Lesa Roe

Lesa B. Roe is Chancellor of the University of North Texas System. She is the chief executive officer and the first woman to lead the UNT System, responsible for all aspects of the System’s operations including general oversight of 10,000+ employees and the three UNT System campuses: UNT in Denton, UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth and UNT Dallas.

Prior to her arrival in North Texas, Chancellor Roe spent 33 years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As Deputy Administrator, she was responsible for general oversight of 17,000 NASA employees and 10 field centers across the nation. She also directed program and project teams on product/mission delivery, acquisition strategy, partnership and international strategy, and risk management.

During her tenure at NASA, Roe served as the first woman Director of NASA Langley Research Center, Manager of the International Space Station (ISS) Research Program at the Johnson Space Center, and worked on 36 Space Shuttle and ISS missions in various leadership roles. Her leadership at NASA led to numerous science, space, and aeronautics breakthrough innovations and missions which advanced our nation’s leadership and international knowledge of aeronautics and space.

Chancellor Roe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. She is married to Ralph Roe, NASA’s chief engineer, and has two sons and a daughter.