Joanna Rom was appointed BFA's Deputy Director - Planning, Coordination and Analysis by Tom Cooley, Chief Financial Officer and BFA's Director. Prior to that she served as Director, Division of Grants and Agreements (DGA), and Senior Advisor to the Director of BFA.

She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and holds an MBA degree from George Washington University. She began her NSF career in 1975 as a Management Intern. Since then she has held a series of increasingly responsible positions at NSF, including Head, Policy Office and Branch Chief, Division of Grants and Contracts and Deputy Director, DGA. She also served as a Legis Fellow in the U.S. Senate in 1991.

Ms. Rom has served on a number of groups within NSF, the academic research administration community and Federal research grants community. At NSF she served on various committees, including the FastLane Internal Review Committee (FIRCOM), which oversaw the creation and development of NSF's award winning FastLane initiative, and the Award System Steering Committee, which oversaw the creation of the state-of-the-art client-server award management system used by NSF. She was also instrumental in the creation of the NSF Regional Grants Conferences and the establishment of NSF's Business and Operations Advisory Committee, an external group of senior management and academic officials which provides advice to the agency's Chief Financial, Information and Human Capital Officers. She also oversaw the creation of DGA's "ACE Intern" program and has served as mentor and resource to participants in the Woman's Executive Leadership program, the NSF After Hours college program and the Bryn Mawr- Haverford extern program. Her service as Executive Secretary of the agency's Management Controls Committee included the rechartering of expansion of the Committee and revision of the management challenge review process.

Ms. Rom has served as the Executive Secretary of the National Science Board's Audit and Oversight Committee since 1997. She is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the Federal Demonstration Partnership and is co-chair of its Membership Committee. Other current responsibilities include activities supporting NSF's implementation of the President's Management Agenda.

Often invited as a speaker for meetings of the Society of Research Administrators (SRA), the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) and the National Grants Management Association (NGMA), Ms. Rom has also served on various committees of those organizations. She has been a contributor to the Assistance Management Journal, NGMA Newsletter, and the NCURA Newsletter on a wide range of grant policy topics.