CARIBAVIA 2025 - knowledge advances through the clash of ideas – interview with Kathryn Creedy

Kathryn Creedy is an experienced aviation journalist and well-known figure in the field.Her publications appear in the most reputable editions. Kathryn is editor of Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce News. Kathryn is admirable for many reasons. Today, I want to highlight her dedication to promoting aviation education. Since 2013 Kathryn has covered aviation workforce issues,challenges including diversity, work rule issues, aviation maintenance technicians and pilots. 

During few CARIBAVIA editions back, I had the pleasure of meeting Kathryn. She actually saved me from freezing in a room with too much air conditioning. Her participation, enthusiasm, and commitment to the Girls in Aviation Day event, which typically marks the end of last CARIBAVIA editions, never ever fails to amaze me. Naturally, I asked Katryn questions on GIAD, education challenges and more, so here's her interview.

T.O. September 2025 will already be the 11th year for Annual Girls in Aviation Day by WAI. Can you tell me how long you've been taking part, and why this event is important to you?

K.C. I’ve been covering workforce development issues for over a decade with a focus on seeing more participation from underrepresented groups including women and minorities. The theme that captured my attention all those years ago was Women in Aviation International’s See It Be It to counter the fact that kids, especially girls, are not exposed to aviation careers and women pioneers. By promoting role models, we have seen an increase in the number of women pursuing pilot careers as well as aviation maintenance careers. We need to broaden the conversation to all aviation careers including those highlighted in the WAI career guide. 

T.O.For years we've talked a lot about the importance of educating the next generation of aviation professionals. Do you think we're DOING enough? What are the “burning” needs in this area?

K.C. There has never been an industry-wide effort to promote aviation and aerospace careers, so, no, we are NOT doing enough. Industry has not come together to promote aviation and aerospace careers. The industry works in their individual silos and says it’s doing enough when it is falling far short. Educators have been working on aviation/aerospace education for 30 years with very little to show for it because other industries are out-competing us with kids. There are hundreds of non-profit STEM education programs focusing on aviation/aerospace but no funding from corporations to bring them to scale. We must connect the dots between the aviation/aerospace STEM education pipeline and corporate funding. 

When I ask corporations whether they are developing pipelines, they say they are struggling with recruitment and retention, largely poaching from one another rather than creating pathways to our careers. That distracts them from developing robust pipelines and incorporating the STEM programs that already exists. 

We must come together as a single community to develop the funding to promote aviation/aerospace careers including what Aerospace Professional Promoting Aviation/Aerospace Careers is working on – a one-stop-shop website of our careers and their pathways, support between aviation educators and corporations. 

We have also failed to respond to the marked shift among parents and students toward the skilled trades and pursuing these high-value, high pay, recession-proof careers. The construction and many other trades are actively recruiting at the middle and high school levels and their unions are paying for training. 

Aviation and aerospace do not even know the industry is competing against these careers for the workforce. Only a few large corporations have pursued the “self-help” route by developing education and training pipelines using aviation and aerospace as the theme in STEM education. Leaders include Boeing with its Core Curriculum designed for manufacturing with Airbus doing the same thing for its Alabama factory. RTX is teaming with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America on aviation/aerospace STEM education in partnership with Northwestern University which developed the curriculum. GE Aerospace is also active in the pipeline but not at the middle/high school levels. Choose Aerospace High School Aviation Maintenance Curriculum and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Foundation High School STEM Curriculum have made great strides at the high school level, but we need to start much earlier. I was hooked at age 5.

What is needed as an industry-wide effort to develop a K-Career Aviation Aerospace Education Ecosystem on which I am working with like-minded individuals around the U.S. The ecosystem already exists but needs industry funding to bring it to scale. Kids begin exploring careers in Elementary School (K-6/7) and aviation/aerospace must be represented. We must also keep them interested by guiding them throughout their education into aviation/aerospace pathways by identifying their hobbies and interests and connecting them to aviation careers.

Interested in gaming? There’s a place for you in aviation. We have the ultimate game console in our simulators and we need simulator developers and technicians.

We are Promoting Aviation, Aerospace Careers All Wrong

Resources for Aviation/Aerospace Education & Workforce Development

T.O.Women in aviation are still a minority. The industry is still a “boys' club”. What can we do to inspire more girls and young women to seek their professional path in the aviation industry?

K.C. We have made remarkable strides in the past 30 years. Women Executives in Aviation, Aerospace & Defense (embedded in this list are the latest statistics.)

There are now thousands of women in management in aviation, aerospace and defense. However, the culture has been identified as the primary reason women do not pursue or remain in aviation/aerospace careers. 

The Women in Aviation Advisory Board identified the culture as the single largest impediment to getting more women in the C-Suite. Analysis: WIAAB Cites Culture as Driving Women from Aviation

Women in Aviation International did a study showing women are interested in aviation/aerospace careers. They like the challenge such careers represent but feared the old-boys network that dominates all of corporate America not just aviation. The industry has done little to address the culture’s impact on women and minorities.

T.O. Having participated in several GIAD events, can you share with us the stories that have marked you the most, the success stories?

K.C. I have participated in many GIAD-like events including the WAI GIAD at its conference in Denver. I always come away truly inspired by both industry participants who sponsor the event and teach kids about their careers and the kids whose entire beings light up with new possibilities for careers they never otherwise considered. I have also supported the GIAD for my local chapter – WAI-Harbor City and GIAD-St. Maarten during the 2023 CaribAvia. 

As a founder of the Space Coast Women in Aviation Alliance we teamed in the WAI collegiate chapter at Florida Institute of Technology and launched Girls in STEM Day to connect students with women leaders in aviation including ramp workers, jet brokers, journalists, SMS Experts, flight attendants and more. SCWAA fielded a second Girls in STEM Day in which we doubled participation. I alert attendees to other area aviation events on a regular basis by email. The exhibits we had at the second event including representatives all their next steps to careers. We had AAR which brought a helicopter, FIT training aircraft, three different Experimental Aircraft Association chapters, two robotics organizations, a drone training organization, a flight school and the Central Florida Business Aviation Association. In addition to our local government employment agency – CareerSource Brevard Flagler and Volusia – we also had representatives from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and the Florida Institute of Technology. On the speaker roster were two high executives from NASA, Lisa Holland the CEO of Sheltair and an aerospace maintenance worker serving at Kennedy Space Center. 

The industry does a great job of exciting kids about aviation/aerospace with GIADs, Flyins, Air Shows, and career fairs but then drops the ball expecting them to continue their excitement on their own in a very distracting world. That is why we must create solid relationships with attendees and guide them with continuous alerts and other information about aviation/aerospace events, our careers, local career pathways, career and technical education opportunities and scholarships. 

T.O. The last GIAD edition in St Barths, why was it different and what did it mean to you?

K.C. I’m always so energized by GIAD events. I see the interest in the faces of the girls and I see girls being girls in aviation, modeling uniforms, creating aviation jewelry and learning about drones, charts and the phonetic alphabet. GIADs are always fast-paced, action-packed events after which you see girls reconsidering their future based on the careers they’ve explored. The Dream Board, asking them to describe their dream job, had a lot of participants ambitious to be astronauts. Imagine that. Girls from the Caribbean which does not have a space program, aspiring to be astronauts. Pretty cool.