It has been one of the worst kept secrets in town, but it is now official — Adrian Gardner has been appointed the chief information officer for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Insiders confirm that Gardner will start on Feb 1.

Adrian Gardner

Gardner is currently the CIO of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service. As the DorobekInsider told you first, the NASA Goddard CIO position was vacated when Linda Cureton was tapped as the NASA CIO.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, Md., manages many of the space agency’s Earth observation, astronomy, and space physics missions.

Gardner’s National Weather Service bio:

Adrian R. Gardner
Chief Information Officer
National Weather Service
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Mr. Gardner’s Federal career is distinguished by over 15 years of assuring mission capability and readiness within the Federal Government through sound leadership approaches for implementing and maintaining geographically dispersed information security and information management organizations. Mr. Gardner was the recipient of 2005 Federal 100 award, which honors individuals from government, industry, and academia whose ideas and accomplishments had the greatest impact in shaping the missions, solutions, and results achieved by the government information technology community. Mr. Gardner also serves as a member of Industry Advisory Council’s (IAC) Infosec and Privacy Shared Interest Group’s Advisory Board.

Mr. Gardner currently serves as the Chief Information Officer for the National Weather Service. In this role, he oversees implementation of IT throughout the National Weather Service including advising the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Weather Services and Director of the National Weather Service (NWS) on the performance of IT investments, overseeing the development of enterprise architectures within and across National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), participating in the activities of the NOAA and Department of Commerce Chief Information Officer (CIO) Councils. He also has responsibilities in the areas of capital planning and investment control, information security, privacy, accessibility of IT for persons with disabilities, and access to, dissemination of, and preservation of national and international weather data and information.

From October 2006 to January 2007, Mr. Gardner served as the Deputy Associate CIO for IT Reform. In this capacity, he was responsible for assessing the Department of Energy’s Program and Business Offices capabilities in the context of their strategic, investment, and tactical plans, necessary to meet their information technology requirements and enable their mission objectives and goals.

From September 2005 to October 2006, Mr. Gardner was the Deputy Associate CIO for Cyber Security for the Department of Energy. In this position, he ensured, on behalf of the CIO and Associate CIO for Cyber Security, that the Department of Energy information systems adhered to Departmental security policies, principles, standards, and guidelines; and ensures that classified, unclassified, and sensitive information was protected.

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From January 2004 to September 2005, Mr. Gardner led the Department’s Cyber Security Program through a major expansion in size and scope, incorporating such new missions as critical infrastructure protection; privacy; active incident management and response operations; public key infrastructure; Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12, “Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors;” and reengineering the Department’s network topology and security architecture. He has also led successful major acquisition programs such as the Department of Energy A-76 Competitive Sourcing of Information Technology Support Services, which includes a wide range of Information Technology (IT) support services (i.e., IT Management, Systems Development and Engineering, Cyber Security, and IT Operations Support) for the Washington DC metropolitan area and approximately 18 DOE field sites nationwide and a contract cap of $1 billion dollars.

Previously, he served as Director for the Policy and Planning Division, within the Office of Cyber Security, where he guided security investment strategy recommendations for the Department’s $32 million annual expenditure for cyber security resources. Prior to that, he served as the first Director for Headquarters Cyber Security Division, where he was responsible for protecting and securing the more than 8,000 desktops and 200 servers supporting the 14 Headquarters Department of Energy facilities. From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Gardner served at the Department of Energy in the Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance as the Chief Information Officer.

From 2000 to 2001, Mr. Gardner served as the Deputy Director, Office of Information Management and Tracking, which provided and expert analysis and trending of the Department’s safeguards and security, cyber security, and emergency management information to effectively focus and target Departmental oversight activities. From 1997 to 2000, Mr., Gardner served as a Lead Management Systems Evaluator for Department of Energy’s Office of Environment, Safety and Health, where he provide oversight for the Department and it’s stakeholders over National Laboratory (e.g., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, etc.) and Production Facility (e.g., Y-12 Plant, etc.) environment safety and health programs for approximately 180,000 workers among nearly 60 remote field sites. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Gardner served as a Senior Environmental Protection Specialist for the Office of Environmental Policy and Assistance, where he provided technical assistance in the areas of environmental planning, National Environmental Policy Act compliance, deactivation and decommissioning of DOE facilities. From 1991 to 1994, he served as a Senior Budget Analyst for the Office of the Chief Information Officer, where he oversaw the planning and budgeting activities for the Department’s Environmental Programs with direct responsibility for activities totaling $1.2 billion.

Mr. Gardner is a Doctoral Candidate (ABD) at the University of Southern California’s School of Public Policy and Planning where he holds a Masters degree in Public Administration. Mr. Gardner also holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies from Hood College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science and Ecology from the esteemed Tuskegee Institute. Mr. Gardner has received numerous awards including the Secretary’s Distinguished Award and Secretary’s Gold Medal Award from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Gardner was the recipient of Federal Computer Week’s 2005 Federal 100 Award, which honors individuals from government, industry, and academia whose ideas and accomplishments had the greatest impact in shaping the missions, solutions, and results achieved by the government information technology community. Mr. Gardner also serves as a member of Industry Advisory Council’s (IAC) Infosec and Privacy Shared Interest Group’s Advisory Board.

An Air Force veteran, Mr. Gardner was commissioned as a Launch Control Officer in 1986 and served with distinction until he separated in 1989 and was honorably discharged in 1994. He received the Air Force Achievement Medal in 1987.

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