President's Message

We sometimes wait for permission to get unstuck ourselves. As many of you know, I recently left a job and company I love to take on what I saw as a tremendous opportunity. When they found out about my decision, many friends and family members were in disbelief. They were shocked I would walk away after 28 years to start anew in the passenger world, and relocate to a different city and state away from my sons and daughter-in-law and many of my dearest friends. I know to many it looked a bit arbitrary, but the truth is, I’d been stuck for some time. The discomfort of continued inertia had become harder to contemplate than jumping off into the unknown. It didn’t have anything to do with my former team, which included the best team I’ve ever had among all the amazing teams I’ve had the privilege to lead. For me, it had to do with not growing personally and professionally. 

Interestingly, in my last few weeks before departure, I had dozens of my friends and colleagues tell me how proud they were of me. A few even said they were envious of my decision and opportunity. Nearly everyone was incredibly kind and supportive. I’ve been at my new company for three weeks now. I leave nearly every day feeling tremendous joy about what's ahead and the extraordinary chance I have to influence the future. However, I don’t think my decision took courage as some have said. It mostly involved tenacity and grace. Tenacity has been important to fight through the goodbyes, moving, and learning about my new city and company. Grace comes in when I falter and feel overwhelmed. 

Most of you have fought through tough challenges and changes. Several of our IAWA members and Board members have changed jobs in the last year and many more are poised for opportunity. Knowing and leveraging your special talents will move you forward, even if you can’t see it in the short term. And remember, whatever you do, own your decisions and don’t ever apologize for who you are. We must all bring our best selves to every part of our lives so our companies, family, and friends can benefit from what makes us unique. That’s also how aviation will continue a healthy recovery - by leveraging the diversity of experience, talent, and thought available through our people. 

During my transition, several mentees reached out to me and asked how they should think about their future opportunities. My advice to all of them was the same: among all your choices, find the thing that scares you the most. Go do that. You’ll never regret it. I am proud to say, the entire IAWA team reflects the grit, passion, and spark that has made us more successful in the last year than anyone could’ve expected.  Together, we’ve demonstrated how to get unstuck. 

Sincerely,

Bobbi

33rd Annual IAWA Conference

Latest News

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Kathleen M. Guilfoyle Appointed as President-Elect

Call to Action for Members and Advocates

In a more connected world, it has become more critical than ever to have a robust network we can all reach out to. With IAWA, and through our core values to Connect, Inspire, and Lead, our members are given an opportunity to grow and nurture their professional network. Our ability to cultivate and advance women leaders in the aviation and aerospace industries gets stronger with every new member, and more meaningful as we grow both globally and in all specialties of the industry. This is why we would like to ask for your assistance with expanding our membership.

Accomplishing this can be done through three simple steps:

1. Engage your current personal network. Educate them on IAWA and the good work done by the organization. Gauge their interest, and invite them to consider joining.
2. Share your knowledge of how to best reach professional women in your region. What types of communication resonate the best? Which social media channels work best? You can share this knowledge with IAWA’s regional Vice Presidents.
   • Selda Konukcu, Asia and Middle East Regional VP
   • Marita Lintener, VP of Africa and Europe 
   • Sheila Remes, VP of Americas
3. Show and share your pride in being a part of the IAWA community. Include the fact that your are a member or supporter in the Affiliations section of your CV/Resume.

Let’s continue IAWA’s important work together, always aspiring to Connect, Inspire, and Lead!

New Members Types Extend New Opportunities to Women in the Industry

Since 1988 when IAWA was established, it has successfully served as a premier membership organization for professional women in the aviation and aerospace industry. Membership status requires a minimum of five years of experience in management-level, executive-level or an equivalent senior leadership level to join. Throughout the past 33 years, IAWA's network grew globally to include an impressive representation of women who met these requirements. It is said with no hesitation that the power of IAWA's core values to Lead, Connect and Inspire has attracted the attention of those who don't meet these requirements. In fact, IAWA engages women at all levels of their professional excellence in the industry, including students. In essence this wider representation in those who engage with IAWA has reflected recent changes to IAWA's requirements to join as a member. 

Today, IAWA membership is now open to students currently enrolled in university or program pursuing a degree or certificate in or related to, aerospace and aviation, as well as to professionals working in aerospace and aviation for whom it has been less than ten years since earning a university degree or program certificate. We kindly ask that you share this news with your personal network inviting women who fall into either of these two categories who would benefit from IAWA membership. 

New Members

During the first quarter of 2021, IAWA welcomed many fantastic women as new members of IAWA. Additionally, IAWA also welcomed 5 Apprentice Members and 3 Scholar Members to its membership. The Apprentice and Scholar member types are new membership levels, offering the opportunity to more women in the aviation and aerospace industries to partake in our activities, events, and benefits. Widening our membership categories was a decision that was made by the IAWA Board at the end of 2020 and developed by the members of the IAWA Membership Committee.

Please join us in welcoming our new IAWA Members by visiting the New Member webpage. Learn more about each of our new members by clicking on their name or photo.

New Advocates

IAWA offers an opportunity for men to participate as an Advocate. An Advocate is a man, or a person who identifies as male, who otherwise meets the requirements of membership in any other category. An Advocate is not a member, but will support, promote, back, encourage and sponsor IAWA. The Advocate fee is directed to IAWA’s scholarship programs.

To become an Advocate, start your application here. 

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