This will be short and sweet…so here it is.  Today, September 26, 2009, is my last official day as the CIO of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  I leave an organization that marked the start of my Federal career. 

I graduated from Howard University on a hot Saturday in May of 1980.  I started at NASA/Goddard the following Monday as a dreamy 21-year old Mathematician.  I left about 18 months later.  I returned a quarter of a century later and now a leave again a Center that made amazing contributions to our nation’s space program.  Tomorrow, I will be the CIO of NASA.  This is a humbling and exciting experience.

After only having a week to prepare, I find that I haven’t had time to cry, to hug, say good-bye, or even to pack.  It’s funny how change doesn’t wait for us to get ready.  Change simply happens.  I’m not sure even if I’m saying good-bye or hello.  Perhaps it is merely Aloha. 

So, this is it.  I’ll continue to blog for the same reasons as stated in earlier posts.  I was hired with a charge to participate on an executive leadership team that not only fulfills the mission of our nation’s space program, but inspires a world.  Perhaps a universe. 

The change I lead will start with me.  A quote by Anatole France says:

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

No time to mourn.  Just enough time to resurrect.  Procurements, cloud computing, innovation, security, team building … oh, and launch vehicles, manned space flight, tight budgets … inspiration to the world.  Aloha dreamy mathematician.  Aloha NASA.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

p.s. Don’t paint my orange office!