Aviation for Women is the flagship member publication of Women in Aviation International. Articles feature women who have made aviation history, professional development ideas, and current-topic articles.
Issue link: https://afwdigital.epubxp.com/i/638688
2 7 T H A N N U A L I N T E R N A T I O N A L W O M E N I N A V I A T I O N C O N F E R E N C E Aviation forWomen 43 Michael Huerta FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta, WAI 51754, began his fve-year term as FAA administrator in January 2013. He is responsible for the safety and efciency of the larg- est aerospace system in the world. He oversees a $15.9 billion dollar budget, more than 47,000 employees, and is focused on ensuring the agency and its employees are the best prepared and trained professionals to meet the growing demands and re- quirements of the industry. Michael also oversees the FAA's mult-billion dollar NextGen air trafc con- trol modernizaton program as the United States shifs from ground-based radar to state-of-the-art satellite technology. He holds a bachelor's degree in politcal science from the University of California-Riverside and a master's in public afairs, with a concentraton in internatonal relatons from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and Internatonal Afairs at Princeton University. The Honorable Deborah Lee James Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Deborah Lee James, WAI 51256, is the 23rd Secretary of the Air Force and is responsible for the afairs of the Department of the Air Force, including the organizing, training, equipping, and providing for the welfare of its nearly 664,000 actve duty, Guard, Reserve, and civilian airmen and their families. She also oversees the Air Force's annual budget of more than $139 billion. Deborah has 30 years of senior homeland and natonal security experience in the federal govern- ment and the private sector. She earned a bachelor of arts in comparatve area studies from Duke Uni- versity and a master's degree in internatonal afairs from Columbia University School of Internatonal and Public Afairs. Rod Machado Flight Instructor, Professional Speaker Rod Machado, WAI 2471, is a professional speaker who travels across the United States and Europe delightng his listeners with upbeat and lively presentatons. A pilot since 1970, and an actve fight instruc- tor since 1973, Rod is also a Natonal Aviaton Safety Counselor. You might recognize Rod as the instructor on Microsof Flight Simulator, or as the author of sev- en aviaton books. He has more than 10,000 hours of fight experi- ence earned the hard way—one CFI hour at a tme. Since 1978, Rod has taught hundreds and hundreds of fight instructor revalidaton clinics and safety seminars across the United States and Europe. He was named the 1991 Western Region Flight Instruc- tor of the Year. You can read his monthly column, "License to Learn," in AOPA Pilot magazine as well as his monthly columns in Flight Training magazine. Dr. Rhea Seddon Physician, Astronaut, Entrepreneur, and Author A veteran of three space shutle fights, Dr. Rhea Seddon spent 19 years with NASA. In 1978 she was selected as one of the frst six women to enter the astronaut program. She served as a mission special- ist on fights in 1985 and 1991 and as payload com- mander in charge of all science actvites on her fnal fight in 1993. Her later two fights were Spacelab missions dedicated totally to life sciences research. They collected data on the adaptaton to zero- gravity by both men and women, and did the frst- ever rat dissectons in space. This brought her total tme in space to 30 days. Afer leaving NASA in 1997, Dr. Seddon was the assistant chief medical ofcer of the Vanderbilt Medical Group in Nashville for 11 years. There she led an initatve aimed at improving patent safety, quality of care, and team efectveness by the use of an aviaton-based model of crew resource manage- ment. She is a member of LifeWings Partners LLC and teaches this concept to healthcare insttutons across the United States. A winner of many prestgious awards, she has been inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Aviaton Hall of Fame, and the Tennes- see Women's Hall of Fame. Her memoir, Go for Orbit, was published in the summer of 2015. Doreen Welsh Flight Atendant When US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into New York's Hudson River in 2010, Doreen Welsh thought that her life was over. She had been working as a fight atendant for 38 years and says that she's had some interestng incidents in her career, but none like the experience that was to become known as the Miracle on the Hudson. There were 150 passengers, pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, co-pilot Jef Skiles, and three fight atendants, including 58-year-old Doreen, on board when the plane went down in the Hudson. Michael Huerta Deborah Lee James Rod Machado Dr. Rhea Seddon Doreen Welsh