Captain Deborah Hecker currently serves as SR. MGR Flight Operations – Policy & Procedures for American Airlines. A graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in International Relations, she began her aviation career in 1994 flying freight out of a small Michigan airport. She then flew for Piedmont Airlines, before being hired by American Airlines in 1999. Deborah has flown the B737/757/767/777/A319/320/321 and as flight engineer on the B727 for American Airlines. She also completed training to become a certified American Airlines flight attendant on the B777-200, B757/767, B737, and MD80, becoming the first person in the history of American Airlines to be dual qualified as a pilot and flight attendant. In addition to pilot duties at American, she has been involved with numerous other assignments, including four years as Chief Pilot in PHL & DFW, manager in the Customer Experience department, project manager with the Flight team for the LUS/American merger, pilot recruitment, diversity & leadership strategies, and numerous military veteran events.
She has been an active member of Women in Aviation International since 1996 and currently serves on the Board of Directors as Vice Chair. She is a cofounder of the WAI Keep Flying Scholarship, Keep Flying International Scholarship, Keep Flying Extra Lift Scholarship, and assisted in founding the American Airlines Engineering, Maintenance, and Veteran’s Initiative Women in Aviation Scholarships.
Deborah resides in Murphy, Texas with her three sons.
Mark Searle joined IATA as Global Director, Safety in August 2019 from the UK CAA where he held the post of Head of Safety Strategy. In both posts, he is/was responsible for overseeing a strategy to mitigate aviation safety risks, by the identification and implementation of safety initiatives, delivered through safety improvement programs. Prior to this, Mark had flown for 20 years as an airline pilot, accumulating 12,000 hours, on commercial passenger aircraft. During this time, Mark was Chairman of BALPA representing the interests of pilots operating in the UK both at home, and through IFALPA, on the international stage.
Throughout her career, Andrea has been focused on helping companies create inclusive cultures that are open and welcoming for EVERYONE.
Andrea is a Nashville native who now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent the first 10 years of her career working in non-profit arts marketing and found joy in bringing more diverse audiences to theatres and symphonies.
She began working in tech in 2015 managing growth and product marketing for a startup and then landed a role at Tableau overseeing a multi-city product launch tour, government summits, and virtual events. After volunteering to manage of the company’s grassroots Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, Andrea moved into a full-time roll as Senior Manager of Inclusion at Tableau where she scaled employee engagement initiatives (such as Black History Month, Diwali, Eid, Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month, Lunar New Year and Pride), built strategies to increase hiring of talent from underrepresented groups, and led inclusive leadership trainings.
She joined Catalyst in June 2020 to oversee the portfolio for the U.S. Western Region of Catalyst Supporters and is now an invaluable a partner to each supporter on their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion journey.
Lisa B. Callahan is Vice President and General Manager of Commercial Civil Space at Lockheed Martin Space and has one of the coolest jobs in and out of this world! Whether it’s returning humans to the moon, gathering samples from asteroids, exploring the planets of our solar system or peering back in time with the Hubble telescope, Lisa leads the teams who are building and operating the spacecraft that are unlocking the riddles of our universe. In her role, she oversees the development of the next human lunar lander and development of the Orion spacecraft, part of the Artemis program, which will return humans to the Moon and eventually take them to Mars and beyond. Her team develops and operates the robotic spacecraft that are exploring and unlocking the secrets of the solar system and our planet, Earth. Lisa also oversees the development of the GOES weather satellites which are significantly improving the way that forecasters predict severe weather and fires across the western hemisphere. Chances are you or someone you know has benefitted from the forecasts enabled by these satellites. Lastly, her team connects people across the globe with satellite communication solutions.
Previously, Lisa has held additional leadership positions at Lockheed Martin including Vice President of Corporate Internal Audit, Vice President and General Manager of the Mission Systems & Training Undersea Systems line of business, Vice President of Maritime Ballistic Missile Defense Program, and Program Director for Simulation Training and Support business.
Lisa graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Currently, she is a member of the Engineering Advisory Boards at Univesity of Southern California and University of Colorado – Boulder. Lisa is married to Bob Callahan and they have two children, Carly and Ryan. In their free time they foster puppies with a local rescue and have found homes for more than 500 dogs.
Negar Feher is the VP of Business Development at MOMENTUS responsible for sales and marketing. Prior to joining Momentus she was the Director of Business development for Smallsats at Maxar (Previously SSL) where she was responsible for diversification strategy and sales to new market segments. At Maxar she introduced new products and services through establishing a new division offering test services that supported newspace space startups. Mrs. Feher holds a MS in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford University.
Lt Zoe Walters graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a B.S. in Systems Engineering. While at the Academy she took interest in innovation and design thinking. She was made aware of the innovation opportunities within the Air Force and decided to pursue those programs upon graduation.
She spent her first assignment at the Air Force Research Lab Space Vehicles Directorate as a program manager for the Space Technology Accelerator program. She ran design sprints, hackathons and technology accelerators to reach non-traditional companies with dual-use space technology. She is currently positioned within the AFVentures division of AFWERX and runs the SBIR Phase I Open Topic program. She is an expert in connecting military end users with relevant commercial technology through the use of rapid contract vehicles.
Clayton Turner is the Director of NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. He leads a diverse group of civil servant and contractor scientists, researchers, engineers and support staff, who work to make revolutionary improvements to aviation, expand understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, develop new technologies for space exploration, and contribute to NASA’s broader exploration mission.
Mr. Turner has served the agency for more than 30 years. He has held several roles at NASA Langley, including systems engineer, Chief Engineer, Engineering Director, Associate Center Director, and Deputy Center Director. After graduation from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 1990, Turner began his career with NASA serving as a design engineer with the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment project, where he spearheaded development of the laser aligning, bore-sight limit system.
Mr. Turner has received many prestigious awards such as the Presidential Rank Award, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, the Paul F. Holloway Non- Aerospace Technology Transfer Award, and RIT’s College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni award. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Jaret is the founder and CEO of Astrolab and has spent his 20-year career creating revolutionary space systems. He spent seven years at SpaceX as manager of the Dragon Spacecraft Mechanisms development team where he conceived of and led the development of the novel docking system that the Crew Dragon spacecraft uses to dock to the International Space Station. Prior to SpaceX, Jaret spent a decade in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Robotic Vehicles Group designing and operating robots for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Timothy Dominick is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and chairs the AIAA Public Policy Committee (PPC). Prior to serving as Chair, he spent three years as co-chair of the PPC Advocacy Working Group, one year as Chair of the PPC Space Subcommittee, two years as Vice-Chair of the PPC Space Subcommittee, and five years as a general member of the PPC. Mr. Dominick is also active in AIAA’s Regions and Sections. He served for 10 years as the AIAA Region One Deputy Director of Public Policy and has held positions of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Public Policy Chair, Young Professional Chair, Education Chair, and Honors and Awards Chair within the Award Winning AIAA Delaware Section. Mr. Dominick is the 2019 AIAA Engineer of the Year and was awarded the AIAA Sustained Service Award in 2018.
Outside of AIAA, Mr. Dominick is a Staff Engineer at Northrop Grumman Defense Systems in Elkton, MD. Mr. Dominick began working for Northrop Grumman in June of 2004 and has served as a leading expert on multiple programs in the areas of high-temperature materials and thermal analysis, including being the Lead Analyst for NASA’s Orion Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor. Previously, he was employed by Fiber Materials, Inc. in Biddeford, Maine as a developer of high-temperature composite materials as they apply to rocket nozzles and heatshields. Mr. Dominick earned a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1996. His other awards include the 2018 Northeastern Maryland Technology Council (NMTC) Visionary Award for Leadership, a nominee for the 2016 Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation (RNASA) Stellar Award, and the National Defense Service Medal with the United States Air Force.
Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.
José Enrique has been managing director of Boeing Research & Technology-Europe since April 2013. BR&T-Europe develops technology solutions in Avionics Model Based Systems Engineering to reduce development costs and risk by modernizing systems engineering processes and tools; Actuation Technology to reduce product manufacturingcosts; Automated Manufacturing to increase production rates and reduce cost of targeted composite components and support new suppliers; and Airline Decision-Support Services to provide superior insight and real-time advice to help airlines make smarter decisions during the day of operations.
Prior to being named managing director, José Enrique held the position of BR&T-E Engineering and Programs director since 2004. In this role he developed and implemented all processes and procedures related to BR&T-E technological planning; defining technical strategies, objectives, plans and policies and assuming managerial responsibility for the Engineering and Programs Unit.
Before joining BR&T-Europe, José Enrique was managing director of the General Foundation of the Spanish National University for Distance Education and associate professor of the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain. Prior to this, he was deputy-director general of CDTI, an agency of the Spanish Ministry of Economics, which promotes research and technological development in Spanish industry. At CDTI José Enrique was responsible for all technological co-operation activities carried out by CDTI internationally, including in the European Union. Before this, he worked in several companies in the aerospace sector.
José Enrique holds a master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Seville, Spain, and post-graduate diplomas in Management and Business Administration from Instituto de Directivos de Empresa and Organización y Desarrollo Empresarial in Madrid.
