Dr. Jim Reilly is a consultant to Booz Allen Hamilton’s aerospace business. As a
space systems expert and former astronaut, Jim works to develop innovative solutions
for space-related services, earth systems characterization, and applications for a variety
of clients including the Department of Defense, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and
the intelligence community. In addition to Booz Allen, Jim is working with academic and
professional organizations in developing future enabling capabilities supporting human
Moon to Mars Program missions. Jim has more than 25 years of multidisciplinary
technical, engineering, and management experience in resource assessments;
applications-focused earth systems characterization; space systems development,
applications, and operations; and education. From 2018 to 2021, Jim Reilly was the
director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) where he managed an annual $1.8
billion operating budget for the nation's largest water, earth resources, biological
science, natural hazards, and civilian mapping agency. Before USGS, Jim served U.S.
and allied militaries as a subject matter expert on space operations, and as a technical
advisor supporting the National Security Space Institute of the U.S. Air Force. As an
astronaut at NASA, he had a distinguished 13-year career where he flew on three space
shuttle missions and conducted five spacewalks totaling more than 856 hours in space.
Jim has held management positions in academia, in addition to TAEUS Corporation and
PhotoStencil Corporation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also served 17 years with
the U.S. Navy as a reserve engineering duty officer and was designated a space
systems expert in the Space Cadre. Jim earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate
degrees in geosciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.