Nick Brown joined the AEA staff as director of workforce development in June 2023. Brown previously served as the aviation electronics instructor for Kent Career Technical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was certified by the state of Michigan to teach career and technical standards. He led the career and technical education program offered to more than 230 high school students in Kent County, Michigan, which prepares students to enter the workforce in various occupations.
For more than seven years at KCTC, Brown provided career, academic and counseling support to high school juniors and seniors. He instructed students on ASTM’s NCATT standards and helped certify more than 600 students with a 97% passing rate. In addition, Brown established personal and career goals for a wide variety of diverse students to ensure they excel in College and Career Readiness standards for adult education. As part of his work, Brown created marketing and communications materials to establish outreach to local high schools in Kent County, Michigan, increasing the program’s enrollment rate by 200% in one year. Brown also conducted and led regional forums with aviation industry leaders to discuss best practices in avionics and prepare students to enter the workforce at an advanced level.
Brown also spent eight years in the United States Air Force. His military career began in March 2007 as a radar avionics journeyman at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma where he was responsible for leading teams of maintainers on E-3 AWACS. In May 2009, he relocated to Kadena Air Base in Japan where he was responsible for the preventative maintenance of state-of-the-art aviation support equipment. He later was named work center supervisor where he developed and trained new employees as maintenance technicians. He also was tasked by the Department of Defense to give safety training courses to more than 300 team members.
Brown has a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University and two master’s degrees from Western Michigan University, one in workforce education development and leadership and a second in instructional design.
