REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (Oct. 7, 2024) – Even the most innovative of scientific discoveries needs to be communicated effectively.
For the DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center’s Dr. Ebonee Walker, that has led to her volunteer work with Toastmasters International, a nonprofit educational organization focused on teaching public speaking skills. The Montgomery native had never been daunted by public speaking, with plenty of high-stakes experience as valedictorian of her class at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, where she graduated with an electrical engineering degree. She continued her education earning a master’s degree in physics from Fisk University and an interdisciplinary materials science doctor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, which is where she was first introduced to Toastmasters.
“I had generally avoided the club because I'd heard of Toastmasters before and I thought it's just a bunch of people standing around ranting. But one day after seminar, they invited us to come over to the club. It turned out it was not a bunch of people standing around ranting. Toastmasters has an educational curriculum. Its tagline is, ‘Where leaders are made,’ because when you become a better speaker, people see you more as a leader, it provides you more leadership opportunities and it helps you become more strategic in your communication.”
Walker said that honing her natural speaking skills has helped her career at the Center, which she first joined as a co-op student while at Fisk. Today, Walker is a project leader in the Corrosion Program Office working on a program to redesign containers to mitigate corrosion for aviation products.
“I study the destructive physical analysis of microelectronics, which simply put, I tear apart little electronic devices because I want to know about the quality of them. Because the larger idea behind the project is when our MIL standards were made, everyone used gold when they were making parts -- but gold is now expensive, so they moved on to using things like copper. But the question is, now, is copper as reliable as gold when used in our missile systems?”
While the work is interesting and varied, Walker said what she has also really enjoyed is the breadth of opportunities that the Center has offered her over the years. Walker has served a stint as an executive officer for senior leadership. In 2018, she spent a year in Germany as part of DoD Exchange Scientist and Engineer Program. And among her mentors has been Dr. Brian Smith, the Army’s Senior Research Scientist for Radio Frequency Sensors. It is those opportunities, and her co-workers, she said, that convinced her to make the Center her professional home.
As Walker has grown her career into a leadership role, her advice for the young engineer following in her footsteps is that the learning does not stop once you have that diploma in hand, and communication is one of the most important skills that a new professional can learn.
“Whether you are going to Toastmasters to improve your public speaking and leadership skills, also volunteer within your technical societies, because volunteering once again, gives you another opportunity to work on your leadership skills in an environment that isn't as high pressure as your job.
“Be able to be articulate so that you can communicate your ideas to be a benefit to both yourself and to the government.”
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The DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center, headquartered at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the Army’s research and development focal point for advanced technology in aviation and missile systems. It is part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command. AvMC is responsible for delivering collaborative and innovative aviation and missile capabilities for responsive and cost-effective research, development and life cycle engineering solutions, as required by the Army’s strategic priorities and support to its Cross-Functional Teams.
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