Wynn takes the CIO reins at NASA

Renee Wynn took over NASA's IT operations on Sept. 28 -- a few days ahead of schedule, according to the space agency.

Prior to joining NASA in July as deputy CIO, Wynn served 25 years with the Environmental Protection Agency, where her final position was acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information.

The agency had announced earlier in September that CIO Larry Sweet, who joined NASA in 1987, was set to retire on Nov. 30 -- adding that for the next two months, he would work with the Office of the NASA administrator to ensure a smooth transition of the CIO duties to Wynn.

The timetable for Wynn's promotion was accelerated when Sweet was assigned to work on a special project at the request of the Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, according to a NASA source.

As the top IT official, Wynn is responsible for ensuring IT assets are in line with federal policies, procedures and legislation, per a NASA press release. She will be focused on some of the same areas Sweet had stressed, including increasing collaboration among NASA's centers and with the other executive branch agencies, strengthening IT security posture, optimizing costs of current programs, maximizing the use of Enterprise and shared services, and providing innovation through data analytics and visualization.