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.
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.
Michele Miller is the vice president of Enterprise Assurance for Ball Aerospace. In this role, Miller provides impactful leadership that guides the application of enterprise security, mission-system assurance, requirements trades, mission risk identification and analysis, and process application that drives mission success across the company’s
program portfolio.
Miller has held several roles during her time at Ball Aerospace, including bsenior director for the tactical systems engineering team. In this role, she was responsible for leading an organization of technical experts providing best-value execution on development and production bprograms that apply radio-frequency and electro-optical technologies to the nation’s defense needs in C4ISR, precision strike, air dominance and electronic warfare. Previously, Miller led the missions and systems engineering team, an organization tasked with facilitating customer fulfillment and delivering best-value execution by providing multifaceted systems engineering, test and technical expertise across a multitude of defense, scientific and tactical missions and platforms.
Working for various government contractors, Miller’s career has focused on supporting the Department of Defense. Prior to joining Ball Aerospace, Miller was a director in the missile defense systems operating unit at Northrop Grumman, where she was responsible for strategic leadership and all business metrics over a portfolio of
programs.
Miller is a STEM advocate and industry leader. She founded Ball Sisters, a mentorship program between Ball and university students. She is also very active with the University of Colorado’s STEM initiatives in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Miller holds a leadership role on the Ball Women’s Network and co-leads the Veteran’s Network. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Ralston House, an organization providing a safe space and resources for child survivors of abuse. She was named an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Associate Fellow. Miller received a B.S. and M.S. degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Eric Spero is an aerospace engineer with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL). As a systems engineering and integration lead, he is responsible for providing live and virtual air and ground autonomous robotic systems in support of research experimentation. He has over 20 years of industry and government experience in aerospace and defense, including research, design, engineering, development, test, and project management of complex aerospace systems. Mr. Spero holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Colorado State University and an M.S. in aerospace engineering, with a concentration in system design and optimization, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Dr. Zohaib Mian is the Head of Systems Engineering and a Technical Program Manager at Loon (an Alphabet company). Dr. Mian’s recognized expertise lies in system-of-systems architectural design of advanced aircraft, autonomous systems, airspace traffic management, machine intelligence, and multi-disciplinary stochastic design methodologies. Previously, Dr. Mian was a senior autonomous systems architect at Bosch, spearheading systems design efforts for the joint Bosch-Mercedes autonomous vehicles project. Prior to that, Dr. Mian was a staff research engineer and technical project lead for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems and Human Centered Robotics initiatives at United Technologies Research Center, where he led research into collaborative autonomy, mission/path-planning, GPS-denied navigation, and development of advanced and intelligent robotic platforms. Dr. Mian was also the principal architect and manager for UTRC’s autonomy experimentation and test laboratories. He also designed the purpose-built advanced autonomy and flight-testing lab at UTRC. Dr. Mian has also led the research as co-PI on Army Research Laboratory – Vehicle Technology Directorate’s Micro Autonomous Systems and Technologies (MAST) project at Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL), Georgia Tech.
Dr. Mian received a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering, with a minor in Manufacturing Engineering, from Middle East Technical University in Turkey, and M.S. and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech. Dr. Mian is an active private pilot, an avid mixed martial artist, and enjoys designing, building, and racing cars.
Dr. David S. Stargel is the Deputy Chief Scientist of the 711th Human Performance Wing of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Dr. Stargel is the primary science and technology advisors to the Chief Scientist and the wing leadership. In this position he provides technical vision and strategy for the wing’s science and technology plans. The Wing is comprised of over 2000 personnel spread over 8 operating locations with an annual budget in excess of $300M.
Prior to his current duties, Dr. Stargel served as the branch chief for the Engineering and Information Sciences Branch in the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Arlington, Va. He was also the program officer for the Multi-Scale Structural Mechanics Portfolio. The office has a staff of 200 people and an annual working budget of $400 million that supports more than 5,000 worldwide basic research projects critical to the defense of the U.S. The office selects, sponsors, and manages research relevant to Air Force needs in science and technology, and is the single manager for the entire Air Force basic research program. As a program manager for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Dr. Stargel is responsible for managing and organizing fundamental research in the structural mechanics field for the United States Air Force.
Dr. Stargel graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Florida A&M University in 1993. Upon graduation, he was selected for the USAF Palace Knight program and began his career with the United States Air Force in September of 1993. Dr. Stargel earned a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park in 2005.
Education
- 1993 Bachelor of science, Civil Engineering, Florida A&M University
- 1996 Master of science, Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland College Park
- 2005 Doctor of philosophy, Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland College Park
Ram Ramachandran is a Tech Fellow at the Propulsion Fluids & Design, Jacobs Space Exploration Group at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Mr. Ramachandran is a resourceful and high energy engineering, technology, and science lead with over 25 years of expertise in space-related endeavors. He is an AIAA Fellow, Jacobs Apogee Award winner, and Chair Emeritus and member of the AIAA Space Colonization Technical Committee. Mr. Ramachandran is part of the AIAA Space Exploration Integration Committee and has over 150 technical publications.
Bruce is a five-decade veteran of aviation operations, research and development, aircraft development, and disruptive innovation in his field. His background includes industry and government roles in research, operations, and executive leadership, working at NASA, in the commercial on-demand air carrier world, with aviation software startups, on the U.S. NextGen founding team, and most recently on an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air vehicle. In addition to his role as CTO for Alaka’i Technologies launching the first hydrogen fuel-cell- powered electric air mobility vehicle, he is a senior advisor to SmartSky Networks, supporting the launch of a unique WiFi Air-to-Ground aviation connectivity solution and an apps development platform, contributing to the Internet of Things that Fly. He serves on special groups for the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the FAA Administrator’s Research, Engineering, and Development Advisory Committee – NAS Operations Subcommittee (REDAC), as well as on corporate Boards. He has published over one hundred technical papers, received ten patents in aeronautics, been honored with numerous NASA medals and professional society awards, including the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, recognizing 50 years of safe flying. He is a Fellow of the AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Establishment. He is an active pilot and thrilled owner of an ICON A5 amphibian aircraft.
Dr. Çınar received her Ph.D. degree in the area of electrified aircraft from the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. She works at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) at Georgia Tech as a research engineer focusing on electrified aircraft architectures, design and system integration. During her years 8 at ASDL, she has been contributing to various projects on next generation technologies and electrified aircraft studies sponsored by several entities including NASA, Boeing and AFRL.
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.
