Honorary Member 2016

Wanda M. Austin (United States) – Honorary Member Citation

Aerospace executive and systems engineer Wanda Austin served as President of the Aerospace Corporation during 2008-16. She began in 1979 and then moved into successive leadership positions as manager of Air Force Satellite Communications, general manager of the Electronic Systems Division, and senior vice president of the National Systems Group. Dr. Austin received her PhD in ISE at the University of Southern California. Her commitments to the US national security space program include contributions to the National Security Space Master Plan, the Human Spaceflight Review Committee, the Defense Science Board space resilience study, leading the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board study on small satellites, and then service on the President’s Council of Advisers for Science and Technology. Dr. Austin was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, is an honorary fellow of the AIAA, and received the 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Award. In 2016 she received the Goddard Astronautics Award, the highest within AIAA. Wanda authored Making Space: Strategic Leadership for a Complex World, capturing her reflections on systems engineering leadership. Austin continues as a consultant at Aerospace, serves on the boards of Chevron and USC. She is a proactive civic figure nationally inspiring excellence in youth and career education in science and engineering. Therefore, the Omega Alpha Association Board of Directors is delighted and honored to welcome Dr. Wanda Austin to Honorary Membership in the International Honor Society for Systems Engineering.