Ms. Margaret Gilligan
Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety
Peggy Gilligan became Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety on January 5, 2009 after serving as the Deputy Associate Administrator in that organization for
14 years. She has been in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since 1980.
As Associate Administrator, Ms. Gilligan leads the organization responsible for
setting, overseeing, and enforcing safety standards for all parts of the aviation
industry – airlines, manufacturers, repair stations, pilots, mechanics, air traffic
controllers, flight attendants, and any person or product that operates in aviation.
These programs have a direct impact on every facet of domestic and international civil aviation safety.
Aviation Safety programs are carried out by a work force of more than 7,000
employees located in Washington headquarters, regional and directorate offices,
and more than 125 field offices throughout the world. The organization's annual
budget is more than $1 billion.
Since 2001, Ms. Gilligan has served as the government co-chair of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team – a joint industry/government group committed to improving aviation safety by reducing the risk of accidents. The fatal accident rate in US commercial aviation dropped by 65% from 1997 to 2007 – in part due to the work of this team.
Ms. Gilligan was Chief of Staff at the FAA, serving four Administrators. She also served in the Chief Counsel's office in Washington and as a staff attorney in FAA's Eastern Region in New York. Ms. Gilligan is a 1979 graduate of Boston University School of Law and a 1975 graduate of Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY. She resides in Washington, DC.
Vice Admiral David Architzel (Invited)
Commander, Naval Air Systems Command
Vice Admiral Architzel currently serves as commander, Naval Air Systems
Command, headquartered in Patuxent River, MD. He assumed his duties in May
2010, after serving as the principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of
the Navy (Research, Development, and Acquisition).
Previous flag assignments included program executive officer for Aircraft Carriers; commander of Operational Test and Evaluation Force, Norfolk; commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic; commander, Naval Safety Center, Norfolk; commander, Iceland Defense Force; and commander, Fleet Air Keflavik.
At sea, Architzel served as the executive officer, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
(CVN 69) and Pre-Commissioning Unit John C. Stennis (CVN 74). He served as
the commanding officer, USS Guam (LPH 9); flagship for commander Amphibious Squadron (CPR) 2; and the sixth commanding officer of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).
A career naval aviator, Architzel has accumulated more than 5,000 flight hours,
4,300 of those hours in the S-3, and the remainder in some 30 other aircraft types in his role as a test pilot at NAS Patuxent River. He served in Sea Control Squadron (VS) 30, deploying aboard USS Forrestal (CV 59), and as maintenance officer in VS-28, deploying aboard USS Independence (CV 62). He later returned to VS-30 as the executive officer and subsequently as commanding officer.
Architzel was born in Ogdensburg, NY, and raised in Merrick, Long Island. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1973 and also holds a Master of Science degree in aeronautical systems from the University of West Florida. He enjoys major league baseball, model trains and is a really average golfer.
His decorations include two Navy Distinguished Service Medals, the Defense Superior Service Medal, four Legions of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal and various service related awards and campaign ribbons. He was also awarded the Spanish Naval Cross of Merit from His Majesty, King Juan Carlos of Spain, the Navy League's John Paul Jones Leadership Award for 1998, and the Commander's Cross with Star of the
Icelandic Order of the Falcon presented by the president of Iceland.
Mr. Jon N. Cowart
NASA Partner Manager working with SpaceX
Kennedy Space Center
Commercial Crew Program
Jon N. Cowart was born on Dec. 16, 1958, in Mobile, AL. He lived all over the Southeast but finally settled in the Atlanta area. After graduation from Tucker High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He graduated from Georgia Tech in 1983 with a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and an Air Force commission.
2nd Lt. Cowart was assigned to the 6595th Shuttle Test Group at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, where he worked as a solid rocket booster (SRB) mechanical systems and handling engineer for his first two years. He was in charge of the first-ever stack of SRBs at Vandenberg and was then promoted to orbiter mechanical systems engineer. He received the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal for his work in the shuttle program. In 1987, Cowart became a staff officer to Maj. Gen. Donald Cromer, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Test Organization. He resigned his commission as a captain in 1987 to join NASA.
Upon coming to Kennedy Space Center, Cowart became a project engineer on the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis. His primary duty was to oversee daily testing and preparations for flight of Atlantis. In 1993, Cowart was one of 50 people chosen from throughout NASA to participate in the Space Station Redesign and received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for that effort. Cowart then became the chief engineer at Kennedy responsible for the orbiter's docking system, which is used to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir and the International Space Station.
In August 1995, Cowart was selected to go to Washington, D.C., and work on special projects for the chief engineer of NASA including next generation spacesuits and launch vehicle reliability.
Upon his return from Washington, Cowart was named chief engineer for shuttle Discovery. In May 1996, Cowart left the shuttle program to be the space station assembly flight 3A mission manager. In July 1997, he was named as the space station assembly flight 2A mission manager. Flight 2A comprised the Unity connecting module and two pressurized mating adapters, and was the first U.S.-launched component of the International Space Station. These components were launched on space shuttle mission STS-88 on Dec. 4, 1998. Unity's on-orbit activation was virtually flawless and now, along with the Russian FGB named "Zarya" and the Russian Service Module named "Zvesda," form the cornerstone of the International Space Station (ISS).
Cowart next was appointed as the mission manager for the U.S. Laboratory Module, named Destiny, and the airlock. As the mission manager, Cowart was responsible for all of the acceptance testing, outfitting, testing and final preparation for flight of these two elements of the station launched on separate Shuttle missions in 2001.
After the successful on-orbit activation of the U.S. Lab, in 2001 Cowart became the manager of the Orbiter Sustaining Engineering Office at Kennedy, representing the Orbiter Project Office located at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. The office was responsible for all design engineering problems and changes encountered and implemented at Kennedy. During the recovery and investigation of the shuttle Columbia after its tragic re-entry on February 1, 2003, Jon was the NASA engineering leader of the Columbia Reconstruction Team.
In 2007, Jon joined the Constellation Program and became the senior project manager responsible for all modifications to the launch pad, Vehicle Assembly Building, and mobile launch platform for the Ares I-X flight test. In December 2008, he was chosen as the Deputy Mission Manager for Ares I-X under Bob Ess. As part of the Ares I-X Mission Management Office, he was responsible for the entire Ares I-X flight test mission that launched successfully on October 28, 2009.
With the cancellation of the Constellation Program, Jon switched over to the Commercial Crew Program. The Commercial Crew Program is responsible for nurturing private industry to be able to provide safe, reliable transportation to and from the International Space Station with the further goal of nurturing the young private space flight industry to be able to provide safe, low-cost transportation to and from space for civilians.
Mr. Jerry Young
Director, Materials & Fabrication Technology
Boeing Research & Technology
Jerry leads the Materials and Fabrication Technology Organization for Boeing Research & Technology. This team of 600 engineers and scientists is developing next generation materials and manufacturing processes for Boeing products.
Prior to his current role, Jerry was the Director of Materials and Structures Technology, where he led Boeing's long-term R&D for materials, structural concepts and analysis tools. In previous leadership roles, Jerry led the enterprise-wide tool and process development programs for Structural Analysis and Vehicle Loads and led Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter technology programs for affordable titanium product forms. In technical roles, he specialized in advanced computational methods for design and process development. He has worked on defense and commercial programs including B2, 777, F22, JSF and prototypes.
He holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School. He also holds four patents and has authored a number of technical papers.
Dr. Theresa Kraus
FAA Historian
Dr. Theresa Kraus is the FAA historian. Prior to accepting this position in 2009 in the newly established history office, she served as an analyst in FAA's ATO Operations Planning Research and Technology Development Office. She had been senior historian in the former FAA history office prior to joining the ATO. Before coming to the FAA in 1991, she worked for the U.S. Army Center of Military History where she co-authored and co-edited the Army's official history of Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm, The Whirlwind War. She earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland and has authored numerous publications in military and aviation magazines and journals, as well as several books/book chapters. She is currently working on volume 6 in the FAA History series. Her volume is tentatively titled An Evolving Agency in a Changing World: The Federal Aviation Administration, 1977-1988. The book will focus on the FAA's efforts to modernize as it worked to enhance safety, security, and efficiency of the national airspace system during the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan presidencies.
Presentation Title: 85 Years of Federal Aviation Safety Regulation: A Look Back at the History of the FAA and Its Predecessor Agencies
