Michael Huerta

ATCA is very proud to announce that it will present its highest honor, the Glen A. Gilbert Memorial Award, to Michael Huerta, a first generation college graduate from Riverside, Calif., who rose as an accomplished technology and transportation executive with a deep passion for safety and public service to become the longest-serving administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), presiding over the safest period in U.S. aviation history.

Huerta is the fifth former FAA Administrator to be honored with this award, joining Najeeb Halaby (1988), J. Lynn Helms (1989), Langhorne Bond (1999), and Jane Garvey (2011).

Huerta held senior positions at the U.S. Department of Transportation under Secretaries Federico Peña and Rodney Slater. In 2010, he became the FAA’s Deputy Administrator, serving under FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. In December 2011, Huerta became Acting Administrator when Babbitt departed from the FAA. Huerta was nominated for Administrator in 2013 by President Barack Obama and, after Senate confirmation, served a full five-year term, through January 2018.

During his tenure, the FAA redefined its regulatory relationship with the aviation industry and achieved key milestones in its NextGen air traffic modernization mission through improved collaboration – with both industry and the FAA’s own workforce – and data sharing. He served as the first Designated Federal Official of the NextGen Advisory Committee, introduced drones into the National Airspace System (NAS), and enabled a new era of airspace management, creating thousands of satellite-based routes and commercial space flights into the NAS. Along the way, he led the Agency through countless challenges, including two government shutdowns and 23 short-term funding extensions.