Like many of us in the aerospace industry, I grew up fascinated by airplanes and flying. My dad was a member of an Air National Guard unit that flew F16s. The sound of those jets darting overhead and the patterns of contrails that lingered across the blue skies after they passed made indelible marks in my memory. I reveled in going to summer air shows where I could climb into the cockpit of any number of planes and imagine I was at the helm soaring through the air. As a teenage girl in the 1980s, the release of the original “Top Gun” movie, complete with surround sound, rocked my world.

And yet, it was my brothers who pursued aviation careers. While they navigated B-1s and F-15s for the Air Force, I followed my heart into the nonprofit world. I worked in communications, public relations and development for healthcare and educational organizations across the Pacific Northwest, working to improve the quality of life for those we served and the communities in which we operated. Compelling missions and community leaders who willingly gave their time and energy to important causes became two of the most rewarding aspects of my work.

Over time, I developed a knack for successfully working with nonprofit boards led by visionary, community-minded business executives. Harnessing their collective ideas, spurring them into action, and working side by side to make a positive impact proved to be a challenging, yet powerful process — one that I loved choreographing. 

In 2016, while doing some research for a nonprofit client, I came across a job posting for a role coordinating an industry association’s board of directors and its work. Soon I was in conversation with the leaders of the Inland Northwest Aerospace Consortium (INWAC) and without even trying, I became part of the aerospace world that had captured my imagination as a child.

INWAC’s mission and its role in growing the I-90 Aerospace Corridor has proven to be the perfect way to marry my skills and experiences with work that feeds my soul. One of the organization’s founding members, Rick Taylor of Altek, Inc., described the original purpose for the group as a way for Eastern Washington manufacturers to work together for their mutual benefit. “A rising tide raises all ships,” he likes to say.

With its genesis in people working together to improve the livelihood and well-being of member companies, INWAC has applied that same collaborative approach to expand its geographic scope east to the Cascades and west across North Idaho into Central Montana. Manufacturers throughout the region now partner to market their collective capabilities, better meet their unique customers’ needs and share best practices.

Thanks to the extraordinary commitment and effort of the volunteers who serve on the board of directors, INWAC has also become a valued economic driver in the region beyond the aerospace sector. Companies looking to relocate or expand find an extensive and active supply chain in INWAC. Economic development partners regularly take visitors on tours through member facilities as examples of modern and thriving businesses in the area. As other regional innovation clusters form, they look to INWAC as a model to emulate, further driving the economic prosperity and quality of life along the I-90 Corridor.

As a convenor of resources and stakeholders, each spring INWAC, along with the Idaho Manufacturing Alliance, the Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corporation, and another great team of industry volunteers, hosts the I-90 Aerospace Corridor Conference & Expo. This event brings together aerospace manufacturers, suppliers, elected officials, economic development agencies, and academia/education to learn, network and conduct business. It’s an annual highlight for me to witness what transpires.

The hum of the lively conversations emanating from the exhibit hall and conference area never cease to evoke the same feelings that the hum of an airplane does as it reaches cruising altitude — contentment that the driving forces behind the din are working in harmony, anticipation about the possibilities ahead, and gratefulness for getting to be along for the ride.