New Execs Contribute 50 Years Combined Experience
Dr. Scott Parazynski, chairman of Challenger Center for Space
Science Education in Alexandria, VA, has announced a new leadership
team for the non-profit organization. Dr. Lance Bush will serve as
President and CEO, and Steven Kussmann as Chief Operating Officer.
Dr. Bush is currently the Chief Strategic Officer and head of the
Washington office of Paragon Space Development Corporation.
Kussmann is currently Challenger Center's Director of Operations.
Both will assume their new positions January 2, 2012.
Dr. Bush brings more than 25 years of leadership, aerospace
industry experience and entrepreneurial talent to Challenger
Center. His broad experience in Washington and within the space
community includes nearly 20 years of service with NASA and at NASA
Headquarters in a role spanning human spaceflight, life sciences,
commercialization and international relations. Mr. Kussmann, who
joined Challenger Center in April 2011, brings more than 25 years
of non-profit management and science, technology, engineering and
math (STEM) education experience to his new leadership role.
"We are thrilled to have Dr. Bush as our new President and CEO,"
said Dr. Parazynski, chairman of Challenger Center's board of
directors and a former NASA astronaut. "Lance is an exceptional
leader, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the
aerospace, space science and non-profit sectors. He is a natural
fit for our senior management team, and we are delighted to have
him at the Challenger Center helm as we launch a significant
expansion of our STEM education mission and work with our network
of Challenger Learning Centers to achieve new heights."
"The Challenger Center family is proud of its accomplishments
over the last 25 years, but our greatest achievements are yet to
come," said Dr Parazynski. "The selection of our new leadership
team followed a deliberative process by the board of directors, and
it signifies that Challenger Center will play an even greater role
in ensuring America's dominance in science, engineering, and
innovation."
"Inspiration, education, innovation, and leadership are
hallmarks of our nation's greatness, and they are what Challenger
Center did during its first 25 year of service and will continue to
do in the future," said Dr. Bush. "It is a great honor to be
selected as Challenger Center's new President and CEO, and I look
forward to working with our extensive STEM education team of staff
members, our Challenger Learning Center educators, friends and
volunteers to grow the organization. We must strengthen our nation
by building and applying the scientific knowledge that drives
innovation, industry, and the human spirit, all of which starts
with our school children."
"We are delighted to have Lance and Steve leading Challenger
Center," said Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, founding chair of Challenger
Center and widow of Dick Scobee, commander of the Challenger STS
51-L mission. "With this superb team in place, Challenger Center
will play a vital, growing, and pivotal role in STEM learning
achievement in the new era of space exploration."
Based on Challenger Center's new five-year strategic plan, the
organization will expand its widely-heralded immersive, hands-on
spaceflight simulations offered at its Challenger Learning Centers.
While the current missions will continue to be hallmarks of the
student experience, Challenger Center will create new missions and
technologies to address the future of space exploration and the
Next Generation Science Standards.
"Challenger Center's unique, hands-on participatory exploration
missions to deep space, beneath our oceans, to the polar icecaps
and inside the human body will inspire scientific literacy for
millions of children while encouraging the pursuit of exciting,
meaningful STEM careers for many of our 'crewmembers'," said Dr.
Parazynski.
"Challenger Center's future will be built upon its existing
partnerships with the education community and the aerospace and
technology industries and among its new strategic partners," said
Dr. Parazynski. "With private sector support, it will ensure its
missions and learning activities continue to introduce students to
state-of-the-art space science. It also will increase awareness of
its services among students, teachers and parents, and bolster the
capacities of its Challenger Learning Centers for engaging and
exciting children about exploration -- on and off the planet."
Challenger Center's network of Challenger Learning Centers
across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South
Korea reach more than 400,000 students each year through simulated
space missions and educational programs, and engage over 40,000
educators through missions, teacher workshops and other
programs.