Presenter

Valerie Gawron has a BA in psychology from the State University College at Buffalo, a MA also in psychology from the State University College at Geneseo, a PhD in Engineering Psychology from the University of Illinois, and a MS in Industrial Engineering and MBA both from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She completed postdoctoral work in environmental effects on performance at the New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and began work for Calspan directly following. She remained at Calspan for 26 years until it was eventually acquired by General Dynamics and she was made a technology fellow. She is presently a human factors engineer at the MITRE Corporation. Dr. Gawron has provided technical leadership in Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation of small prototype systems through large mass produced systems, managed million dollar system development programs, led the design of information systems to support war fighters and intelligence personnel, fielded computer aided engineering tools to government agencies and industry, tested state-of-the-art displays including Helmet Mounted Displays, Night Vision Goggles, and Synthetic Vision Displays in military and commercial aircraft, evaluated security systems for airports and United States Embassies, conducted research in both system and human performance optimization, applied the full range of evaluation tools from digital models through human-in-the-loop simulation to field operational tests for military, intelligence, and commercial systems, directed accident reenactments, consulted on driver distraction, accident investigation, and drug effects on operator performance, and written over 425 publications including the Human Performance, Workload, and Situation Awareness Measures Handbook (third edition) and 2001 Hearts: The Jane Gawron Story. Both are being used internationally in graduate classes, the former in human factors and the latter in patient safety.
Dr. Gawron has served on Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the Army Science Board, Naval Research Advisory Committee, and National Research Council. She gives workshops on a wide range of topics to very diverse audiences from parachute testing given as part of the Sally Ride Science Festival for girls ages 8 to 14 to training applications of simulation to managers and engineers. She has worked programs for the United States Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, NASA, the Departments of State and Justice, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, the National Traffic Safety Administration, as well as for commercial customers. Some of this work has been international and Dr. Gawron has been to 195 countries. Dr. Gawron is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and a fellow of the International Ergonomics Association.