The Honorable Andrea Seastrand

Executive Director

andrea.seastrand@californiaspaceauthority.org

3201 Airpark Dr., Ste. 204
Santa Maria, CA 93455
805-349 2633, ext. 113

The Honorable Andrea Seastrand serves as Executive Director of the California Space Authority (CSA), a statewide non-profit corporation. She brings extensive knowledge of both federal and state legislative processes as well as the vision and drive to ensure California's success as a leader in the highly competitive, international space enterprise market.

A leader in the inception of The California Space and Technology Alliance (CSTA), Mrs. Seastrand served as its first and only Executive Director from February 1997 until April 2001. Through her visionary leadership, CSTA grew into the current CSA, an organization focused on all four domains of California's diverse space enterprise community:  industry, government, academia, and workforce.  CSA provides voice, visibility and a competitive edge for California's space enterprise, and it has been designated by the State of California as California's official spaceport authority since April 2001.

Recognizing the value of collaborative strategic visioning, in 1998 Mrs. Seastrand oversaw the development of the country's first statewide, collaborative strategic space enterprise plan. That plan was updated in 2004 and again in 2007 with the development of the California Space Enterprise Strategic Plan.  The development and implementation of the California Space Enterprise Strategic Plan elevated CSA to a position of state and national thought leadership.  In February 2008, Mrs. Seastrand was appointed to chair the Aerospace Advisory Committee, which reports to Lt. Governor John Garamendi’s Commission on Economic Development.  The seven-member Aerospace Advisory Committee provides the Commission with information on the status of aerospace business in the state, identifies key challenges to the industry's growth, and offers recommendations for solutions.

Under Mrs. Seastrand's direction, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded CSA a $15 million grant in support of Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED), a major component of the American Competitiveness Initiative.  Under this initiative, CSA leads a 13-county economic region comprising the "California Innovation Corridor" with more than 60 participants.  This effort consists of increasing entrepreneurship, supporting manufacturing value chain and supplier competitiveness, and fostering accelerated development of an innovation-oriented technical workforce. In 2004, CSA held its first SpotBeam Awards Diner convening space enterprise leaders from around the world to highlight the significant achievements of California’s space assets through the innovation, infrastructure and intellectual capital of the space enterprise community.  The SpotBeam Awards dinner is now recognized as a CSA signature event.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Mrs. Seastrand in 2004 to serve as one of 20 members on the Governor's statewide Council on Base Support and Retention. In 2006, Mrs. Seastrand was invited to participate in the Air Force Civic Leader Program, comprised of leaders from communities nationwide. Her service to the program continues at the request of the Honorable Michael Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, and General Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff, through the auspices of the Air Force Public Affairs office.  She serves as an alternate delegate to the Aerospace States Association (ASA) and as a member in Women in Aerospace (WIA), the Air Force Association (AFA), the Navy League; and she serves on the College of Engineering’s Dean’s Advisory Council at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

As a former US Congresswoman, Mrs. Seastrand led space support efforts at the federal level with the introduction of the National Spaceport Act of 1995. While in Congress, she served on the Committee on Science and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  As a Member of the California State Assembly from 1990 to 1994, Mrs. Seastrand successfully authored legislation that created the California Spaceport Authority, created sales tax exemptions on launches, and created the Central Coast Regional Technology Alliance (CORTA) to support space and technology efforts that ultimately evolved into today's CSA.

Mrs. Seastrand was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from DePaul University. She raised two children on California's Central Coast with her late husband, Eric Seastrand, who was a Member of the California State Assembly from 1982 through 1990. Mrs. Seastrand currently resides in Grover Beach, California.