USRA's Board of Trustees appoints USRA officers and is responsible for setting corporate policy. One Board member-a faculty member or administrative officer at a member institution-is selected from each of USRA's nine geographic regions and serves a rotating three-year term. The Board also has four at-large members. The Chair of the Council of Institutions and USRA's president/chief executive officer serve as ex officio Board members. The Board holds four scheduled meetings per year.
All USRA member institutions have graduate programs in the space sciences or aerospace engineering. There are 94 member institutions in the United States, two in Canada, two in England, one in Germany, two in Israel, and one in Australia.
The member institutions are divided into nine regional groups, with the eight non-U.S. members forming their own region.
The current Board of Trustees Chair is Dr. Peter Banks. The Vice-Chair is M.K. Jeppesen.
USRA Trustees
- Stefi Baum, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Richard Binzel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Michael Drake, University of Arizona
- Peggy L. Evanich, University of Florida
- Ivette Falto-Heck, Lockheed Martin Corporation
- John D. Fix, University of Alabama, Huntsville
- Ed Groth, Chair, USRA Council of Institutions, Princeton University
- M.K. Jeppesen, Utah State University
- Menas Kafatos, George Mason University
- Steven Kahn, Stanford University
- Edward McCullough, Boeing Company
- Gary Swenson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Alan Wells, University of Leicester Space Research Center
- Frederick Tarantino, USRA President and CEO
Dates and the agenda for the next Board of Trustees meeting can be found on our Intranet for Trustees (password required).
USRA's Director of University Relations serves as the corporate liaison to our member institutions.
Click here for a copy of USRA's Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws (.pdf).
USRA members enjoy a wide range of benefits, from strong collaboration among its member institutions and USRA research entities to access to funded research opportunities.
Find out how to become a USRA member here.