Douglas-Bradshaw Named Civil Space Flight Mission Area Executive at Johns Hopkins APL

Donya Douglas-Bradshaw has been named mission area executive for Civil Space Flight at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. In this role, she will lead APL programs to deliver critical spaceflight hardware to NASA, U.S. government civilian agencies, and other partners.

Douglas-Bradshaw joins APL from NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she most recently served as program manager for the Lunar Commercial Transportation System.

“Donya brings decades of distinguished service at NASA in the execution of first-of-a-kind spaceflight systems to the Laboratory and our sponsors,” said APL Director Dave Van Wie. “Innovations in space technology are critical for our nation, and we are excited to welcome an experienced leader with a proven track record of delivering complex programs while always balancing technical, schedule, and cost objectives.”

Douglas-Bradshaw began her career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where she worked on flight-critical thermal systems for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Terra and Aqua Earth Observing Systems. She later managed development of the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System instrument for Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2.

From 2019 to 2022, Douglas-Bradshaw led a multi-institution team in executing NASA’s Lucy mission, ushering the first science mission to explore the Trojan asteroids to launch and through early spaceflight operations on schedule and under budget.

She was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2021 and served as deputy director for the Engineering and Technology Directorate at NASA Goddard, a 1,200-person organization that delivers flight mission capabilities across NASA’s civil space portfolio. Since 2024, she has held executive leadership roles at NASA Headquarters within the Science Mission Directorate and the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.

Her achievements and leadership have been recognized through numerous awards, including NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal, the agency’s highest honor.

Douglas-Bradshaw earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland and has authored or co-authored more than 20 publications in research and development on capillary pumped loops, loop heat pipes, and variable emittance coatings.