OTPS Leadership
Charity Weeden
OTPS Associate Administrator
Portrait of Charity Weeden, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Learn More about Charity Weeden![Ellen Gersten](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ellen-gertsen.jpg?w=819)
Ellen Gertsen
The Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS). She provides leadership related to the management and operations of OTPS. Gertsen also supports the Associate Administrator in providing data- and evidence-driven technology, policy, and strategy advice to NASA leadership and engaging with the technology and space policy communities. She joined NASA in 2003 as a Presidential Management Fellow and has extensive experience leading policy development, performance management, strategic planning, and organizational change initiatives.
![A.C. Charania](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/chief-technologist-nqh202301030001_fullres_0.jpg?w=819)
A.C. Charania
As the Agency Chief Technologist, A.C. Charania serves as principal advisor to NASA’s administrator on technology policy and programs. He also leads technology innovation at the agency and aligns NASA’s agency-wide technology investments with mission needs across the six mission directorates.
![Portrait of Alexander MacDonald](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20191002_mg_0023_0.jpg?w=819)
Alex MacDonald
Alexander MacDonald is the chief economist at NASA. He was previously the senior economic advisor in the Office of the Administrator and was the founding program executive of NASA’s Emerging Space Office within the Office of the Chief Technologist.
![Erica Rodgers, NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20180814-_3bi2669.jpg?w=819)
Erica Rodgers
Director of Advanced Programs for NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy. Rodgers defines and shapes studies of agency and national importance to provide data- and evidence-driven technology, policy, and strategy advice to NASA leadership. Rodgers leads the Science and Technology Partnership Forum and establishes coordination frameworks across U.S. government space agencies. Rodgers provides leadership in developing and advancing strategic policy guidance and identifying emerging technologies and opportunities to inform national space policy and NASA’s future mission needs.