Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Judges

JOHN TIPPETS

John Tippets is a proud Alaskan, born in Anchorage in 1941. His early years were spent in Alaska and the Washington, D.C. area where his dad served in significant positions with the CAA and, subsequently, the FAA. John served two years as a church missionary in Eastern Canada then attended U.C.L.A. where he earned his Bachelor's and MBA degrees. Always interested in aviation, John had summer jobs during his college years checking bags for United Airlines, as an engineer's aide with the FAA in Alaska, a junior analyst intern with the Civil Aeronautics Board and as a clerk in the LAX cargo operations for American Airlines. Following graduation, he continued his 42-year career associated with American Airlines in a variety of management positions and as an officer with Sky Chefs (the airline's catering and airport concessions subsidiary).

For 17-plus years, John was President and CEO of the American Airlines Federal Credit Union. He also served on a number of CU industry committees and on the Board of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. He retired from American Airlines in June 2008. For the past few years, he has devoted spare moments to writing a life history of his parents, Joseph and Alta Tippets. His new book, Hearts of Courage, describes the amazing true story of his father's 29-day survival after a famous Alaska plane crash in January 1943. John is enjoying telling that story to aviation audiences, including those attending The Ninety-Nines 2008 Annual Conference in Alaska last summer.

John and his wife, Bonnie, live in Colleyville, Texas. They have four children and thirteen wonderful grandchildren.

DOROTHY COCHRANE

Dorothy Cochrane is a curator in the Aeronautics Department of the National Air and Space Museum and is responsible for the collections of general aviation aircraft and aerial cameras, and the history of women in aviation. She is the co-author of The Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky and was a consultant for Women and Flight, Portraits of Contemporary Women Pilots, by Carolyn Russo. Her exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum have included Aerial Firefighting, The Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky, Patty Wagstaff National Aerobatic Champion, Business Wings, and Aerobatic Champions which featured Betty Skelton's Pitts S-1C and Leo Loudenslager's Laser 200. Aircraft she has brought into the Museum's collection include Patty Wagstaff's Extra 260, Leo Loudenslager's Laser 200 and Bob Hoover's North American Rockwell Shrike Commander as well as the Travel Air D4D Pepsi Skywriter and a Beech King Air. She is responsible for the General Aviation, Business Aviation, and Aerobatic Flight exhibit stations and aerobatic, private, and business aircraft at the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. In 1996, Cochrane organized the Museum's General Aviation Symposium which brought together leaders of the community for discussions on the future of general aviation. She is also the Aeronautics Division consultant for the Museum's General Electric Aviation Lecture Series. Cochrane is a member of the Board of Directors, Women in Aviation, International, and is a member of AOPA and EAA. She is a private pilot.

JIM SCHIER

Jim Schier is currently the Systems Engineering Manager for NASA's Space Communications and Navigation Program at NASA Headquarters. He leads NASA-wide and international studies defining the evolution of NASA's space communications networks including the Space Network, Near Earth Network, and Deep Space Network as well as future Moon and Mars networks. He joined NASA in 2004 after 25 years in industry where he worked on civil, defense, intelligence, and commercial space systems. He worked for Northrop Grumman supporting the National Reconnaissance Office's Deputy Director of System Engineering where he was responsible for system-of-systems architecting for our nation's network of reconnaissance satellites. He led system engineering tasks on commercial satellite systems including Iridium and Thuraya satellite networks. Mr. Schier was Avionics Manager and Chief System Engineer on the International Space Station at Grumman. Prior to this at TRW, Mr. Schier managed flight software development on the MILSTAR Communications Satellite and led integration and verification work on Spacelab 3 Materials Processing in Space experiments which flew on the Shuttle in 1985. He received a Silver Snoopy award for his work on Spacelab 3, an Administrator's Group Award from Admiral Truly on behalf of the team that redesigned the Space Station in 1990, and numerous other corporate and NASA awards. He holds Bachelors Degrees in Computer Science from Purdue and Electrical Engineering from West Coast University.