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Charles Chitwood is the Vice President and General Manager of Schafer's System Engineering and Integration Division in Huntsville, Alabama, leading efforts in missile defense, Future Army Systems, NASA, several product lines and work with major aerospace contractors.
Prior to Schafer, Mr. Chitwood served as Deputy Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, from 2004–2007. In this capacity, his leadership was instrumental in helping NASA ready the Space Shuttle to return to flight and in working to help MSFC realize the Vision for Space Exploration during a critical time for NASA.
Mr. Chitwood served on the Board of Directors for the Schafer Corporation prior to his appointment at NASA and led the system engineering and integration division. As general manager for Schafer's Huntsville Operation, he led the development of Schafer's system, software, test, and specialty engineering processes.
Mr. Chitwood has served in varying management and engineering positions with other technology and systems development companies and programs. He worked for the Computer Sciences Corporation as the technical director for its U. S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Scientific, Engineering and Technical Assistance Contract, and served as General Manager of the Huntsville Division of Coleman Technologies.
Mr. Chitwood has authored more than 20 articles for scientific journals on basic research in high-energy, heavy ion nuclear physics. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Tennessee Technological University and has completed coursework toward a Ph.D. in Physics at Michigan State University. In addition, he was named Tennessee Tech University's 2008 Outstanding Alumnus Award from the College of Arts and Sciences.