Aerospace Educator Named One of Top 8 in the Nation

New Orleans - Lieutenant Colonel Kathy Beauford, CAP, has won the prestigious Frank G. Brewer Lifetime Achievement Award for the Southwest Region of the Civil Air Patrol, naming her as one of the top 8 aerospace educators in the nation. She has been a member of the Civil Air Patrol for 23 years. She is Robotics Project Manager and Director of External Aerospace Education for Louisiana Wing, and a navigator for Search and Rescue both on aircrew and ground teams. Kathy loves reading, writing, and presenting aerospace education materials. She has won 8 educator awards and 26 aerospace education awards. Her favorite awards are the Master’s Rating and the Scott Crossfield Memorial Award---both for Civil Air Patrol aerospace education. Another of her favorite awards is the Sigma XI Scientific Research Society Award of Recognition “for dedication to the teaching of science.” She says, “I was thrilled to be recognized by scientists.” Her favorite saying is, “America needs SPACE to GROW!!!”

Civil Air Patrol aerospace education activities include lectures, experiments, demonstrations, robotics and robot building, and trips to air shows. Civil Air Patrol cadets range from 12 years to 18 years of age. A cadet who goes through our whole program enters the US Air Force with an automatic bump in grade and pay.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide, operating a fleet of 550 aircraft. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 54 lives in fiscal year 2011. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to nearly 27,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet program. CAP received the World Peace Prize in 2011 and has been performing missions for America for 70 years. CAP also participates in Wreaths across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. Visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com or www.capvolunteernow.com for more information.