Louisa Koch
NOAA Heritage Oral History Project
NOAA Heritage Oral History Project aims to document the history and legacy of NOAA through compelling interviews with its leaders. These firsthand accounts provide an invaluable resource that preserves NOAA's significant contributions to environmental research and management, fostering a deeper understanding of NOAA's vital role in shaping our understanding of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere.
Molly Graham
Ms. Louisa Koch was born in Boston in 1959 and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. She attended Middlebury College in Vermont and graduated with a degree in Physics in 1982. After working as a consultant for Booz Allen and Hamilton and a researcher for the National Academy of Sciences, Louisa went on to earn her master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987. She started her career in Washington working for the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress as a staff economist. She then had various positions as a Presidential Management Intern for the Department of Defense. From 1991 to 1998, Louisa worked for the Office of Management and Budget before coming to NOAA and working as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and then her current position as NOAA's Director of Education. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.
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