Debra Henneberry, EdD and Abner Flores, School of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue University

The Risky Health Care Business

What they do:

Dr. Debra Henneberry, EdD is an Assistant Professor in the College of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue University. She's an experienced commercial pilot, flight instructor, and aeronautics professor. Prior to her current role she served as Assistant Professor in the Aviation Department at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York City. She also served as a government administrator for several years. Dr. Henneberry has worked as a first responder and emergency medical technician for over ten years. Her research interests focus on human factors and she has spoken about pilot training at a number of international aviation psychology conferences.

Professor Abner Flores is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue University. He is an experienced ex-military pilot, navigator, and aircraft technician, who has served in both, the U.S. military and the Honduran Air Force. Over the last 11 years, he has been traveling around the world, teaching and training professional pilot courses in several countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, and lecturing in colleges and universities across the U.S. Prior to coming to Purdue University, Professor Flores was a lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Aviation program. At Purdue, his research interests are focused on Human-Interactive Pilot Enhancing Performance Technologies (Simulation), Data Science for business processes modeling in aviation and Neuroergonomics. He currently teaches courses in Aerospace Vehicle Systems Design, Analysis And Operations, and Human Factors for Flight Crews.

On risk:

"Risk is something that we look into, from every possible perspective associated to whatever it is that there is anything going on, with the understanding that when we think risk it's a constant … When we focus on what it is that we are trying to accomplish, and in this case as far as in aviation is simply we minimize risk, we become safer. And guess what, when we reduce those levels of risk, we become safer, automatically at the same time we are becoming higher performers. And that's what we want. We want to perform at our best. And so risk gets to be where it needs to be down there and we can fly above it … Fatigue is culprit number one, or threat number one, to what we call in aviation situational awareness. It means that you're not anymore connected with the environment, you're not anymore within our concepts of aviation connected with the airplane, you are not any more connected with any one of the systems, you're going to be seeing without seeing … People under emergency situations may revert back to their native when under stress … Everybody must be involved in risk because risk affects us all … If the human element is not up to speed, and that typically is unfortunately the case, then there are going to be issues needing to be resolved."

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