People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2021

Jody Singer

Jody Singer is the director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Appointed in September 2018, Singer manages one of NASA’s largest field installations, with nearly 6,000 on- and near-site civil service and contractor employees and an annual budget of approximately $2.8 billion. Prior to being named to the position, Singer had served as Marshall acting director since July 2018 and was deputy director from February 2016 to July 2018, assisting the director with the daily management of the center’s workforce and operations.

During her 32-year NASA career, Singer has held leadership roles of increasing responsibility in human spaceflight, technology and science flight missions programs and projects and was appointed in 2002 to the Senior Executive Service, the personnel system covering top managerial positions in federal agencies. She began her NASA engineering career in 1985 through the professional intern program in the mission planning and development office.

In 1986, she joined the Space Shuttle Program office, where she was an engineer in the Space Shuttle Main Engine office. From 2002 to 2007, she served as the first female project manager for the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project and led the team during the Columbia Return to Flight activities. From 2010 through 2012, she held deputy positions for three concurrent major programs: the Space Shuttle, Ares, and the start-up of the Space Launch System (SLS).

Singer, a native of Hartselle, Alabama, earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama in 1983, and she is a 2017 Distinguished Engineering Fellow. She has completed two NASA Fellowships, and has been recognized with numerous awards during her NASA career.

Singer and her husband, Chris, live in Huntsville. They have three children and two grandchildren.

Eileen Drake

Eileen P. Drake is chief executive officer and president of Aerojet Rocketdyne, responsible for defining the company’s vision, guiding the strategic business plan, and building relationships with customers and stakeholders.

Ms. Drake joined Aerojet Rocketdyne in March 2015 as chief operating officer. She previously was with United Technologies Corporation (UTC), where she served as president of Pratt & Whitney AeroPower’s auxiliary power unit and small turbojet propulsion business. She also served as the vice president of Operations and vice president of Quality, Environmental, Health & Safety, and Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) for UTC’s Carrier Corporation, as well as for Pratt & Whitney.

Prior to joining UTC, Ms. Drake managed production operations at both the Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation, where she was Ford’s product line manager for steering systems and plant manager of Visteon’s fuel system operation.

During her military career, Ms. Drake served on active duty for seven years as a U.S. Army aviator and airfield commander of Davison Army Airfield in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Ms. Drake is a distinguished military graduate of the U.S. Army Aviation Officer School. She received a Master of Business Administration from Butler University and a Bachelor of Arts from The College of New Rochelle. She also received an honorary doctorate degree in Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Ms. Drake holds commercial and private pilot’s licenses in both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.

In February 2017 Ms. Drake was appointed to the board of Woodward, Inc. and also serves on the Audit Committee of the board. Woodward, Inc. is an independent designer, manufacturer and service provider of control system solutions and components for the aerospace and industrial markets.

Ms. Drake serves on the Board of Governors of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). In November 2018 she was elected as a member of AIA’s Executive Committee. AIA helps shape the American aerospace and defense industries’ future by advocating for polices and responsible budgets that keep our country strong, bolster our capacity to innovate, and spur our economic growth.

In January 2020 Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) selected Ms. Drake to serve on their National Board of Directors. The 2.5 million member GSUSA is the nation’s preeminent leadership development organization for girls, with programs coast to coast and across the globe.

Ms. Drake also serves on the National Space Council’s Users’ Advisory Group (UAG). Chaired by Admiral James Ellis, Jr., USN, Retired, the UAG is a federal advisory committee that advises the National Space Council onU.S.nationalspacepolicyandapproachestostrengthenU.S.leadershipinspace. Ms.Drakestartedserving a two-year appointment in June 2020.

Thomas Irvine

TBI Aerospace Consulting LLC is a single-member LLC providing engineering consulting services to the aerospace and mobility industries. Thomas B. (Tom) Irvine is an aerospace engineer with 35+ years of experience working in the aviation and space industry. Skilled in Engineering Management, Systems Engineering, Project Management, and Aeronautics Systems Analysis. After a 32 year career with the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, the last 7 of which Mr. Irvine served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Research, he can also bring strong proposal writing and evaluation, and technical writing skills to bear on your responses to government requests for proposals. Mr. Irvine spent 4 years, from 2014 to 2018 as the Managing Director for Content Development at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) where he developed product-based content for, and on behalf of, the 30,000 aerospace engineering member professionals in order for them to stay current with emerging technical and societal trends that are affecting the profession. He has an extensive network of professional colleagues from across the entirety of the aerospace industry upon whom he can call for advice and counsel.

Arne Stoschek

Arne is the Project Executive of Wayfinder, a project with the goal of building autonomous flight and machine learning solutions to enable self-piloted aircraft operation. Arne is passionate about robotics and autonomous vehicles. He has previously held engineering leadership positions at global companies such as Volkswagen/Audi and Infineon, and at aspiring Silicon Valley startups, namely Lucid Motors/Atieva, Knightscope, and Better Place.

Arne earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, and held a computer vision and data analysis research position at Stanford University.