Grand Dames of Aviation Nonprofit

05/07/2026

Join us for an exclusive mentorship event next week! Available to members. Join now!

✨Wings, Wit & Wisdom: Motherhood in Aviation✨

Motherhood & Aviation: You can have both💞

📅 May 12, 2026 | 5:00 PM ET | Zoom Event

Five accomplished aviators and experienced mothers. One honest conversation about building careers in aviation while raising families across military, airline, corporate aviation, and more.

👉 Open to registered Grand Dames and Aspiring Dames Members. Join now!

⸻

👩‍✈️ Meet the Voices of the Sky- all pilots, all mothers:

1) Cyndhi Berwyn — FAA Aviation Safety Inspector, pioneer military aviator

2) Christine “Grinder” Kelley — First F-35 female pilot, Grand Dames Founding Board Executive Secretary

3) Caroline “Blaze” Jensen — Thunderbirds pilot, combat veteran, author of Thundermouse

4) Christie Meyers — Airline pilot, instructor, aviation nonprofit leader

5) Cherry K. — Commercial pilot, technical writer, Wings of Change Scholarship recipient

📅 Monday, May 12
💻 Live on Zoom
🎟 Registration required

02/11/2026

💕Galentine’s with the Grand Dames! A free mentorship opportunity for Aspiring Dames this Thursday at 5pm ET🌟

11/04/2025

Thinking of our brothers and sisters in Brown at UPS with prayers and sympathy😞

A UPS MD-11 plane crashed near the Louisville, Kentucky, airport, according to preliminary information, a source says.

10/22/2025

Eileen Collins featured. A wonderful person, and an extraordinary life. She continues to give back and inspire others.

The BBC speaks to astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command a Nasa spacecraft.

10/12/2025

What an unforgettable Girls in Aviation Day 2025! ✈️
The Aerospace Museum of California was the perfect backdrop for a day filled with inspiration, laughter, and the love of flight! 💫

Huge thanks to our incredible Grand Dames guest speakers —
🔥 Caroline “Blaze” Jenson
🐉 Merryl “Dragon Lady” Tengesdal
💎 Carol Dean
🌎 Graciela Tiscareño-Sato

Each shared their unique journey, proving that the sky is just the beginning! 💪

💖 A big shoutout to all the amazing volunteers who made this day possible — we couldn’t have done it without you!

And an extra round of applause to Christine Gibbs, President & Founder of Women in Aviation Northern California, for her endless energy and dedication organizing this fantastic event! 👏

10/05/2025

A day to inspire the next generation of aviators! ✈️💙

The Grand Dames of Aviation joined Take FLIGHT with AVi, hosted by Atlantic Aviation at Wilmington Airport (ILG).

Kids ages 8–18 explored aviation with pilots, engineers, and STEAM experts—thanks to Dame Lyndse Costabile and her aviation INFLUENCE® team!🛫

Dame Elizabeth Dornak, Aviation Director for DuPont, represented us at the Dames booth and shared our mission to celebrate, educate, and inspire women to believe, achieve, and succeed in aviation.

A highlight of the day: meeting Miss Alma Elizabeth Bailey, a Tuskegee Airman nurse, WWII veteran, and proud 100-year-old mentor! 🌟

We loved sharing the joy of flight with so many STEM enthusiasts and future aviators👩🏻‍✈️

08/22/2025

📢 Notice! 📢
Only 10 days left for scholarship seekers to submit their applications! ⏳✨ Don’t miss your chance — apply today and take the next step toward your future.

We can’t wait to meet this year’s inspiring applicants! 💫

🔟⏳💰

Scholarships Our Scholarship Season is OPEN - Please apply by August 31, 2025We look forward to supporting the next generation of women in aviation as they soar to new heights! Professional Aviation (ProAvi) Scholarships $1000 each This category offers two scholarships. The ProAvi Pilot scholarship....

08/07/2025

Congrats to our STEM scholarship recipient Esme Lowry! You’ve had a stellar year. Can’t wait to see what comes next for you. We are here for you every step of the way!🌟

08/07/2025

🌟 Scholarship Spotlight: Esme Lowry – Our First ProAvi STEM Scholar! 🌟

We love hearing from our past winners — and 2024 ProAvi STEM Scholarship recipient Esme Lowry has been soaring in every sense of the word!

This year alone, Esme has:
✦ Received the 2025 Women’s Aviation Career Symposium (WACS) Scholarship
✦ Attended the WACS event and met NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli
✦ Presented her team’s bioastronautics project, PERRI, at the University of Michigan BLiSS Symposium
✦ Graduated with a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan Medical School
✦ Shared her project with NASA engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center
✦ Published the PERRI project on NASA’s technical reports server 🔗
✦ Received an AOPA Foundation Flight Training Scholarship
✦ Returned to the skies after a long school break ✈️
✦ Attended Thunder Over Michigan to see the Blue Angels
✦ Volunteered with the Michigan Ninety-Nines at the KPTK Festival of Flight
✦ Started a new role as a lab manager and research technician at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute 🧬

From the lab bench to the flight deck, Esme is using science and flight to shape the future of aerospace — and we are so proud to be part of her journey.

🚀 Future Dames: You have 3 weeks left to apply for a Grand Dames of Aviation scholarship!
Let Esme’s story inspire you to reach higher, think bolder, and never stop flying toward your dreams.
🔗 Apply now: https://www.granddamesofaviation.org/scholarships

06/19/2025

Go Kent State!🌟🐝👏🏼

Flying Flashes Aim for Fourth Straight Win in National All-Women Air Race | College of Aeronautics and Engineering College of Aeronautics and Engineering, Nationally Distinctive, Student Organizations | The skies are calling once again, and Kent State University’s Flying Flashes are answering, thi...

05/23/2025

🌟 100 Years Ago, a Woman Discovered What the Universe Is Made Of 🌟
And her name deserves to be known: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.

In 1925, at just 25 years old, she looked through a telescope at Harvard and saw what no one else had seen — not just stars, but the truth about them.

At the time, most scientists believed the sun was made of the same materials as Earth. But Cecilia’s groundbreaking research revealed something extraordinary:

💥 Stars — including our sun — are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.
That’s not just a fact about stars. That’s a fact about 99.9% of the known universe.

Her discovery was so ahead of its time that even leading astronomers rejected it. One — Henry Norris Russell — later confirmed her work… and claimed the credit for himself.

But Cecilia persisted.
She earned her Ph.D. (the first ever awarded for astronomy at Radcliffe-Harvard), became Harvard’s first tenured female professor, and eventually chaired its astronomy department.

⚡ Her discovery revolutionized astrophysics.
🌌 Her determination opened doors for future scientists like Vera Rubin.
✨ Her name still shines — even 100 years later.

Her story reminds us why it’s so important to celebrate and support women in STEM — not only because women’s discoveries have too often been dismissed, hidden, or claimed by others, but because science and society thrive when every voice is valued.

When women are shut out or not given credit, it’s not just unfair — it holds back humanity’s progress.

Let this sink in:
💡 A young woman discovered what the universe is made of.
And today, we celebrate a full century since she lit that spark.

📣 Let’s make sure everyone knows her name: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.