June 18, 2014
Colloquium Topic: Intersection of Test Flight, Energy, and Vacuum Tubes
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Colloquium Speaker: Amanda Simpson
Ms. Amanda R. Simpson was named Executive Director of the U.S. Army Energy Initiatives Task Force (EITF) by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy & Environment (ASA-IEE) in January 2014. Previously she was the Special Assistant to the Army Acquisition Executive since July 2011. In that role she was a principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) on all matters relating to Army acquisition, procurement, research & development and logistics. In her first government assignment, she was the Senior Technical Advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security from January 2010 to June 2011 where she advised on policy and export control issues necessary to protect the security of the United States.
Prior to her government appointments, Ms. Simpson was the Deputy Director for Force Protection in the Advanced Missiles and Unmanned Systems Product Line at Raytheon Company Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona. She held several program management positions on technology development activities for missile systems sensors and development programs including the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft and the AT-6B Texan II. Previous to her tenure in program management, Ms. Simpson was the manager of captive flight test operations for Raytheon Company and Hughes Aircraft Company which included the duties of mission director and project pilot on numerous developmental test programs. Her team received the DARPA Award for Significant Technical Achievement in 1999.
Ms. Simpson began her aerospace career at Hughes Helicopter Company on the Apache Target Acquisition and Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Systems for the AH-64 Apache Advanced Attack Helicopter during its development phase and later as the program manager for F-14 traveling wave tube production at Hughes Electron Dynamics.
Amanda was the 2001 recipient of the Raytheon Woman on the Move award, the 2004 Tucson YWCA Woman on the Move, 2005 Arizona Human Rights Fund Individual Award and the 2006 Raytheon Missile Systems Team Excellence Award. She is a nationally renowned speaker and has presented at corporations, government agencies, civic organizations, conferences and colleges around the country on gender and diversity.
Ms. Simpson earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Harvey Mudd College, a Master of Science in Engineering from California State University, and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Arizona. She is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics where she served on the Systems Engineering Technical Committee.
Ms. Simpson holds a Federal Aviation Administration Airline Transport Pilot certificate with several type specific ratings as well as a Certified Flight Instructor license. She has nearly 3000 hours flying over 60 different types of aircraft from single seat micro-lights to float planes and flying boats to unmanned drones to multi-engine jets.