Ms. Helen Hall is Director of the SOFIA Program, leading USRA’s overall SOFIA effort at NASA Ames Research Center.  In this capacity, Helen ensures that the USRA program provides NASA the support it needs.  She is responsible for directing the team that manages SOFIA science and mission operations; science instrument development; systems engineering and integration of the science instruments with the telescope; mirror coating and maintenance operations; mission communication and control; scientific data processing and archiving; and education and public outreach.  She works closely with her management counterparts at NASA Ames, NASA Dryden and the Deutsche SOFIA Institute to assure mission safety and success.

Helen has an extensive background in program and project management.  Before joining USRA, she managed Facilities Strategies for the Weapons Physics Directorate at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)  and successfully managed two Congressional Line Item projects totaling $187M.

Prior to her appointment at LANL, Helen was employed by Bechtel Nevada and led a team that fielded an advanced experimental series of tests and observations for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). She served as Program Manager in support of all LLNL experiments utilizing Bechtel personnel.  Later she managed engineering and diagnostics fabrication and calibration operations for Bechtel at Livermore, California.

Helen began her engineering and management career at the Nevada Test Site in 1984 and served in various capacities as mechanical engineer, field engineer, project engineer, and was the Engineering Section Chief for test bed construction and containment structures during the end of underground nuclear testing.

Helen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she received a musical scholarship for playing the oboe.  She is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.  In August 2004 Helen was featured on the cover of Nevada Woman magazine for their third annual “Women in Business - Daring to be Their Best” issue.  Helen enjoys cooking, music and swimming.