People Category: AIAA AVIATION Forum 2022

Alan Young was named Vice President, Fabrication and Chief Procurement Officer in July 2020. In addition to leading the Fabrication organization, driving productivity improvement, and setting the strategic direction he also leads Spirit’s global supply chain organization. The combination of these roles ensures the most efficient and cost effective Make/Buy decisions. In 2022, the Tooling and Facilities organizations were incorporated to Alan’s global team.

Most recently he served as Vice President, Fabrication. In this role, his responsibilities were to lead the Fabrication organization, drive productivity improvement, execute on rate increases, and set the strategic direction for Spirit’s Fabrication business.

Prior to working in Fabrication, Young served as the Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in November 2013. In this role, he was responsible for Spirit’s Global Supply Chain Management organization.

Before joining Spirit AeroSystems, Young held a number of positions with Bombardier Aerospace and Vought Aircraft, beginning in 1988.

In 2014, he led Bombardier-Learjet Operations as Vice President responsible for the build, delivery, and customer management of all Learjet models. He also served as the General Manager  of Operations for the Bombardier-Learjet 85, with responsibility for production, methods engineering, quality and procurement.

Young holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and master’s degree in manufacturing management from the University of Ulster in Belfast. He also holds a Certificate in Production and Inventory Management and is a Six Sigma certified Green Belt.

Ben Proler is a native of Houston, Texas and joined Shell Oil Company in 2013.

He currently serves as the Enterprise Sustainability Manager for Shell Aviation. Ben has previously optimized a comprehensive portfolio of physical commodity products for Shell. These products include motor gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and natural gas.

Ben’s responsibilities today encompass all phases of Shell’s sustainable jet fuel efforts. As the Enterprise Sustainability Manager for Shell Aviation in the Americas, he leads the organization’s commercial strategy and contract negotiation with commercial airlines and corporations for sustainable aviation fuel. Additionally, Ben works with aviation related enterprises in additional decarbonization partnerships. These pathways include hydrogen, direct air capture (DAC), carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), and renewable power.

Ben’s greatest passions are family, public service, and volunteerism. He is the national chairman for Maverick PAC and serves on the board of Congregation Emanu El, the American Jewish Committee, and the Houston Clean City Commission. He is also a term member on the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations.

In 2017, he was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Today, he is a company commander of a U.S. Reserve Cargo Handling Unit (NCHB13).

He holds a B.A. in Marketing from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Jessica R. Jones is a staff aeroelastician based in the Manassas, VA headquarters of Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company. Jessica earned her B.S in Aerospace Engineering in 2011 from the University of Maryland, and her M.S and PhD in 2017 from the University of Michigan, specializing in aeroelasticity of very flexible aircraft. She joined the Aurora Flight Physics team in August 2017, and she has worked on a wide range of Aurora fixed-wing and eVTOL programs including Odysseus, Orion, Cora X by Wisk, and CRANE.  She is currently a Flight Physics Integrated Product Team Lead, leading teams responsible for aerodynamic analysis, handling qualities, weight and performance estimates, ground and flight loads, and aeroelastic stability.

Nayanapriya Bohidar is a research engineer and manager of the Propulsion engineering team at Aurora Flight Sciences. Joining Aurora Flight Sciences in 2018, she provides functional and technical leadership to the Propulsion team while also supporting technical program roles. Nayan has been a technical contributor on several advanced development programs, including the Boeing TTBW, DARPA CRANE X-plane, NASA EAP and EPFD programs, Boeing PAV, NASA D8, and FARA. She participates in the shaping and capturing of programs during proposal phases.

Nayan’s expertise includes technical and programmatic Leadership, Value proposition, Systems engineering, Conceptual design trades, Rotor development and testing, Fan-blade design, Path to Certification development, Vendor relations, and Ground operations. She is leading multiple research projects related to powertrain architecture optimization, including hybrid electric. Her functional responsibilities include managing team utilization and staffing demand, indirect budgets, supporting growth, executing skill training, hiring/recruiting and improving best practices across the organization. Most recently, she is focused on technology roadmapping through strategic engineering, systems thinking, technical leadership and multidisciplinary design optimization.

Prior to joining Aurora, Nayan has nine years’ experience from Rockwell Collins and Honeywell in R&D and New Product Development teams. Nayan holds an M.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University and a B.S. in Honors Physics from Delhi University. She has been active in AIAA Forums and Conferences since 2017.

Katelyn (Kate) Gunderson is a mechanical and aerospace engineer currently attending the National Test Pilot School in Mojave, CA through a flight test engineering fellowship. To pursue this opportunity, Kate left her dream job at NASA’s Johnson Space Center where she worked as an engineer and NASA’s youngest Flight Science Officer aircrew member, supporting various astronaut training activities and airborne science missions flown all over the world. Kate holds a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) and a Master’s in aerospace engineering specializing in structures from Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA). During college, Kate completed several internships/co-ops which she highly encourages all students to participate in, believing they are the key to scoring her dream job so early on.

Her work assignments included several with GE Aviation and NASA’s Johnson Space Center as well as an internship with the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Kate was born and raised in West Fargo, North Dakota. Although proud of her hometown, Kate always had a nagging feeling that there was more for her somewhere else. She talked early-on (starting in second grade) and often about her desire to become an astronaut one day. Although many of her classmates were critical, she has never given up on her dream. Outside of engineering Kate is a fitness enthusiast and Boston Qualifying marathon runner. She also has a passion for increasing female participation in engineering and authors a blog aimed at empowering women to confidently thrive in STEM fields. (www.KatelynGunderson.com; Instagram: @theplanekate)