2023 Keynote Speakers
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Friday General Session |
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Dr. Michelle Parker is vice president for the Space Missions Systems organization within Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS). She is responsible for program execution, strategic direction, and profit and loss for a portfolio that includes government and commercial satellites, space systems architecture, national security space programs, ground systems, and subsidiaries Millennium Space Systems and Spectrolab. |
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Col. Merryl Tengesdal, USAF (Ret.) is the first and only Black woman to pilot the Lockheed U-2S Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft, considered one of the most difficult aircraft in the world to fly. She is one of only 10 women of the 1,100 pilots to fly the aircraft in its 67-year history of service, and one of the few Black female pilots to earn the rank of O6 in the U.S. military. |
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Dr. Susan Ying is senior vice president of global operations for Ampaire. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, Ampaire is pursuing fundamental research and development on hybrid-electric aircraft. Ampaire’s ECO Caravan, a nine-seat regional aircraft, successfully made its first flight on November 18, 2022, on a fully-integrated hybrid-electric propulsion system with plans to be enter commercial service in 2024. |
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Dr. Candace Givens is Northrop Grumman's vice president of the Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) and Geospatial Systems (OGS) business unit. She leads a talented team that partners with customers to deliver highly capable, resilient, and defendable systems for the warfighter. Candace has more than 25 years of industry experience and has held numerous leadership positions across program and functional management. She has successfully led multi-disciplined engineering teams and managed complex, technical and mission critical programs across the defense sector. |
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Saturday General Session
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Maya Ghazal fled war in her home country of Syria in 2015, and started a new life in the United Kingdom. She is currently a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. Overcoming many challenges, Maya recently graduated university in London with a degree in Aviation Engineering and is now a research engineer at the UK's Manufacturing Technology Centre. In 2019, Maya fulfilled her dream of becoming the first female Syrian refugee pilot. |
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Sherrexcia “Rexy” Rolle is vice president of operations and general counsel for Western Air, the largest privately owned airline in the Bahamas. Rexy’s parents, Rex and Shandrice Rolle, founded the airline in 2001. | |
| Huy Kim Tran is the director of aeronautics at the NASA Ames Research Center providing technical and management oversight of air traffic management, airspace simulation and operations, autonomous systems, computational fluid dynamics analysis, vertical flight vehicle technology, experimental fluid mechanics, and wind tunnel operations research disciplines. Huy manages an over $200-million annual budget and more than 500 civil servants and contractor staff, along with 10 aeronautics projects. |  |
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Paige Stanton Wilson is chief operating officer of Acubed by Airbus. She is responsible for directing and overseeing the center’s operational activities to ensure speed of execution and continued growth. A fervent believer in the power of flight as a means to inspire people to great heights, she is dedicated to helping Airbus’ research and innovation efforts make an impact. Prior to joining Acubed, she clocked up over a decade of experience within Airbus and its divisions in France, and worked her way through Europe, Africa and the US. Paige holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Wooster and a Master of Arts degree from Kent State University. She is a certified Pilates instructor and on her way to becoming a certified yoga instructor. | |