Dr. Vicki S. Johnson retired from Spirit AeroSystems where she was an Advanced Research and Development Engineer in Advanced Manufacturing Strategies. Prior to that she was Lead Engineer for Portfolio Management in Research and Development at Spirit.
Dr. Johnson started her career as a Cooperative Engineering Student in the Advanced Vehicles Division (aircraft) at NASA-Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Vicki worked in government, private non-profits, academia, and industry over her 42-year career. Technology development, management of technology, predictions of the effect of technologies, conceptual aircraft design, and the development of conceptual aircraft design tools are of particular interest to Dr. Johnson.
Vicki was a member of Civil Air Patrol during junior high and high school. She learned to fly, soloing on her 16th birthday (after flunking her driver's test!) and was awarded a private pilot's license a year and a half later. Her love of math, like of science, and love of airplanes led to a career in aerospace engineering.
In her spare time, Vicki enjoys reading, serving as a leader in volunteer organizations, church, skeet shooting, and now traveling in a diesel-pusher RV with her cat BC.