NASA Ombuds Serve Stakeholders at Ames Research Center

Three Ombuds provide civil servants, contractors and students at the NASA lab near Silicon Valley, California with a supplemental, confidential and informal channel of communication to raise significant issues and concerns. John (Jack) Boyd, Lisa Lockyer, and Jim Arnold comprise the Ames Ombuds Office. All hold other positions at the research center. Their power "rests on their reputation for confidentiality, fairness, objectivity, tact and respectful concern for the welfare of all individuals of the NASA community and for the well-being of the agency."

Jack Boyd serves as Senior Advisor to the Center Director and the Senior Advisor for History in addition to his work as an Ombuds. He started at Ames in 1947, before NASA was created. During a storied career, Boyd did research on the design of probes to Mars and Venus, and he helped develop early configurations for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules. 

Lisa Lockyear is the center's Legislative Director and previously was Deputy Director of New Ventures and Communications and was Chief of the Technology Partnerships Division. She was also a Deputy District Attorney for Alameda County. 

Jim Arnold retired from Ames in 2002 and was awarded NASA's highest staff award in 2016. During his career, his research and leadership revolutionized technology that probed the Jupiter, Venus, and Mars and brought back the first atmospheric data. (Ames Astrogram; Ames Bio (Boyd); LinkedIn (Lockyer); Ames Astrogram (Arnold).)

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