Скачать или смотреть STEM Career, Air Force - Elizabeth Foley, Medical Entomologist - 03

Elizabeth Foley enlisted in the Air Force when she was 19 years old, and her first assignment was in pest management. She shares, “I fell in love with it. The more I learned about insects the more I learned about biology and the more interesting it became.”

While on active duty, she started the long journey to her bachelor’s degree by taking night classes. Eventually the Air Force gave her a year off to focus on finishing her studies. She was the first in her family to go to college. Using the G.I. Bill, she earned a master’s degree in entomology.

Elizabeth is a medical entomologist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, instructing public health technicians and public health officers about how insects and arthropods make people sick.

“I’ve been an officer for about a year and a half, and I’ll stay in as long as they’ll have me,” she says. She says the flexibility, the travel opportunities, and the stability for her family are the greatest benefits of working for the Air Force.

“To be now here doing this and instructing as I am today really speaks volumes to what the Air Force has done to help me grow and become a leader.”

For additional information about our STEM education initiatives, please visit http://www.dodstem.us/.