March 2026

In February, the National Science Foundation (NSF) directorates—including the STEM Education (EDU) Directorate)—shared updates on their reorganizations, aligned with NSF’s broader agency-wide restructuring. NSF leadership also provided additional updates during the National Science Board (NSB) meeting on February 25. On March 2, President Trump nominated Jim O’Neill to serve as the next NSF director.

Updates on NSF Directorate Reorganization

On February 17, many NSF directorates issued updates on internal reorganizations as part of the agency-wide restructuring (read more in January 2026 AERA Highlights).

The EDU Directorate announced several updates to its structure and leadership positions:

• James Moore remains assistant director, while Sylvia Butterfield was named the directorate head of EDU.
• EDU reorganized from four divisions into two clusters:
  • STEM Education Research and Innovation, led by Deputy Directorate Head Monya Ruffin
  • STEM Workforce and Talent Development, led by Deputy Directorate Head Charisse Carney-Nunes.

The Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate reported on January 6 that it would reorganize from three divisions into five sections while maintaining the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Details on section focus areas and section leadership have not yet been released.

NSF Leadership Updates from February 25 NSB Meeting

As part of the NSB meeting, NSF acting director Brian Stone and NSF Chief Management Officer Micah Cheatham provided an agency-wide update. Key points included:

• Workforce adjustments: NSF reduced staff by 30 percent through the Deferred Resignation Program offerings and the natural end-of-rotator appointments. With current staffing below the level in the president’s FY 2026 budget request, additional hires are planned.
• Executive staff ratio: The agency reduced executive positions from 143, improving the ratio of executives to non-executive staff from 1:7 to 1:23, closer to peer scientific agencies (average: 1:30).
• Internal restructuring: NSF formalized three committees—an executive committee, a science strategy committee, and management team—to advance administration science and technology priorities, including artificial intelligence and quantum research.
• Program consolidation: Solicitations were reduced from 200 to 100 to streamline applications and ease program officer workload. EDU experienced this change last fall, consolidating multiple programs from the former Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings into a broad K–12 STEM solicitation.

NSF Director Nomination

Amidst these updates, President Trump nominated Jim O’Neill to serve as NSF director. O’Neill previously served as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services under both the George W. Bush and Trump administrations and most recently as the chief executive officer of the Thiel Foundation. This nomination follows the resignation of former NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan in April 2025, as NSF began the process of terminating grants.