Monica Aquino-Thieman

Monica Aquino-Thieman is the Director of the NASA Acquisition Integrity Program (Fraud Remedies) and the Agency Counsel for Acquisition Integrity. She serves as the primary Agency authority in the substantive law of acquisition integrity, including procurement fraud and other contracting irregularities, grant and other non-procurement fraud, anti-corruption, and counterfeit parts. She oversees the Agency’s Acquisition Integrity Program (AIP), which supports NASA’s mission by improving the effectiveness of Agency operations by combating fraud and advancing NASA’s core values of safety, integrity, teamwork, and excellence by promoting integrity and accountability in the acquisition process.

In her capacity as Director, she serves as the Coordination of Remedies Official for investigations of fraud and public corruption. She also is Counsel to the NASA Suspending and Debarring Official. She has chaired the NASA Counterfeit Parts Working Group since 2008 and previously co-chaired the Department of Defense Procurement Fraud Working Group for several years. Currently, she is a suspension and debarment instructor for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Prior to her current position at NASA, she was the NASA Eastern Region Coordinator and Senior Attorney for procurement fraud matters.

Prior to joining NASA in 2006, Monica specialized in both litigation and government contracts at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, one of the ten largest law firms world-wide at the time. She also was a trial and appellate litigation attorney at McKenna & Cuneo LLP, a national law firm based in Washington, DC.

Monica, a Dual Admissions Honors Program in Law graduate, earned her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Miami School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Miami where she served as the Undergraduate Student Government President.