Christopher Scolese

Christopher J. Scolese is an American engineer and intelligence official who served as the director of the National Reconnaissance Office. He was appointed the 19th director of the National Reconnaissance Office (DNRO) on August 1, 2019. Scolese was sworn into office on August 5, 2019. He retired from public service on July 10, 2026.

Education Scolese holds a Bachelor of Sciences degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University at Buffalo (1978); a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from George Washington University (1982); and a Ph.D. in systems engineering from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (2016).

In 2012, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden selected Scolese to serve as the director of the Goddard Space Flight Center. In a 2017 interview, Bolden indicated this reflected his desire to move Scolese's "leadership and decision making responsibility for the James Webb Space Telescope to Goddard." At Goddard, Scolese led the nation's largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists responsible for building spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, and the universe. On July 31, 2019, he retired from NASA to become director of the National Reconnaissance Office.