Writer

Amy Laboda

This year's International Women in Aviation conference, hosted by the nonprofit organization Women in Aviation International (WAI), was attended by nearly 4,500 earlier this month in Long Beach, California. The organization also disbursed $875,000 in training and education scholarships to 156 WAI members during the three-day event.

 


There were more than 170 exhibitors and dozens of educational sessions, several of which were directed at women interested in careers in business aviation. Session topics included a full debriefing on WAI’s landmark sexual harassment in aviation careers survey. Main speakers opened the conference and headlined the luncheon, including women in executive management positions from The Boeing Company, SpaceX, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Smithsonian National Air &amp; Space Museum.

 


Two highlights of every conference are the induction of women into WAI’s Pioneer Hall of Fame and its Girls in Aviation Day. This year’s Pioneer inductees were Leanne Caret, executive vice president of Boeing; Mary Golda Ross, a Native American female engineer and one of the 40 founding engineers of the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works; and The U.S. Coast Guard’s first women aviators and aviation-related enlisted women. More than 250 girls and their chaperones participated in Girls in Aviation Day through collaboration with the Long Beach unified school district.

 


Next year’s conference is scheduled for March 5 to 7 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

30 Years of WAI: Making It Count

WAI conference hosts dozens of educational sessions, several of which were directed at women interested in careers in business aviation.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

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