Lift - Spring 2013 - (Page 12)

NAVIGATING HOME ALUMNI SHARE PERSONAL JOURNEYS OF CHALLENGE AND SUCCESS AT ANNUAL REUNIONS DOMINO EFFECT The stories in this section highlight the personal and professional journeys of four of our alumni who attended either the 2012 Homecoming/Alumni Weekend in Daytona Beach, Fla., or OctoberWest in Prescott, Ariz. For some of them, this was their first visit to campus since graduation; for others, the pilgrimage “home” is an annual tradition. All alumni are encouraged to attend homecoming activities this year on Oct. 3–5 in Prescott and Nov. 7–9 in Daytona Beach. For more information visit the eaglesNEST: www.eraualumni.org/homecoming. BY SARA WITHROW 12 LI FT S P R IN G 201 3 ER AUAL UM NI.ORG Jody (Fisher) Davis (’03, PC) liked to draw triangleshaped houses as a child. By the third grade, she was drawing floor plans. “I loved design, she says. ” When she turned 13, a new infatuation was born. “I saw the movie Apollo 13 six or seven times in the theater, Davis says. “I developed an obsession with ” space and NASA. ” A family friend, commercial airline pilot Lisa Wagner (’94, ’02, PC), now deceased, introduced Davis to Embry-Riddle and helped her discover the perfect marriage of both her passions: aerospace engineering. The epiphany set her on the path to a lucrative and fulfilling career. Now a flight mechanics technical lead for another project at NASA Langley, Davis was an integral member of the entry, descent and landing team for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)/Curiosity rover. At 10:32 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2012 PDT, it was Davis who announced “Tango Delta Nominal” from the war room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology— the first of three final steps confirming Curiosity’s touchdown on the surface of Mars. “I was nervous and super excited, she says of the ” “seven minutes of terror, a phrase coined by NASA ” representing the time it would take Curiosity to enter PHOTO BY A STORYBOOK MOMENT PHOTOGRAPHY Aerospace engineer Jody Davis (‘03, PC) falls into place at NASA http://www.eraualumni.org/homecoming http://www.ERAUALUMNI.ORG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Lift - Spring 2013

Lift - Spring 2013
Contents
Chatter
Feedback
A Soulful Presence
Riddle Field
Higher Learning
Alumni Weekend/ OctoberWest
Navigating Home
Riding on Real Estate
Doctors’ Remedy
Helping Eagles Fly
Alumni News
Class Notes

Lift - Spring 2013

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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mcmurry/lift_2013annualreport
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