Karen Feldstein

As the associate administrator for International and Interagency Relations, Karen Feldstein leads the organization responsible for NASA’s international and interagency activities and partnerships; coordination with U.S. executive branch offices, departments, and agencies, such as the National Security Council, National Space Council, and Departments of State and Defense; administration of NASA’s export control program; and support for NASA’s highest-level external advisory councils.

Throughout her NASA career, Feldstein has led the development of external relationships with domestic and international partners to further NASA’s and U.S. strategic objectives, including implementation of some of the agency’s most significant cooperative activities.  She has established innovative, enduring partnerships to enable and strengthen cooperation in human space flight, space and Earth science, and aeronautics, and cultivated groundbreaking engagement with emerging space partners to enable and strengthen the U.S. civil space program. She leads a portfolio of ~750 international agreements with 130+ countries and is responsible for the Artemis Accords, growing the community of signatories to nearly 50 countries.

Feldstein has been recognized by two successive Administrations with Presidential Rank Awards, as Distinguished Executive in 2024 and as Meritorious Executive in 2019.  She was elected a member of the International Academy of Astronautics in 2024, of the Council on Foreign Relations in 2023, and of the International Women’s Forum in 2022. 

When selected for her current position in 2020, Feldstein was serving as deputy associate administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR).  Since appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2011, she has held several leadership roles in OIIR in addition to serving as executive director of the NASA Advisory Council and NASA’s European Representative in Paris, France.

Before entering Federal government service as a Presidential Management Intern, Feldstein earned her M.A. in international relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and her B.A. at Tufts University.