HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Pamela Hanes Cucarola, chief financial officer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been honored by President Bush with a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives for her outstanding achievements at NASA.
One of the highest honors given for government service, the award is presented annually to a select group of senior federal executives who have provided exceptional service and leadership in some of the most critical positions in federal government. The award recognizes executives who have consistently demonstrated strength, integrity and commitment to public service in their careers. Recipients are nominated by members of their agency. Nominees’ applications are reviewed by a board of private citizens, and only a select few are referred to the president for approval.
A native of Huntsville, Cucarola is one of three Marshall Center employees to be honored this year.
“It is an honor for me and my Marshall team members to receive this award,” said Cucarola. “This award recognizes Marshall’s contributions and aspirations to explore new worlds to improve our own.”
She leads an office responsible for managing an annual budget of approximately $2.6 billion for one of NASA’s largest field installations. Named to her position in January 2007, Cucarola is responsible for development, implementation and administration of integrated resources management at the Marshall Center. This includes all aspects of planning, programming and budgeting processes, along with guidelines for distributing funds. She also is responsible for the Marshall Center’s factual, legal and integrated financial reporting and control system that ensures accountability of funds and other resources.
Cucarola joined NASA as an operating accountant at the Marshall Center in 1982. She has held a number of managerial and leadership positions at Marshall including chief of the Financial Systems Division from 1992 to 1997, chief of the Systems Processes Office from 1997 to 2000, manager of the Integrated Financial Management Program’s Core Financial Project Office from 2000 to 2002, and manager of the program’s Administrative Systems Implementation Projects Office from 2002 to 2005. Before her current position at Marshall, she served from 2005 to 2007 as deputy director of the Budget Office in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Cucarola earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1985 from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She has received numerous NASA awards including a Manned Flight Awareness Award for dedication to quality work and flight safety; six Sustained Superior Performance Awards; two Special Service Awards; a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal; and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, recognizing significant, sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creativity.
Cucarola and her husband, Gerald, live in Union Grove, Ala.
