Juliana P. Blackwell has been named the new director of NOAA’s Office of National Geodetic Survey where she will oversee NOAA's responsibilities for the nation's spatial reference system. She is the first woman to head the nation's oldest federal science agency which was established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 as the Survey of the Coast.

Blackwell moves into the director's chair after serving for the past three years as chief of the National Geodetic Survey’s Observation and Analysis Division where she 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. 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.