Women In Aerospace

For this week's #TuesdayTrailblazer, we celebrate Marion Blakely, 15th FAA Administrator, former CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, and winner of WIA’s 2008 Leadership Award.? ? Born in 1948, Marion grew up in Alabama. She graduated from Mary Washington College in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in international studies and furthered her education at Johns Hopkins Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.? ? Marion began her career working for various government offices in DC - from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Education. In late 2001, she became the chairman of the National Transportation Board (NTSB). Less than a month into her new role, Marion dealt with the technical investigation and public outcry surrounding the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. By the time she changed roles in 2002, she’d improved safety standards across the aviation industry, streamlined NTSB’s investigation process, and created international resources for safer airline travel.? ? In 2002, Marion was sworn in as the 15th FAA Administrator - the second woman to hold that position. As Administrator, she spearheaded the change from the old air traffic control system to a modern version, gracefully dealing with the public’s rage over delayed flight times as the system modernized. She oversaw more than 44,000 employees and a 14-billion-dollar budget.? ? When her term as Administrator ended in 2007, Marion became the CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, where she served for eight years. At the time, AIA represented 340 aerospace and defense contractors, and Maron ensured their voices made it to Congress.? ? Marion became CEO of Rolls-Royce North America in 2015 before retiring in 2018. As CEO, she led a major aerospace contractor and set targets for more female recruitment. She personally supported the company’s STEM education programs, especially those targeted at young girls. Throughout her career, she’s won numerous awards including the 2013 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, the Caroll B. Hallet Award, and WIA’s 2008 Leadership Award.

Today’s #TuesdayTrailblazer is Katherine Johnson, the trailblazing mathematician who allowed mankind to successfully enter space and reach the moon.? ? Born in 1918, Katherine solved complex equations while most children were still learning multiplication tables. She graduated from high school at 14 and attended West Virginia State University—an HBCU---where she studied mathematics and French. Her early career was spent as a math teacher in Virginia before she was selected as one of the first three Black graduate students at West Virginia University in 1939. ? In 1953, Katherine changed career paths and started working at the National Advisory Committee Aeronautics West Area Computing Unit where she manually solved complex equations. The program was still segregated, and she was one of the few Black women to work for NASA. Katherine’s early calculations set the groundwork for the U.S. space program. NACA became part of NASA in 1958, ending workplace segregation. ? Katherine joined NASA’s Space Task Group and coauthored a paper calculating how to put a spacecraft in orbit. The paper was the first time a woman---much less a Black woman---received credit for her calculations in a NASA report.? ? Not content to merely prove that humans could fly in space, Katherine ensured that they did. In 1961, her calculations charted the path for Freedom 7, the first crewed American spacecraft. In 1962, John Glenn refused to fly in space until Katherine checked the computer’s flight plan. When she verified the numbers, Glen became the first American to orbit Earth. In 1969, Katherine helped calculate the path for Apollo 11, sending mankind to the Moon for the first time. ? Katherine retired from NASA in 1986 after more than three decades of work on the space program. Her crucial contributions remained relatively unknown to the public until she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2015. The following year, NASA named the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility in her honor. Margot Lee Shetterly’s book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race publicized Katherine’s contribution, as did the 2016 film Hidden Figures. Kathrine passed away in 2020, leaving a legacy that helped mankind reach the stars.

For today’s #TuesdayTrailblazer, we celebrate Michelle Lucas, CEO and Founder of Higher Orbits, a foundation that inspires the next generation of aerospace pioneers. ? Michelle fell in love with aerospace as a young girl watching rockets launch. Her childhood dream was to be an astronaut, but a medical condition forced her to find a new path to do what she loved. She graduated from Purdue University and began her career working for the Johson Space Center. During her ten years at JSC, Michelle served on the Payload Safety Review Panel before working as a Flight Controller for International Space Station Mission Control. She attended Space Camp in 1989, 1991, and 1994---even choosing to serve as a counselor. In 2000, she earned her master’s in communication from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.? ? After a decade at Johson, Michelle trained astronauts for expeditionary and space shuttle flights to the International Space Station, helping others reach the stars since she was grounded on Earth. She also created a good percentage of the technical and basic instructional training for flight controllers---in the United States and abroad.? ? In 2015, Michelle founded Higher Orbit. The foundation works to encourage high school students to pursue careers in aerospace by funding research projects, leading summer programs, and distributing science kits. In 2021, Higher Orbit won a million-dollar grant, allowing Michelle to expand operations. Today, Higher Orbit has sent 17 experiments created by high schoolers to space, educated more than 1,500 students, and operates in 34 states.? ? Michelle earned many awards throughout her career. She was honored with the Pattie Grace Smith STEM Award, became an AIAA Associates Fellow in 2019, was named an Embry-Riddle Eagle Entrepreneur, and was inducted into Space Camp’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

Today is the deadline to register! Join us on November 7th for the final installment of WIA's 2024 Career Empowerment Series: The Complexity of Conflict and Change - Insights from Neuroscience with Susan Levin! Change is tough, and our brains are wired to resist it — often leading to conflict. Neuroscience sheds light on why we react the way we do and how quickly situations can escalate. In this session, you'll discover practical strategies for navigating challenging conversations and managing conflict when change feels overwhelming. Don’t miss out on this powerful session, part of Module 2: Navigating Challenging Conversations. Register now:

There's just 1 week left to register! Join us on November 7th for the final installment of WIA's 2024 Career Empowerment Series: The Complexity of Conflict and Change - Insights from Neuroscience with Susan Levin! Change is tough, and our brains are wired to resist it — often leading to conflict. Neuroscience sheds light on why we react the way we do and how quickly situations can escalate. In this session, you'll discover practical strategies for navigating challenging conversations and managing conflict when change feels overwhelming. Don’t miss out on this powerful session, part of Module 2: Navigating Challenging Conversations. Register now: https://lnkd.in/eGjdGWaV

For today's #TuesdayTrailblazer, we celebrate Brooke Owens, a dedicated member of the aerospace industry who continues to empower girls through the Brooke Owens Fellowship, even after her passing. Brooke was born in 1980 in a small mining town with less than 3,000 people. Growing up under an open sky, she decided from a young age to reach for the stars. In 2002, she graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott after attending on full scholarship. She started her career at the Johson Spaceflight Center before transferring to the FAA where she pioneered policy for commercial spaceflight. While earning her master's from the International Space University, she worked as an intern at X Prize Foundation where she was Director of Team Relations and Special Projects. Her role focused on bringing younger interns into the company and ensuring they had a strong foundation to start their careers. She transferred to the Office of Budget and Management as a Space Industry Analyst, ensuring continued funding for NASA and the FAA during the Obama Administration. In her spare time, she was a licensed pilot and volunteered with many charities supporting sick children. In 2016, Brooke lost her battle with breast cancer. She was 35 years old. Despite how her life was cut short, she continued to empower women in the aerospace industry. In 2017, three of her colleagues and friends founded the Brooke Owens Fellowship, a mentorship and internship program for undergraduate women interested in aerospace. Since 2017, nearly 400 women have gone through the program, and most decided to pursue careers in aerospace. Brooke’s legacy lives on in every woman who joins the field because of her efforts.

Attention Washington, DC Members! WIA is hosting NASA's Dr. Makenzie Lystrup & Dr. Wanda Peters for an in-person program on December 3rd, where they will discuss the current and upcoming missions NASA has in store. Registration is limited, so register now while spots are still available! https://lnkd.in/eaY_475D

Join us on November 7th for the final installment of WIA's 2024 Career Empowerment Series: The Complexity of Conflict and Change - Insights from Neuroscience with Susan Levin! Change is tough, and our brains are wired to resist it — often leading to conflict. Neuroscience sheds light on why we react the way we do and how quickly situations can escalate. In this session, you'll discover practical strategies for navigating challenging conversations and managing conflict when change feels overwhelming. Don’t miss out on this powerful session, part of Module 2: Navigating Challenging Conversations. Register now: https://lnkd.in/eGjdGWaV

For today’s #TuesdayTrailblazer, we honor Pattie Grace Smith for her tireless efforts to allow commercial spaceflight, setting foundational commercial spaceflight policy and encouraging innovation in the private sector. Pattie was born in 1947 in Tuskegee, Alabama to two first-generation college students who met on the famous airfield. Her grandparents had been railroad workers and tenant farmers, but Pattie would go on to be a trailblazing policymaker. As a high school student, Pattie was part of the movement to desegregate public schools. She was one of the plaintiffs in Lee vs. Macon County Board of Education in 1963 -- a landmark case that moved to require racial integration after Albama’s governor violated the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown. The Supreme Court sided with the plaintiff in Lee, forcing Alabama to integrate. After graduating high school a year early, Pattie continued to fight for equal rights. While in college at the Tuskegee Institute, she was a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which organized voter registration drives and peaceful protests across the state. After she started her career in public broadcasting (working at the same station as Oprah Winfrey), Pattie switched to working for the FCC, focusing on satellite communications. She later worked for the Defense Communications Agency and for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation as the Chief of Staff. The Office of Commerical Space Transporation shifted to the FAA in 1995, and Pattie went with it, becoming OCST’s first associate administrator. Over the next eleven years, Pattie set foundational commercial spaceflight policy and encouraged innovation in the private sector. Her office oversaw licensing, regulation, and promotion of the commercial spaceflight industry, and almost every decision she made defined the industry. Under her leadership, the private sector built the first inland spaceport, deployed the first private human spaceflight, and launched SpaceX’s privately developed rockets. The FAA became a global leader in private spaceflight policy because of her work. Though Pattie retired from the FAA in 2008, she remained influential in the aerospace industry. She chaired the NASA Advisory Council’s Commerical Committee and was vice chair of the National Academies Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. At the personal invitation of President Obama, she was also a member of the advisory board for the National Air and Space Museum. After Pattie passed away in 2016, several aerospace organizations created awards and scholarships in her name. The Pattie Grace Smith Fellowship bears her name and continues her work by encouraging community and mentorship for Black undergraduates planning to enter the aerospace field.

Join us on November 7th for our sixth and final webinar of WIA's 2024 Career Empowerment Series: Complexity of Conflict and Change - Lessons from Neuroscience with Susan Levin! This webinar is the third session of Module 2: Navigating Challenging Conversations. Humans are hardwired to resist change. Contrary to common belief, the human capacity for rational judgment is more limited than we might think, especially when it comes to dealing with change and the conflict that can result. Neuroscience can help explain why situations escalate so quickly and the negative consequences that may follow. In this webinar, you’ll learn how the brain dictates our behavior during change, particularly when it is unwelcome or unexpected. We’ll explore practical approaches to managing the conflict that can emerge from change. Register today: https://lnkd.in/eGjdGWaV