News

Dear WIA Members,

What an incredible year! The old adage that time flies is an understatement and I cannot believe that 2015 is coming to a close. As we look to the excitement of 2016, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on WIA’s 30th Anniversary year and to share some thoughts with you as we move forward together into next year.

In celebration of our 30th Anniversary, WIA re-engaged with past leadership, bringing together former chairs and presidents to highlight the success of the organization. The opportunity to have so many of WIA’s past leaders together at the same time was humbling and inspiring to all of us. The Awards Dinner provided an excellent forum to reconnect with our past, honor the present and look forward to our future and in that light, we enjoyed the highest attendance to date for our Awards Dinner and an incredible turn out for the 2015 Aerospace Conference!

Substantively, WIA continued to play a key role in bringing together WIA members and strategic thinkers from the Government, Congress and industry. Prominent leaders from the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Council, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the Armed Services, to name a few, addressed the membership and joined in celebrating our anniversary at WIA events held throughout the year.

For thirty years, our organization has provided exceptional programs and conferences to develop our members’ skills, advance the role of women in the aerospace industry, educate future leaders in the area, expand our networks and create a strategic future for our industry.

In addition to the celebration, we succeeded in launching a new website, outlined and implemented a strategic plan through a productive offsite session with the Board, and personally engaged with various WIA corporate members to better understand the value that WIA brings to the membership. We continue to meet with extraordinary success through our programs and professional development goals and I am pleased to have witnessed and been a part of WIA’s continued growth.

As WIA’s 2015 Chairman, I am honored to have been involved in such an extraordinary aerospace organization and to have had the opportunity to lead the efforts to implement WIA’s mission and bring our accomplishments to new heights. But the extraordinary success of 2015 could not have been achieved without the dedicated and talented individuals on the Board of Directors and WIA’s volunteers. I am humbled to have served with such an outstanding group of individuals whose dedication, passion and enthusiasm for WIA’s mission continue to amaze me. I am proud to have played a role in it all and look forward to the achievements and successes of 2016.

My best regards,

Giovanna M. Cinelli
Chair
Women in Aerospace