Alumna Jill Marie Demko Receives Skurla Award

MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Florida Institute of Technology College of Aeronautics has named Jill Marie Demko as the 2009 Skurla Award winner. Demko, a 1999 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in aviation management with flight, is an air safety investigator with the Eastern Region of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). She is also a certified flight instructor, commercial pilot and dispatcher.

Demko has completed more than 350 accident and incident investigations in both the domestic and international aviation industry. Her conclusions have been featured in numerous newspapers and trade magazines such as Popular Mechanics and Florida Tech Today.

Her recommended safety adjustments, which promote aviation safety internationally, involve experimental aircrafts, helicopters, gliders, seaplanes, general aviation and commercial air carriers.

The keynote speaker at the recent award ceremony was Executive Director of Lee County Port Authority and Florida Tech alumnus Robert M. Ball, A.A.E., who is also a member of the advisory board to the Florida Tech School of Aeronautics.