At the 2020 Women of Color STEM Conference, Monique Brisson, a civilian Airman and electrical engineer in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for fighter and advanced aircraft, was honored with the Professional Achievement in Government Award. Prior, Brisson worked for the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory.
During high school, Brisson was in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) and then attended Florida A&M University on a scholarship. Brisson told the Air Force that she discovered engineering while looking through books. From that discovery, a spark was lit and she began researching the field, career options, and the impact she could make with the right training.
During her college days, Brisson completed an internship at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Since then, Brisson has worked in a variety of engineering roles for the Air Force. While at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, and the 581st Software Maintenance Squadron, she was a software maintenance engineer, writing test programs to test components for use in aircraft.
“I do not know if there is an end goal," she said in an Air Force interview. "There are so many opportunities just working for the Air Force. I am so excited to work on these technologies to help the warfighter.”
More recently, the 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs announced that women engineers and scientists from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, met with female high school students during a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) event on March 30, 2022.
The event is one of many that volunteers from the Hill Air Force Base Women in Science and Engineering program participate in to educate students about STEM careers available in the Air Force.
Volunteers from the base who work in STEM fields provide over 3,000 hours each year to support outreach events such as science fairs, classroom presentations, career fairs, robotics competitions and team mentoring, tours, and tutoring. The volunteers are allowed to use administrative leave to help at these events.
Hill Air Force Base (AFB) hires hundreds of professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math fields each year. Currently, only 9 percent of all engineers and scientists are women.
Alison Sturgeon, Hill AFB STEM program manager, told public affairs that the STEM outreach office works to increase opportunities for young women. Seven years ago the program started Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) to provide networking opportunities, career advancement education, and inspiration for girls in STEM.
“Many students don’t know what they don’t know,” she said. “STEM outreach can spark interest and inform students at a young age encouraging them to choose a STEM pathway and consider an Air Force civilian career.”
Air Force civilian careers include all STEM disciplines, acquisition contact management, administrative and management, aircraft maintenance, animal care, and veterinarian, auditing, civil engineering, cyber and information technology (IT), finance accounting, fire protection, law enforcement, and security, logistics, medical, pilot simulator instructors, skilled trades, social services, mental health, and weather.
Upcoming events include the Utah State University Physics Day on May 13, and “STEM City” at the Warriors Over the Wasatch Air & Space Show on June 25-26, where there will be more than 20 STEM exhibits on display.
