WAI Wraps Up 2019 Conference

More than 4,500 people attended Women in Aviation Internationals (WAI) 30th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference last week. Southwest Airlines captain and former F/A-18 Hornet pilot Tammi Jo Shults, SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell and tactical mission lead on the Mars Curiosity Rover at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory Nagin Cox were among the conferences keynote speakers.

More than 4,500 people attended Women in Aviation International's (WAI) 30th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference last week. Southwest Airlines captain and former F/A-18 Hornet pilot Tammi Jo Shults, SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell and tactical mission lead on the Mars Curiosity Rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Nagin Cox were among the conference's keynote speakers. Representatives from 33 countries were present and the exhibit hall hosted 170 separate companies and organizations at the three-day event, which took place in Long Beach, California.

In addition to educational sessions, workshops and Girls in Aviation Day, the conference saw new inductions into WAI's International Pioneer Hall of Fame. This year's inductees included Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing's Defense, Space and Security unit; Mary Golda Ross, the first known Native American female engineer, first female engineer at Lockheed and one of the 40 founding engineers of company's Skunk Works; and the U.S. Coast Guard's First Women Aviators and Aviation-Related Enlisted Women, a group of three officers and six enlisted women who "opened the door for future generations of women to pursue their military aviation dreams."

156 scholarships totaling $875,065 were also distributed at the conference to WAI members for academic use, lifestyle enhancement and flight training. The 2019 scholarships put the total money awarded since 1995 at more than $12 million. Next year's conference will be held March 5-7, 2020, at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.