Amber Anderson grew up in Indiana and graduated from Indiana State University (where she was part of the 1%). She completed a master’s degree in electro-optics engineering from the University of Dayton (where she was part of the 1%) and finally ended up at Kirtland AFB working space focal plane array programs (where she was part of the 1%).

Amber spent 11 years working pervasive space technology programs with a brief stint in Madrid, Spain (where she most definitely part of the 1%). After moving around in the government to directed energy systems, she landed a position as a program manager for a cUAS program (where it all began to click). She ran the THOR program for 4 years before melting away into an outreach effort whose goal was to identify ways in which directed energy could be used in more commercial applications. She recently moved from that external facing role to a deputy program manager position for a joint-service base defense program.

When she’s not working (let’s face it, she’s always on the clock), she’s spending time coaching kids’ soccer, playing Smash Brothers and being a wife (doing the dishes).