Vicki S. Johnson, Ph.D., F.SWE, retired from Spirit AeroSystems in 2020 as project manager for advanced manufacturing strategy. She was previously lead engineer for research and technology portfolio management.

Prior to Spirit AeroSystems, Dr. Johnson was a senior engineering specialist and Six Sigma master black belt at Textron Aviation, originally Cessna Aircraft Co. One of Dr. Johnson’s significant contributions at Cessna was serving as principal investigator for a NASA N+3 Phase II contract on protective skins for composite airliners. She holds two U.S. patents on aspects of electrothermal deicing of aircraft.

Dr. Johnson has 42 years of experiences in research at NASA Langley Research Center and the National Institute of Aviation Research; in academia at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; in industry at The Boeing Company, Cessna/Textron Aviation, and Spirit AeroSystems; and private nonprofits at the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council and the Universities Space Research Association.

Dr. Johnson is a SWE senior life member and Fellow. She started her SWE career in 1997 as the faculty advisor to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Collegiate Section.

She is currently serving as the newsletter editor for the SWE Late Career and Retiree affinity group. She previously served as its lead and as the local section engagement subgroup lead. Dr. Johnson has been involved in forming and shaping the Late Career and Retiree affinity group since its approval by the SWE Board of Directors in 2019. She served as one of the two first senators from Region i when the SWE Senate was formed in 2009. She made multiple contributions to help shape the senate. She also served as Region i regional conference finance chair in 2014. Dr. Johnson served in leadership roles in the Wichita Area Section throughout the early 2000s, including president, vice president, treasurer, Engineering Expo chair, nominating committee chair, and membership chair.

Dr. Johnson holds a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, an M.S. in flight sciences from George Washington University, a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Kansas, and an MBA in management of technology from the University of Phoenix. She was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in aerospace engineering by the University of Kansas. Dr. Johnson also held membership in the International Council on Systems Engineering, known as INCOSE, and was a certified systems engineering professional from 2017 to 2023.

At retirement, Dr. Johnson purchased a 40-foot diesel-pusher recreational vehicle so that she and her cat, BC, can travel, and she can pursue her hobby of skeet shooting. Two years later, she and BC relocated to Fountain Hills, Arizona, to be near her sister and brother-in-law, a master skeet instructor.