Leadership Team

Throughout his career, Scott has managed systems, aviation and logistics projects in the U.S., UAE/Dubai, Afghanistan, Malta, Netherlands, Africa and others, which has given him a broad, international perspective of the strong positive impact the future of green aviation brings: green, quiet and much lower operating costs.

Scott is a sought-after speaker at conferences and other events in the areas of finance, systems, environmental and aviation topics.  He also serves as a judge in the City of Santa Monica’s annual, “Sustainable Quality Awards”.  He holds a private pilot’s license with instrument and seaplane ratings.

A natural leader and visionary,  Scott has the innate ability to identify the potential upside of any opportunity that fits the Foundation’s mission. He inspires collaboration and excellence and is a creative problem solver who sets high standards with measurable goals.

EDUCATION

University of Southern California, B.S. in Business Administration – finance and systems emphases.

USC Student Senate – Chairperson of the Community Affairs Committee

Loyola University of Maryland – Engineering Sciences

Ed brings an extensive working knowledge of the aviation community as well as decades of business expertise to the Foundation. As forward-thinking business leader, Ed held a series of advisory, consultant and founding positions over the years. He is a commercial and instrument-rated, multi -engine pilot, a seaplane pilot, and a licensed helicopter pilot. He served as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army with a tour of duty in Vietnam, where he received the Bronze Star.

Ed’s business experience and comprehensive network of relationships within the aviation community enables him to identify and create key strategic partnerships that can make a measurable difference to the Foundation’s mission.  Ed ably manages complex projects, is an expert communicator, and mediates stakeholder differences collaboratively.

Ed’s involvement with aviation includes being a member of the Southern California Airspace Users Working Group, addressing airspace issues in the greater Los Angeles area (www.scauwg.org). He was formerly on the Board of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association (www.phpa.org), a Board Member of the Santa Monica Airport Association (www.santamonicaairport.info), elected as the Region 5 Vice President of the California Pilots Association (www.calpilots.org), Secretary of California Disaster Airlift Response Team (www.caldart.org), and Co-Founder and Vice President of Eco-Aviation Foundation International (www.eco-aviation.org).

EDUCATION:

MBA, Harvard Business School
BS, International Relations, Pomona College.

Ellen has over thirty years of business experience in all aspects of Communications, including Public and Media Relations, Financial and Investor Relations, Corporate Marketing and Government affairs.  Her working knowledge of the media, corporate marketing and grass roots activities informed her tenure as Vice President of the Santa Monica Airport Association, where she focused on community outreach activities and developed a passion for the potential of local airports to greatly enhance their communities.

Most of Ellen’s career consisted of guiding public media organizations through prolonged and explosive growth and/or change and enabled her to develop expertise in all aspects of change management, executive and team coaching, leadership development and conflict resolution.

She is a nationally recognized business leader who has written on the imperative of culture change to inspire innovation and transformation in legacy businesses and is a skilled communicator and consensus builder.

Ellen served on the Board of the Santa Monica chapter of the American Red Cross; was Vice President, Santa Monica Airport Association; and is now a Board member and communications director for the Eco-Aviation Foundation.

Education and Honors:
B.A., English, Hunter College, City of New York
Alumna of Harvard University and Stamford University certificate programs in professional development and executive leadership
PR Executive of the Year (CableFax Daily), Cablefax Most Powerful Women in Cable List (2005 –  2016); Multi-Channel News “Woman to Watch,” Mentor, National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications; Board Member Santa Monica chapter of the American Red Cross; Vice President, Santa Monica Airport Association.

Liz is a seasoned nonprofit professional with both local and international focus. Her background in law, media and education informs her grassroots work: building capacity by activating mission and vision, harnessing resources, nourishing growth, achieving consensus, and instituting systems.

She has been a consultant for nonprofits and emerging grassroots enterprises: working with leaders, constituents, and boards of directors in program development, compliance and formalizing operations.

She champions an integrative approach to organizational and societal shifts, applying creative and social practice with technical skills in service to equitable material progress. Liz is passionate about workforce development and community-based green infrastructure for shaping the just transition to clean energy.

Liz has extensive experience in media production and business affairs and has held various positions in antitrust and international law. She holds active admission to the New York State Bar.

EDUCATION

University of Virginia, J.D. 2001

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B. 1996
Joint Degree in Brain and Cognitive Science with Anthropology and Archaeology.

CERTIFICATES

Center for Nonprofit Management. Los Angeles, CA
●  Nonprofit Management Certificate 201

Caltech Center for Technology and Management Education. Pasadena, CA
●  Project Management Budgeting & Estimation Certificate 2015

Watershed Management Group. Tucson, AZ, and Santa Barbara, CA
●  Urban Dryland Stream Restoration 2013
●  Community-Based Green Infrastructure 2012
●  Earthworks, Graywater and Cisterns 2011

99Dr. Eric G. Strauss is Presidential Professor in Ecology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is one of the founding science directors of the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College, where he previously was Director of the Environmental Studies Program and Research Associate Professor. He received his undergraduate education at Emerson College and earned his Ph.D. from Tufts University.

An active researcher, Professor Strauss has been an investigator on a number of groundbreaking collaborative studies, including a study of the conservation biology of piping plovers and studies of the eastern coyote and diamondback terrapin. He serves as the editor-in-chief for the journal Cities and the Environment and continues to research and participate in collaborative activities at the Urban Ecology Institute. In addition, Professor Strauss was lead author on a nationally successful biology textbook, Biology: The Web of Life, and hosted the accompanying video series, Biology Alive!

Dr. Strauss also served on the Barnstable Conservation Commission and on the boards of directors for the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod.

Dr. Rao has used technology to solve hard problems since 1991, when, as a high school student, he co-founded a software company, Raosoft (sold to Vovici), and wrote the first software for conducting surveys on the internet. He has helped government agencies, military services, and companies of all sizes implement data collection and analysis systems to support better-informed decision-making processes.

Now at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he prospects for new technologies that can enable new measurements to help us better understand the planet we live on. Dr. Rao believes that invention is only the beginning — bringing new capabilities to market requires substantial investment in political, economic, and social transformation.

Shanti has bachelors degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Physics from Caltech.

1399Dr. Khalil Dajani is the Executive Director of California Aerospace Technologies Institute of Excellence (CATIE) in Palmdale, California. Dr. Dajani is also serving as the United States Edwards Air Force Base Honorary Commander at Edwards, California as well as Manager at California State University, Long Beach Research Foundation. Dr. Dajani held several administrative positions at academic institutions across the United states. He served as the Executive Director of the Antelope Valley Engineering Programs of California State University Long Beach in Lancaster, CA satellite campus. He also served as Chair and Professor as well as the Director of Graduate Programs in the College of Science and Engineering at Southern Arkansas University.

Dr. Dajani participated in multi-million-dollar grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, Department of Defense, and other federal and state agencies. He published over 80 articles in scientific Journals and conference proceedings. He also chaired technical and engineering conferences at the national and state levels.

Dr. Ying is the Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships of Ampaire (an electric airplane company), responsible for Technology Strategy and International Relations.  She currently serves on the Board of the Lindbergh Foundation.

Dr. Ying devoted over 35 years in the aerospace industry, including three years as the Chief Integration Officer of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).  In 2013, she retired from the Boeing Company as the Director of Research and Technology. Before joining Boeing, Ying taught at universities and directed research in the DOE Research Labs and NASA Ames Research Center.  Demonstrating success both at individual and team levels, she has been the recipient of many honors, including the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award, Asian American Engineer of the Year Award, Boeing Professional Excellence Award from the CTO, and NASA Group Achievement Award.  Ying has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). She was the first female president of the International Council of Aeronautical Sciences, and was an executive member serving on the Aerospace Council of the SAE International. She also was an inaugural member in the NASA Advisory Council Innovation and Technology Committee.

Dr. Ying holds a Commercial Pilot License and is a FAA Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). She received her PHD and MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.  As a passionate aviatrix and proud airplane owner, she has two General Aviation airplanes – a Citabria 7GCBC and a Cessna 150, both based in the US.

15Dr. Shirley Meng received her Ph.D. in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005, after which she worked as a postdoc research fellow and became a research scientist at MIT. Shirley currently holds the Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies and is Professor of NanoEngineering and Materials Science at University of California San Diego (UCSD). She is the founding Director of Sustainable Power and Energy Center (http://spec.ucsd.edu).

Shirley received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2011, UCSD Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Collaboratories Award in 2013, Science Award in Electrochemistry by BASF and Volkswagen in 2014 and Frontier of Innovation Award in 2014. C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society in 2016, Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Finalist in 2018, American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award in 2018, International Battery Association Battery IBA Research Award in 2019 and the Faraday Medal of Royal Chemistry Society in 2020.

Her research group – Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC) – focuses on functional nano and micro-scale materials for energy storage and conversion. The more recent programs include the design, synthesis, processing, and operando characterization of energy storage materials in advanced rechargeable batteries; new intercalation materials for sodium ion batteries; and advanced flow batteries for grids large scale storage.

Shirley is the author and co-author of more than 210 peer-reviewed journal articles, 2 book chapters and 6 patents. She serves on the executive committee for battery division at the Electrochemical Society and she is the elected fellow of ECS. In 2019, Shirley becomes the Editor in Chief for MRS Energy & Sustainability – an online journal that promotes Enegy Materials Science and their socio-economic and sustainability impact.

VP Company Morale