2020 Career Achievement in Industry Award winner Mrs. Tonya M. Noble is an international defense training director at The Boeing Company.
Presenting the award at the Women of Color STEM Conference, Turbo Sjogren, vice president of Boeing’s International Government and Defense organization, said Noble was a valued member of his team.
"When reflecting on my time spent with Tonya, three characteristics come to mind: Leader, Change Maker, Advocate," he explained, adding that she strikes the right balance between empathy and motivating her team.
For her part, Tonya said that as a little girl, she always envisioned being a teacher.
"I played with make-believe students, distributing classwork to empty spaces on my bed but remained fascinated with my Atari video game," she said in her acceptance speech.
Atari, a pioneering game console, was released in 1977 and remained popular in millions of homes for the rest of the decade. Tonya told the audience that as a young gamer she often wondered how the console worked.
When her parents bought her a Commodore 64 in the early 1980s, she felt out of her comfort zone with the new computer. But not for long. Her mom subscribed to computer magazines that came with software programming instructions.
"So at age 8, I spent hours typing these foreign words onto the computer, trying to create my own games," Tonya said. "Fast forward. I excelled in math and science but was clueless about college. I never knew anyone who had gone."
Again, her Mom came to the rescue with literature on careers and she read about a brave new field called engineering.
"My new sights were set. After starting my career at Boeing, NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) and BEYA (Black Engineer of the Year Awards) exposed me to profound leaders and mentors who looked like me and motivated me to dream higher. Now I am one of them," Tonya said.
In her community, Tonya is a shining role model to young girls especially from minority backgrounds, who might otherwise not see people who look like them in engineering and leadership positions.
As Executive Director of International Defense Training for Boeing Global Services, Tonya Noble has responsibility for program management for defense training programs, including growth, leadership, and execution of training products and services, bringing in significant revenue in international training program contracts.
Examples of the training products and services her team handles include developing and delivering flight simulators to international customers, providing instructional training conducts for aircrew and maintenance training to global customers of military platforms, and sustaining and operating customer flight simulators and other training devices.
Prior to this assignment, she was responsible for sustainment services in Southeast Asia, India and Australia.
Noble previously served as T-45/AV-8B Program Manager for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps and all F/A-18 International Sustainment Programs. In this role, she captured more than $10 million in cost savings for the company.
She also previously held leadership and technical roles for other military and space support programs, including the Commercial Crew Transportation System for NASA.
