Collins Aerospace: A Culture that Embraces Veterans

Gary Halstead

Gary Halstead is the Program Manager of veteran hiring initiatives and a talent acquisition recruiter supporting the Mission Systems division at Collins Aerospace . He recently retired from the US Air Force after a 20 year career in military recruiting and avionics maintenance. He was Collins Aerospace inaugural SkillBridge Fellow to onboard utilizing this exciting program and is honored to be able to develop this opportunity for veterans to find a post-military career supporting the aviation and defense industries with the company.

Megan Lewis-Taylor

Lewis-Taylor is a highly-skilled Senior Test and Validation Engineer for the Interiors division of Collins Aerospace. She transitioned into aerospace following her career as a Police Officer. In addition to her service in law enforcement, Megan is a Veteran of the United States Coast Guard where she was among the first responders to multiple crises, including both the Boston Marathon bombing and Hurricane Sandy. Her search and rescue missions resulted in saving the lives of at least 10 people. Megan has also been featured in Minority Engineering Magazine as a standout military veteran engineer. She exemplifies her unwavering devotion to public service by serving on the leadership team for Raytheon Technologies’ partnership with Engineers Without Borders. Megan Lewis-Taylor’s broad career journey allows her to leverage lean leadership as an Engineer to build a culture of continuous improvement and work towards creating an equal opportunity infrastructure.

Hunter Canning

Hunter Canning is a New York based actor, puppeteer, producer and photographer. A conscience citizen of the world, his ethos is bringing people together through all the facets of his life. Be it producing live performance downtown, creating corporate recruitment content or photographing portraiture, red carpets and live events; Hunter has a passion for bringing people together to foster growth, kindness and a true understanding of each other.

Raised in the outer canyons of Los Angeles, Hunter has been a professional actor in New York for the past decade. Notable credits include Broadway’s War Horse (Lincoln Center), Blue Bloods (CBS), The Baker & The Beauty (ABC) and Ray Donovan (Showtime). A career that has seen dizzying heights, all the while remaining with his two feet on the ground.

It is with great pleasure that Hunter joins the Power To Fly community to host and mediate its forums. He looks forward to meeting you all and connecting you with the amazing team of professionals they have brought together.