Michael Fulda is a former member of the Board of Directors for the National Space Society (NSS).
Mr. Fulda’s professional involvement with space dates from the mid-1970’s. For two summers he was a member of engineering systems design teams held at the NASA Langley and Marshall centers. In a subsequent summer he worked as International Relations Specialist at NASA Headquarters. With the combined exposure to these programs he became a member of the space community, active in space politics, policy, education and citizens’ advocacy.
In 1971 Mr. Fulda joined the faculty of Fairmont State College in West Virginia. As a professor of political science in a small department he has taught a variety of courses in American Government, International Relations, and US Public Policy, specializing in the areas of space defense, and foreign relations. He was the campus representative of the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium and active in a number of space education programs. He is also the faculty advisor of Pi Sigma Alpha, the political science honorary society and of the Ballroom Dancing Club. During the spring 2002 semester he was Visiting Professor at Bauman Moscow State Technical University where he lectured and consulted on US Space Policy
In the space politics area he was West Virginia State Committee Chairman and also Director for Space Policy of the John Anderson Presidential Campaign. In subsequent elections he was also active in the formulation of space policy with the Glenn, Dukakis, and Clinton presidential campaigns. At the state level he was State Coordinator for Spacecause and Spacepac, from whom he received their respective Outstanding Service Awards. He frequently interacts on space issues with the staff of the West Virginia congressional delegation.
In the early eighties he devoted considerable time to the research of civilian and military space programs. Since then he has regularly taught a course on space policy, written about a dozen articles, presented papers and participated on panels on a variety of space subjects. He also appeared in testimony before Congress and the White House National Space Council.
Mr. Fulda is active in a number of space organizations. In addition to his role as Director of the National Space Society, he is the governor-appointed West Virginia delegate to the Aerospace States Association and member of its Policy Committee, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Chair of the Allegheny Pittsburgh Section and member of the National Public Policy Committee, a Senior Member of the American Astronautical Society, fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and Advisor of the Sociedad Espacial Mexicana. He is also a regular member of the National Space Club, Mars Society, Planetary Society, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Luft und Raumfahrt.
In 1988 he assumed the presidency of The Institute for the Social Science Study of Space, the coordinating hub for the common interests among space social scientists in about sixteen social science disciplines. He is the institute’s representative for the West Virginia High Technology Foundation.
His community activities include Director of the Fairmont Chamber Music Society, member of the Advancement Committee of the local Boy Scouts District, and of the Education Committee of the Fairmont Elks Lodge. He is an alumnus representative of American University. His hobbies include weight lifting, ballroom dancing, and viewing the performing arts. He is married to the former Rosa Bongiorno, a Sicilian nurse. They have two sons, Robert, a doctor of Public Health with the Center for Health Care Policy and Research of West Virginia University, and George, director of education at the Fairmont International Academy of Design and Technology, and doctoral student at the WVU School of Education.
Mr. Fulda is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in American Education, American Men and Women of Science, Who’s Who in American Politics and in a number of trade directories.
