Lori Beth Garver (born May 22, 1961 in Lansing, Michigan) is the Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was nominated on May 24, 2009, by President Barack Obama, along with Charles Bolden as NASA Administrator. She was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on July 15, 2009.

Garver was the lead civil space policy advisor for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and led the agency review team for NASA during the post-election transition. She worked at NASA from 1996–2001, first as a special assistant to the NASA administrator and senior policy analyst for the Office of Policy and Plans, and then as the Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy and Plans.

Lori Garver was born in Lansing, Michigan on May 22, 1961, and she graduated from Haslett High School in Haslett, Michigan in 1979. In 1983, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics from Colorado College. While working for Senator John Glenn from 1983–1984, she became interested in space, and went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in science, technology and public policy from the George Washington University in 1989.

Sally Kristen Ride (born May 26, 1951) is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. Ride joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman—and then-youngest American, at 32—to enter space. In 1987 she left NASA to work at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control.

The eldest child of Carol Joyce (née Anderson) and Dale Burdell Ride, Sally was born in Encino, part of Los Angeles, California. Of Norwegian ancestry, she has a sister named Karen "Bearful" Ride, who is a Presbyterian minister. Ride attended Portola Middle School and Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles (now Harvard-Westlake School) on a scholarship. In addition to being interested in science, she was a nationally ranked tennis player. Ride attended Swarthmore College and then transferred to Stanford University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English and physics. Also at Stanford, she earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in physics, while doing research in astrophysics and free electron laser physics.