New Head of NASA Office of Communications Named
Jen Rae Wang Appointed to Head NASA’s Office of Communications
“Jen Rae Wang has been selected by Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot as NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Office of Communications. Wang joins NASA with more than a decade of experience at the highest levels of state and federal government in public, legislative, and media affairs both domestically and internationally, strategic communications, as well as small and large-scale organizational executive leadership.”
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“Wang helped lead the Trump presidential campaign in Nebraska and last month had been announced as a deputy chief of staff to newly elected U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican.”
Keith’s trivia note: If Rep. Bridenstine is named NASA Administrator he and Jen Rae Wang have something to talk about: swimming. He holds the Oklahoma record in 200 meter swimming (freestyle, relay) and Jen Rae Wang has an entry in U.S. Masters swimming.
“…Jen Rae Wang, a public relations professional who was the Nebraska governor’s spokesperson from 2007-2015. Wang was the Trump campaign’s state director for Nebraska.”
Ok – that explains it. I was wondering how she was hired with a hiring freeze in effect.
Keith, is this a Schedule C appointment, would you know?
Yes
We should thank her for supporting her Marine husband, and certainly she is well qualified. However I would think that someone with her background could pick a photo that does not make her look like a First Grade teacher.
How does that affect her ability to do her job?
It doesn’t. But I do wonder about her qualifications. What does being AA for communications involve? NASA has a difficult problem with some sorts of communications. Specifically communicating complex, technical issues to people who aren’t experts and don’t want to learn the details before understanding the big picture. That’s not easy to do, and it helps if it’s done by people who actually do understand the details. Ideally, their managers should also have some grip on the details. I’m not seeing that in the description of Ms. Wang’s background. But I may be misunderstanding the nature of her new job.
Let’s give her a chance and see how she does.
Fair enough. I was voicing a concern, not a complaint or an objection.
I also would like to give her a chance, that is why I led by talking about her husband. My comment was probably too clever, actually as a dedicated amateur photographer I think that her photo (almost certainly approved by her) looks goofy and I wonder why someone with her public relations/journalism background would be happy with it. I choose my photos to convey more gravitas – something that she is gonna need lots of.
I honestly do not care about who her husband is (I’m sure he’s a nice guy) or what she looks like. I am only interested in how she does her job at NASA. As for photos, I am the last person on this planet to give anyone advice on how to get a good photo of themselves.
How is she ‘well-qualified’? She has no real experience in the Federal government/Washington communications environment, for example. Her tenure as a new congressman’s deputy chief of staff was only for a few weeks; before that, in charge of the Omaha office.
I guess we’ll find out. Luckily she has some excellent staff to lean on.
I searched for her Twitter account @JenRaeWang but it is protected – so you can’t see what she tweets or who she follows. That’s kind of odd for a communications professional. But … her short personal bio is interesting: “Loves life, positivity & adventure. Comms pro, amateur astronomer. Fmr Gov spox. Proud #USMC wife. Orion and Lyra’s mama. Opinions my own. RTs not endorsements.” She’s an amateur astronomer and she and her husband named her kids after astronomical constellations. I’ll give her bonus points for that.