Ah, the media. This is a frame capture of Dr. Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist, speaking at the panel that was broadcast on the internet. It's quite obvious Dr. Stofan is not a "He". Reporting on a video that one hasn't watched is quite lame. I'd suggest deleting that website from your RSS feed/bookmarks. Basic fact checking is a requirement.

Second, Dr. Stofan said nothing about discovering extraterrestrial intelligence. In fact, she quite specifically said otherwise. She said:

"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, um and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years. We know where to look, we know how to look, in most cases we have the technology, and we are on the path to implement it."

and

"We're not talking about little green men. We're more talking about little microbes."

The enthusiasm is because of the recent discoveries of water throughout the solar system and the discovery of Earth-type exoplanets. Accompanying the panel discussion was this info graphic:

There are a lot of technologies involved. We hope that the James Webb Space Telescope, planned to launch in 2018, will provide more details of the exoplanets. Within the solar system more detailed analysis of spectral signatures should help us detect indications of life. For example, free oxygen doesn't last long by itself. Finding oxygen is an indication that there could be life providing that oxygen.

Future space telescopes are being designed that will use sunshades to block out the stars allowing us to just see the exoplanets.