cFS Events

Dr. Prasun Desai

Deputy Associate
Administrator — STMD
NASA HQ

Dr. Desai has worked at NASA for 35 years. For the past 15 years, he has helped to establish the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) from inception at NASA Headquarters for development of next-generation space technologies and capabilities under a $1.1 Billion budget. Over those 15 years, Dr. Desai served in many positions within STMD, last being as the Deputy Associate Administrator. Prior to that, he spent 20 years at NASA Langley Research Center as a senior systems engineer applying expertise in the fields of atmospheric flight dynamics, systems optimization, engineering of entry systems, flight operations, and design of planetary exploration mission elements for robotic and human systems. Dr. Desai has contributed to the design, development, analyses, and flight operations of many NASA missions (Mars Exploration Rover, Stardust, Genesis, Mars Phoenix Lander) pertaining to entry, descent, and landing of probes at Mars and Earth.

Dr. Desai has received numerous awards from NASA for his work including: a Presidential Rank Award; two Exceptional Engineering Achievement medals; an Exceptional Achievement medal, Outstanding Leadership Medal; an Exceptional Service Medal; and was also selected as the 2005 National Engineer of the Year Award from American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Dr. Desai has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University, an M.S. in Astronautics from the George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Cynthia Simmons

Deputy Center Director
NASA Goddard

Ms. Simmons’ career began in 1982 as a U.S. Air Force 2nd Lieutenant in the Office of Special Projects; and was distinguished with the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with recognition by the Under Secretary of the Air Force for an innovative operational concept that enabled faster and more efficient national defense threat assessment. After the Air Force, she worked at Unisys Corp; and then for the Iridium Program supporting launches of 82 satellites within one year receiving awards for her design of a new on-orbit assessment technique for a Low Earth Orbit, multi-satellite, cross-linked constellation with 24/7continuous real-time downlinked data. From 2000 to 2009, she was an engineer for international and DARPA missions in addition to supporting Goddard missions including GOES L/M/O/P, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Global Precipitation Measurement GPM) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM). In March 2010, she was selected as Instrument Project Manager for DESDynI; Astro-H/Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) in 2011; and then in 2013 for ICESat-II/ATLAS. More recently, she was Code 550 Division Chief and then Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management, successively, in the Engineering & Technology Directorate and Flight Projects Directorate. April of 2021, she was selected for the Deputy Director of the Flight Projects Directorate (FPD) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In her career, she has supported 21 launches for NASA, DoD and industry. She is a Women@NASA Honoree (2014), Goddard Senior Fellow and 2016 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) nominee for her contributions to the country. She has received several NASA awards and honors including Agency Honor Silver Achievement Award, several NASA Exceptional Achievement Awards and Robert H. Goddard Leadership Honor Award for her leadership of instrument projects.

She has a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy and Master of Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park in Aerospace Engineering; and is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Matthew Ritsko

Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management
NASA Goddard

Matthew Ritsko is the Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management within the Engineering and Technology Directorate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Matt provides infrastructure, human capital and resources management to NASA’s largest engineering organization.

Prior to this role, Matt served as the Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management within GSFC’s Flight Projects Directorate. Matt provided program planning and control (PP&C) leadership and guidance to spaceflight missions. He enhanced project and improved cost reporting and assessments for the portfolio of 80 missions.

From 2020 until 2022, Matt served as the Chief of Resources Management within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). In this role, he provided leadership to resources management functions supporting multiple mission directorates and GSFC facilities. Matt also served as Goddard’s lead for Program Planning and Control (PP&C). From 2017 until 2020, Matt was the Program Business Manager for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS); a collaborative program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA for next generation environmental satellites. From 2013 to 2018 Matt was the Deputy Project Manager for Resources on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Project; an exoplanet discovery mission to find nearby new planets. Matt started his NASA career in 2005 in resources analyst. He supported the OCFO Program Analysis Office, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS) projects.

Matt has been twice honored as a recipient of NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal, as well as the Robert H. Goddard Award of Mission and Enabling Support. He has been recognized on several NASA Group Achievement and NASA Silver Achievement Medal group awards. Matt holds a Bachelors of Science in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Maryland. He has a certificate in Systems Engineering from MIT and Project Management from Georgetown University.

Dr. Jonny Pellish

Executive Lead for Strategic Partnerships
NASA Goddard

Since June 2024, Dr. Pellish has served as the NASA GSFC Senior Engineer – Microelectronics and the Executive Lead for Strategic Partnerships, actively engaging with other federal agencies to make more informed decisions, cooperate in scientific research, and pursue partnerships that further national interests. Prior to his current role, Jonny was assigned to the White House National Space Council as the Director of Civil Space Policy. While there, he was responsible for advising the Council’s Executive Secretary, the Vice President, and the President on development and implementation of national policies and strategies for space.

Before the National Space Council, Dr. Pellish served as a fellow on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to negotiate and pass the CHIPS and Science Act – which authorized federal research agencies and funded domestic semiconductor development and manufacturing. A NASA engineer since 2008, Jonny spent most of his career focused on radiation effects in microelectronics for space and strategic systems, leading numerous projects and agency-wide programs.

Dr. Pellish received a B.S. in physics, M.S. in electrical engineering, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University. Jonny has authored or co-authored over 80 refereed publications and delivered numerous presentations on aerospace microelectronics and space policy topics. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Panel Member:

Joshua Krage

Enterprise Space Protection Officer
NASA HQ

Joshua Krage joined NASA in 2001 at the Goddard Space Flight Center, where he established a leading network security monitoring and incident response capability, and went on to become the center’s first Chief Information Security Officer in 2009. In 2012, the NASA Program Management Council approved the charter for the NASA Space Protection Working Group and Joshua served as a founding member for its full span. Joshua started directly supporting the NASA Office of Chief Engineer’s Space Asset Protection Program in 2017 (later renamed the Mission Resilience and Protection Program), and as of December 2024 is now serving as the NASA Enterprise Space Protection Officer.

Panel Member:

Scott Tashakkor

NESC Deputy SW Tech. Fellow
NASA Marshall

Mr. Tashakkor is currently serving as a Deputy to the NESC Software Technical Fellow. He joined NASA in 2008 after working on his first masters degree on higher order computational fluid dynamics for acoustics, which was funded through a NASA SBIR and being used at Marshall Space Flight Center. In his career he has focused on flight and ground software development, security, verification, and validation. He started out working computational models for launch vehicles and the associated system components. From there he moved into writing the embedded flight software for Space Launch System (SLS) and other systems. He became the lead of Guidance, Navigation, and Control software for SLS. After winning several awards for this work (including a NASA Early Career achievement award), he switched to working ground system software and operations for several years. He then rejoined flight software and expanded working more with the NESC. Mr. Tashakkor has an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and has two master’s degrees, Aerospace and Computer Engineering. He was born in Decatur, Illinois and resides in Huntsville, Alabama.

Panel Member:

James Curbo

Chief Scientist
JHU APL

James Curbo serves as the Chief Scientist of the Constrained Cyber Solutions Group at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. His work lies at the intersection of the cyber and space domains, advancing cybersecurity for space systems and bridging the gap between cyber and space operations.

Previously, James served as a Cyberspace Operations Officer in the U.S. Air Force and later worked at MITRE, focusing on defensive cyber operations for the Department of Defense.

James earned a BS in computer science from Henderson State University in Arkansas and an MS in computer science from Capitol Technology University in Maryland. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, focusing his research on cyber-resilient spacecraft design and implementation.