Sheila Cummings

Sheila Cummings is the founder, president and CEO of Cummings Aerospace, Inc., a Native American Woman-Owned Small Business and Small Disadvantaged Business. Since its inception in 2009, Cummings has led all corporate operations and strategic development for Cummings Aerospace.

Headquartered in Huntsville, Ala., with corporate offices in Niceville and St. Petersburg, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz., Cummings Aerospace specializes in flight science solutions and technologies for aerospace systems in support of Department of Defense customers.

Cummings’s aerospace engineering expertise stems from her role as a government civilian spacecraft thermal engineer with the Naval Research Laboratory, and later as a government contractor systems engineer on multiple missile defense programs. Before forming Cummings Aerospace, Cummings led a $30 million missile defense business unit as vice president of a small engineering company in Arlington, Va.

Cummings plays an active leadership role in non-profit organizations, advisory boards and participates in STEM-focused community outreach initiatives. She founded the ACE Scholarship Program at the University of Alabama, which provides education funding to economically disadvantaged minority students pursuing an engineering, math, or science degree.

Cummings began her undergraduate studies at UNC Pembroke before transferring to receive a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1996.