Jason Townsend

Jason is an industry leader in digital communications with over 14 years of experience in strategic and innovative use of social media messaging and website content. During his career, he's directed the efforts of and regularly executes some of the largest Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat accounts across the platforms, working on projects that have earned two Shorty Awards for best use of social media, two Webby Awards for best corporate use of social media and two Webby Awards for best websites.

During his NASA career, Jason has focused on covering the agency’s people, missions and programs across a digital landscape of over 500 social media accounts on 18 platforms. Working with an in-house social media team, he has been at the forefront of communicating NASA’s story to a community of followers grown from 12 million in 2012 to 64 million strong in 2017. Jason is regularly called on as an expert in the use of social media, advising agency leadership on social media best practices, policy, and upcoming social media activities. He also regularly speaks to external audiences at universities and conferences about case studies and lessons learned from some of NASA’s largest social media campaigns.

Previously, Jason was the webmaster for NOAA, a federal agency that monitors and studies the Earth, and the US Institute of Peace, a non-governmental organization dealing with foreign policy and international relations. At NOAA, he created and developed online content for NOAA.gov and NOAA’s social media accounts. At the Institute, he oversaw the daily operations of the USIP.org web site content management system, e-mail marketing system, social media accounts, and a matrixed team of content contributors. He also worked on the NASA.gov website as a web editor and multimedia producer at both NASA Headquarters and the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Jason got his start as a freelance web designer for small local businesses and university student organizations in 1999.

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