Excluding eighteen months at Rockwell International, the bulk of Dr. Wanda M. Austin’s career as an aerospace engineer was spent at the Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit organization that continues to assist and contribute to national space programs. She served as a member of the Corporation’s technical staff until 1996, as general manager of multiple different divisions until 1999, as senior vice president of the Engineering and Technology group until 2004, and as senior vice president of the national system group until 2008.
On New Year’s Day, 2008, Austin was named CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, and was both the first woman and the first African-American to hold the position. In 2015, President Obama appointed her to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Austin retired from the Aerospace Corporation in 2016, but continues to serve on the board of directors at the Space Foundation, a similar nonprofit.
More on Austin:
NASA
The History Makers