Loree Draude
AUTHOR

Loree Draude

Biographies & Memoirs
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Loree Draude is the first female training-qualified landing signal officer in the U.S. Navy. As a pilot she has flown F/A-18 Hornets, S-3 Vikings, TA-4 Skyhawks, T-2 Buckeyes, and T-34 Mentor military aircraft. Loree earned her commission through the NROTC program at the University of San Diego, where she majored in mathematics. She began her naval aviation career as a support pilot at VAQ-34, flying F/A-18 Hornets at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California. When the Combat Exclusion Policy for women was repealed, Loree transitioned to a combat jet aviation squadron where she flew the S-3B Viking and completed two six-month deployments to the Persian Gulf on the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Kitty Hawk. Besides piloting jet aircraft, Loree was a division officer responsible for leading teams of enlisted sailors and the squadron’s aviation safety officer, responsible for ensuring her squadron followed safe operating procedures. During her second deployment, she became the first woman air wing-qualified landing signal officer (LSO), a role awarded to a small percentage of naval aviators for the responsibility of helping fixed-wing pilots land safely on the carrier. Loree spent over a year of her life deployed at sea and accumulated over 300 carrier landings, including 99 at night. She completed her naval aviation career as a fleet replacement squadron instructor pilot, where she taught newly winged naval aviators how to fly the S-3B Viking and land it on an aircraft carrier. She also led the largest division in the squadron — a team of over 100 aircraft maintenance technicians. After her naval service, Loree earned an MBA at the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. She spent 20 years in Silicon Valley, leading teams at startups and tech companies, including Google and Meta, in marketing, operations, and customer support organizations. In 2020, she started her own executive coaching and leadership development business to support leaders and teams in the tech industry. She is the host of the Supersonic Leaders and Teams podcast and a certified yoga instructor. Loree wrote a one-woman show called I Feel the Need about the first West Coast aircraft carrier deployment with women in combat squadrons. Directed by Beth Bornstein Dunnington, the show debuted Off-Broadway at the 2021 United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC, where it sold out and won the award for Best Direction. Loree performed her show 23 times at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and, in 2023, performed it at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where it was nominated for several awards. Loree has been laid off, forced to shut down her startup due to lack of funding, been divorced, fired, and quit her job. She also overuses commas in her writing. When she is not supporting leaders or speaking onstage, she enjoys painting (www.encaustech.com), traveling, yoga, hiking, and flying.
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