Washington, DC: Neela Rajendra, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's head of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), has been sacked. The move came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to "terminate" DEI programs in Federal Agencies.
The space agency attempted to retain Rajendra by reportedly changing her job title to "Head of Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success," but failed. On the NASA jet propulsion laboratory's 'Who we are' section, the page dedicated to Neela Rajendra now reads, "404 Page not found".
A political science and music graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Neela Rajendra pursued a Masters in Business Administration from the Wake Forest University School of Business and completed it in 2008.
After her studies, Rajendra held brief roles at a few organizations before taking on the position of Director of Entrepreneurial Initiatives at Claremont McKenna College's Kravis Leadership Institute in 2013. She worked there for nearly four years before becoming the design director, executive director, and co-founder of the Science of Diversity and Inclusion Initiative (SODI), where she spent almost eight years.
Under her direction, SODI worked with local governments and entrepreneurs to support urban economic growth in nations like Nicaragua and Benin.
In 2021, Rajendra joined NASA as the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer until March 2025, when the position was eliminated following the Trump executive order. One of her main projects was "Space Workforce 2030," which aimed to hire more women and people from different backgrounds to work at NASA.
