Mary Ellen Kicza has been named assistant administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Satellite and Information Service, NOAA announced Nov. 13.

Kicza, who had been serving as deputy assistant administrator since October 2005, will lead NOAA’s satellite acquisition and operations programs as well as the agency’s climate, oceanographic and geophysical data access, archive, and dissemination activities.

Before coming NOAA, Kicza was associate deputy administrator for systems integration at NASA.