Juliana Blackwell To Direct National Geodetic Survey, Oversee Spatial Reference System

Juliana P. Blackwell has taken up responsibilities as the new director of the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), where she will oversee the nation’s spatial reference system.

Blackwell takes up the post after serving for the past three years as chief of the NGS Observation and Analysis Division. She is the first woman to head the nation’s oldest federal science agency, established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 as the Survey of the Coast.

Juliana P. Blackwell has taken up responsibilities as the new director of the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), where she will oversee the nation’s spatial reference system.

Blackwell takes up the post after serving for the past three years as chief of the NGS Observation and Analysis Division. She is the first woman to head the nation’s oldest federal science agency, established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 as the Survey of the Coast.

At the Observation and Analysis Division Blackwell supervised a staff of 60 employees responsible for maintaining the nation’s spatial reference positioning system. Prior to that assignment she successfully managed NOAA’s height modernization program, which has improved the efficiency and accuracy of height information used in surveying, mapping and modeling nationwide. She also served as the National Geodetic Service’s deputy director since August.

NGS is part of the National Ocean Service, which is an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Blackwell is a 1988 graduate of Tufts University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics. She received a master’s in business administration from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in 2007. Blackwell has been at NGS for 16 years.

Blackwell succeeds Dave Zilkoski who completes a 34-year federal career, all of it in service to NOAA and the geodetic survey. His NOAA service includes the past three years as head of NOAA’s Office of National Geodetic Survey.