Powell first joined the College of Aviation as Assistant Dean and Director of Operations in 2003 and has served as Dean since 2008. A former Air Force fighter jet pilot, he went on to serve in both the Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard, flying the A-10 and A-7, before start- ing a long career with United Airlines, working his way up as a flight manager, assistant chief pilot, instructor chief pilot, and chief pilot. “I remember being out in my favorite uncle’s field, on the deep end of Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, six or seven years old, watching the old TWA Constellations take off and thinking, ‘I wonder where they’re going? I’d like to be going with them,’ and then knowing for almost my entire life exactly what I wanted to be doing,” Powell said. “Whatever spark of inspiration brought my students to Western Michigan University, I want to help them do right by their dream.” Powell has plenty to boast about: The Western Michigan University Sky Broncos Precision Flight Team has now won the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s NIFA National Championship Award five times, and in 2018, the team of Lauren Quandt, Shelby Satkowiak, and Kelly Erdmann took first place in the collegiate level and fifth place overall at the women’s- only Air Race Classic. “What I’m even more excited about is that we’ve had a very successful couple of years with students receiving scholarships, and with placing students with high-quality internships and jobs with major airlines, major MROs, and many of our partners among the NATA membership,” Powell said. “Research-wise, we’ve won some very large FAA research grants, so right now we’re truly running on all cylinders. We have three programs—management, maintenance, and flight—and we’re laser-beam focused in each of those areas.” Powell says much of the industry was caught off- guard by the current pilot shortage, and he predicts similar problems on the horizon for the management and maintenance sectors, citing FAA projections that total airline passenger traffic is expected to double by the year 2032 and that the aviation industry will need to supply more than one million new aviation personnel, including 558,000 pilots and 609,000 maintenance technicians. Aviation Business Journal | Summer 2019 Powell sees it as a moment of tremendous opportunity for his students and prospective students: Michigan is currently ranked fourth in the nation in aerospace job growth and seventh for the number of new aerospace jobs, with a 24.8 percent growth rate. And the median annual income in the aviation industry is more than double the median annual income in Michigan. “The need for the future really is there,” Powell said. “Everybody hears about the pilot shortage, and that’s true—it’s here now—and a lot of really smart people missed it coming. In two to three years, airplanes will be parked because there aren’t enough mechanics to fix them; and that’s going to be another challenge that I don’t think a lot of the industry is prepared for, quite frankly. Same with supply chain management and every other kind of management; you need qualified people to do that work. As the Baby Boomers—my generation— keep retiring, the need is going to be industry-wide. I tell all my prospective students, “If you want to get into a really great work environment with excellent employ- ment opportunities, aviation is a great field to get into.” It never gets boring! This field has provided that oppor- tunity for me to learn and grow and experience new things all the time. Aviation is not going to change in that respect—it is nothing but change.” Powell is grateful to be receiving the NATA Industry Excellence Award for Pilot Training on behalf of his col- lege, especially as he considers the challenges ahead for the industry and the role his school and his students may be able to play in solving those challenges. “Peer recognition is always the best kind of recogni- tion you can get,” Powell said. “For me, personally and professionally, being recognized by NATA confirms not only that we’re doing the right thing, but also that our many partners in the general aviation sector think so, too. A great number of our students go on to work in general aviation; and we have strong partnerships with many NATA members, including great relationships with Duncan Aviation and Pentastar Aviation here in Michigan. I’m looking forward to facilitating internship and job placements for my students with anybody read- ing this article: come directly to me as the dean, and we’ll help make it happen.” 27
