She plans, directs, manages, and controls broad aviation engineering programs which encompass development, technical management, and life cycle engineering for aircraft components, subsystems, systems, and support equipment. Her program responsibility extends over nearly all U.S. Army aircraft projects. She serves as a foremost Army authority on airworthiness and aircraft flight safety. She is the principal executive responsible for providing comprehensive, authoritative technical and management direction for engineering support to a worldwide operational aircraft fleet and for the U.S. Army's Airworthiness Qualification and Aeronautical Design Standards programs.
Prior to her detail as acting director, Dr. Powell-Friend served as the Deputy Director for Acquisition and Performance within SRD, responsible for providing airworthiness support to PEO Aviation-managed aircraft platforms and manpower support to PEO Missiles and Space Life Cycle Engineering disciplines. Dr. Powell-Friend holds a doctoral degree in physics with a focus in fiber optics from Alabama A&M University.