Faculty Spotlight - February 6, 2025
College of Arts & Sciences: Faculty Spotlight Series
Dr. Angie Griffin
Assistant Professor in Aviation Science and program coordinator
focusing on professional pilot and aviation management courses.
Presentation: Thursday, February 6, 2025, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Talk by Dr. Angie Griffin.
Location: Founders Hall, Bernie Beck Lecture Hall (Doors open at 4:15 p.m.)
All are welcome to attend. Appetizers and light refreshments will be served!
“Resilience and High-Performing Female Aviators"
Dr. Griffin’s talk will examine the stories told by female aviators for research purposes in qualitative narrative research. There has not been a similar study with this population.
Griffin's true passion, helicopters! FAA certifications in ASEL, Drone 107, and Rotor commercial and certified flight instructor ratings.
Abstract:
This presentation examines the limited archive of empirical literature on women's history in aviation and reports the findings of this research. The background of the research, the methodology, and the findings will be explored. The population inclusion required women with an FAA Commercial or ATP certification, a minimum of 2,000 flying hours, and at least one aviation accomplishment, such as an aviation first or record holder or leader in aviation organizations. The final segment of the presentation allowed participants to share their experiences with confidence, adaptability, social support, and purposefulness (Robertson & Cooper, 2020).
From the beginning...
Angie began with a love of aviation from an early age but pursued counseling and education in her early career. She taught core subjects and special education to behavior-disordered students. After working in the wilderness, facilitating leadership and ropes courses internationally as far as Australia, she settled into teaching and administration positions in education. She earned her Education Specialist degree in leadership and led schools as a principal and a superintendent of 3 small schools.
Her first foray into aviation began after working in institutional effectiveness at the university level while watching helicopters fly outside her office, and she knew she had to be a part. She earned her FAA certifications in ASEL and then her private, commercial, and flight instructor ratings in helicopters, her true passion. She worked for several helicopter companies conducting commercial flights until the shores of Georgia called her name, and she opened her business, Dragonfly Copters, giving hundreds of people their first flight ever. She flew commercial flights for Sports Illustrated, the producers of the television show Walking Dead, and real estate purveyors and professional photographers, as far as Costa Rica. She flew over blueberries at night to keep them from freezing, but her favorite flights were always educational flights with novices.
She became a Board of Directors member of FlyQuest, a nonprofit, exposing underserved students to aviation careers. She was featured in Aviation for Women magazine for outreach programs and was awarded the Whirly-Girls Memorial Scholarship. She holds a doctorate, researching how high-performing aviators use resilience in career success and is an active member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Helicopter Association, Inc., Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Women in Aviation, The Ninety-Nines, and the Whirly-Girls. She is an assistant professor of aviation science and a TAMUCT program coordinator.
Researching gyrocopters for Texas A&M University.
Dr. Angie Griffin, Ph.D. teaches aviation science, focusing on professional pilot and aviation management courses. Griffin is a passionate aviator with FAA certifications in commercial rotor, rotor certified flight instructor, ASEL, and Drone 107. She teaches Crew Resource Management, Leadership, Aviation Safety, Sustainability, History, and Instruction courses, among others. She loves working with passionate aviators and aviation enthusiasts. Griffin is a consultant with the National Institute for STEM Education and a past board member with FlyQuest, a nonprofit teaching underserved students about aviation careers. She is also a member of the 99's, Women in Aviation, Helicopter Association Inc., University Aviation Association, and the Whirly-Girls.
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