Dr.
Peggy Chabrian
Dr. Chabrian is President and Founder of
Women in Aviation, International. The organization was incorporated in 1994 as
a result of the success of the annual International Women in Aviation
Conference begun in 1990. The conference began with 150 participants in 1990
and had grown to over 1,600 by 1997. WAI represents women from all segments of
the aviation industry including general, corporate, commercial and military.
A longtime aviation enthusiast and
professional aviation educator, Dr. Chabrian is a 2,000 hour
commercial/instrument multi-engine pilot and flight instructor who has been
flying for over 15 years. Most recently she added a helicopter rating to her
flight qualifications and has been an aircraft owner for many years.
Dr. Chabrian has held several top positions
in aviation education including Academic Dean and Associate Vice President of
Parks College; Dean of Academic Support for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's
Prescott, Arizona campus; Director of the Center of Excellence for
Aviation/Space Education at ERAU's Daytona Beach campus; and Department Chair
of the aviation department at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
The recipient of numerous aviation and
education awards, Dr. Chabrian has received the FAA Administrator's Award for
Excellence in Aviation Education and the Civic Award from the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Dr. Chabrian is active in numerous aviation
organizations and serves as a member of the board of the Experimental Aircraft
Association's Aviation Foundation, the academic board of the International
Civil Aviation University, the US Air and Trade Show board, and The 2003
Committee's board of directors. Dr. Chabrian is past president and board member
of the University Aviation Association.
An international speaker, Dr. Chabrian has
given numerous keynote and motivational presentations to hundreds of audiences.
She has also authored numerous articles and authored an aviation management
textbook.
Lt.
Col. Karen Fuller Brannen
Lt. Col. Karen Fuller Brannen made history on
October 17, 1997, when she became the U.S. Marine Corps first female strike
fighter pilot to earn "wings of gold."
Others might have been surprised, but not
Brannen. She says that if you'd asked her what she wanted to be when she grew
up she would have replied with, "fighter pilot." The disbelief of
others spurred her on.
In the spring of her fi nal year of college,
Congress passed laws that resulted in women being eligible to fly in the Marine
Corps. She applied for the Corps, passed the flight physical and went to
training camp.
She attended Officer Candidate School in the
summer of 1994, completing her studies as an honor graduate and receiving a
physical training award. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant that year.
In May 1996, after primary fl ight training, she was the first female Marine to
receive a jet training slot. She completed intermediate jet training at Naval
Air Station Meridian, in Meridian, Mississippi, fl ying the T-2C, and then went
on to fl y the TA-4J with Training Squadron 7. She was the top graduate in her
class, and was then selected to fl y the F/A-18 Hornet with a West Coast
squadron. From there, with the call sign Stump, she was assigned to Fleet
Replacement Squadron UMFAT-101 at El Toro, California, then subsequently Miramar,
California.
In 2001 then Capt. Tribbett deployed with
RMFA- 242 to Iwakuni, Japan. She earned her Air Combat Tactics Instructor
certifi cation at the end of that year. After a stint in Quantico, Virginia in
2002 attending Expeditionary Warfare School she was assigned as an active duty
officer to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 321 at Andrews Air Force Base. From
there Maj. Tribbett was assigned to VR-1, where she flew C-37Bs, transporting
the Secretary of the Navy, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and various
Congressmen.
Maj. Tribbett left active duty for a job as a
large cabin demonstration pilot for Gulfstream Aerospace in 2007. She remained
a Marine Corps Reserve Lieutenant Colonel serving as the Officer in Charge of
the Peacetime Wartime Support Team in Savannah, Georgia.
In 2010 she married Maj. Matt Brannen, a
judge advocate in the Marine Corps.
