Prof. Amy Pritchett has been appointed Chair of a National Research Council committee, chartered to examine FAA Air Traffic Controller Staffing. The 12-member committee comprised of academic, industry and government representatives is tasked with studying "air traffic controller standards used by the FAA to estimate staffing needs for FAA air traffic controllers to ensure the safe operation of the national airspace in the most cost effective manner." The committee will consult with FAA employee bargaining representatives and other interested parties in conducting their study. They will be examining such factors as productivity, human factors, traffic activity and improved technology and equipment used in air traffic control, including an examination of how the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) may impact controller productivity, safety, and thus staffing requirements during and after implementation of its major concerns.

Congress's main interest in the study are 1) whether the forecasts from FAA's staffing model are reliable for future budgeting purposes and 2) to incorporate cost-effective strategies for staffing aligning with future labor costs and anticipated appropriations.  The committee is tasked with issuing their report by mid-2014.

Amy R. Pritchett is the David S. Lewis Associate Professor of Cognitive Engineering in the School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.  She holds a joint appointment in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.  Dr. Pritchett received bachelor's, master's and Sc.D.degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT in 1992, 1994, and 1997, respectively.

Dr. Pritchett has led numerous research projects sponsored by industry, NASA, and the FAA.  She has also served as Director of NASA's Aviation Safety Program, responsible for planning and execution of the program ($75-82M/year), conducted at 4 NASA research centers and sponsoring roughly 200 research agreements.  She serves on several committees, including the Office of Space and Technology Policy Aeronautics Science and Technology Subcommittee, and the executive committees of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) and Aviaition Safety Analysis Sharing System.

She has published more than 170 scholarly publications in conference proceedings and in scholarly journals such as Human Factors, Journal of Aircraft and Air Traffic Control Quarterly.  She has also won the Radio Technical Commission for Aviation's William H. Jackson Award and, as part of Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), the Collier Trophy, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Avitaion has named a scholarship for her.  Professor Pritchett is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making.  She is a member of the FAA Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) and chairs the Human Factors REDAC subcommittee.  She is also a licensed pilot.