NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory has reportedly ousted its Indian-origin high variety, fairness, inclusion (DEI) officer, Neela Rajendra, regardless of altering her title in a bid to maintain her after shuttering its variety division in March, following US President Trump’s government order banning the programmes in government department businesses.
In March, Washington Free Beacon reported that the lab had modified Neela Rajendra’s title in an effort to maintain her.
An all-staff mail by lab director Laurie Leshin final Thursday cited within the report said that Neela Rajendra not works on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Neela Rajendra is not working at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory],” Laurie Leshin’s mail learn. “We’re extremely grateful for the lasting influence she made to our group. We want her the perfect,” it added.
Laurie Leshin additionally knowledgeable within the mail that the newly shaped Workplace of Workforce Excellence and Worker Success—supposed to switch the DEI workforce Rajendra had led—could be moved to the Workplace of Human Sources.
On opening NASA jet propulsion laboratory’s ‘Who we’re’ part its web site, the web page about Neela Rajendra didn’t open and browse “404 Web page not discovered”.
The event follows reviews from per week earlier suggesting that Neela Rajendra was not among the many 900 workers laid off by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2024 amid funds cuts.
NASA modified Neela Rajendra’s modified to retain her
Though NASA shut down its central variety workplace according to government orders from the Trump administration, the lab retained Neela Rajendra in a rebranded position as head of “worker success.” Whereas references to “variety” and “inclusion” had been faraway from her title, a lot of her tasks remained unchanged, as per the Washington Free Beacon report.
In response to a March 10 e mail from the lab, her workplace was presupposed to proceed overseeing initiatives like “affinity teams,” together with the Black Excellence Strategic Workforce (B.E.S.T.).
Neela Rajendra’s continued employment drew consideration within the wake of a high-profile incident through which two NASA astronauts had been stranded on the Worldwide House Station for 9 months as a consequence of a defective propulsion system. The state of affairs sparked debate over whether or not the company’s vital DEI spending had contributed to enhancements in security or efficiency.
Again in 2022, Neela Rajendra had criticised SpaceX for its “fast-paced” setting and lack of emphasis on DEI, citing these points as elements behind the corporate’s excessive turnover price. Mockingly, it was a SpaceX capsule that in the end introduced the stranded astronauts again to Earth.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has not commented but.
In March, Donald Trump signed an government order for “restoring the values of particular person dignity, exhausting work, and excellence,” underneath which the President signed a memorandum eradicating what White Home termed as “radical Range, Fairness, and Inclusion” (DEI) from the Overseas Service”.
“US authorities is not going to base Overseas Service recruitment, hiring, promotion, or retention choices on a person’s race, coloration, faith, intercourse, or nationwide origin, nor embed discriminatory fairness ideology inside any component of the Overseas Service,” the order learn.
