• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2026

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Aerospace Engineering, ‘26

• Mentor: TBD

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

LaMya Powell is a senior in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a member of the Brooke Owens Fellowship Class of 2026. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she is passionate about sustainable aviation and is especially excited about the potential of zero-emission vehicles to shape the future of flight. She is drawn to engineering work that directly improves people's day-to-day lives in meaningful ways. She hopes to build a career at the intersection of aerospace innovation, sustainability, and community impact.

At Illinois, LaMya is an undergraduate researcher in the Laboratory for Electric Aircraft Design and Sustainability, where she studies jet noise. She has also explored research projects with the university’s Center for Sustainable Aviation. Her interest in sustainable aerospace has also been shaped by a wide range of professional experiences. She has held internships with Southern Company, Exelon, Emerson Professional Tools, and Pentair, working on teams including operations, sustaining engineering, and research and development. Across those roles, she found herself most energized by projects that involved researching and testing a system, learning what could be improved, and iterating on the design to make it more efficient and reliable for the end-users. Those experiences helped clarify that she wants her work to contribute directly to society's betterment and progress.

LaMya has also explored sustainability in an international setting. With eight years of Mandarin studies under her belt, while studying abroad in China, she worked on ways to sustainably reduce water consumption at Zhejiang University, an experience that broadened her perspective on how engineering challenges and environmental priorities connect across communities. On campus, she is active in her National Society of Black Engineers chapter and is proud to have been recognized as both a Sutter Passion for Flight Award recipient and an Illinois Promise Scholar.

In Summer 2026, LaMya will join Joby Aviation as a Powertrain Mechanical Engineer Intern on the Battery Team. In the long term, she hopes to use sustainable aerospace practices to positively impact marginalized communities and help ensure that the benefits of innovation are more widely felt. In her free time, she enjoys photography, singing, reading, and taking nature walks.