project Manager, NASA

Candace Carlisle is the GOES-R Series Program Flight Project Manager. In this role, she manages the spacecraft and instruments through development, launch, and on-orbit check-out.

Candace has over 35 years of experience at NASA. She was project manager for the Total and Spectral solar Irradiance Sensor-1 (TSIS-1), which is currently operational on the International Space Station. She was the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Deputy Project Manager beginning in the formulation phase, and continuing through its successful handover to mission operations in May 2014. Prior to GPM, Candace spent five years on the Space Technology 5 (ST5) project, first as Mission Systems Engineer, then as Deputy Project Manager. Her previous experience also includes six years on the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project in various systems engineering roles, finishing up as System Manager. Earlier in her career, she was System Engineer for the Network Control Center (part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System).

Candace holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Physics from the College of William and Mary, and Master of Science degrees in Technical Management and Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University.

James M. Valenti Ground Segment Project Manager, Office of Satellite Ground Services, NOAA

James Valenti has been the GOES-R Series Program Ground Segment Project Manager since September 2012, after being promoted from Assistant Project Manager. In this role, Valenti oversees the development, acquisition, integration, installation, testing and acceptance of the GOES-R Ground System. Prior to joining the GOES-R Program, Valenti served in many capacities in multiple offices within NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) since 2001. From 2001 to 2002, he worked in the Office of Satellite Operations (now Office of Satellite and Product Operations) as the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) Engineering Team Lead. In 2002, Valenti transferred to the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Program Office to be the Ground System Division Lead.

Before joining NOAA, Valenti served as a Space Operations Officer in the United States Air Force where he worked as the project manager for the Air Force’s Nuclear Detonation (NUDET) Detection System ground data processing system. He also served as the field liaison and as a flight commander for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Office.

Valenti holds a Master of Space Operations degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology along with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State University.

Monica Todirita Deputy Flight Project Manager, NOAA

John Deily Deputy Flight Project Manager, NASA

Gyanesh Chander Deputy Ground Segment Project Manager, NASA

Alexander Krimchansky Program Systems Engineering Lead, NASA

Steve Schaeffer Budget Officer/Program Control Chief, NOAA

Robert Calvo Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officer, NASA

Ann Haase Contracting Officer, Flight Project, NASA

Audrey Hogg Contracting Officer, Ground Segment Project, NOAA