Alumnus credits ISE faculty for Army career success

Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) alumnus Brandon Daugherty credits the ISE faculty for preparing him for his career as the director of safety for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM).

Daugherty earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University in 2007 and a master’s in 2011. He also earned a graduate certificate in occupational safety and ergonomics in 2011.

As the director of safety, Daugherty oversees four safety divisions; Air Defense, Aviation, Operations, and Tactical Missiles. He manages a workforce of more than 80 employees consisting primarily of safety engineers, occupational safety and health managers and aviation maintenance specialists. Daugherty also advises AMCOM leadership on safety and maintenance matters impacting U.S. Army Aviation and Missile systems to optimize joint Warfighter capabilities at the point of need.

Daugherty has almost 14 years of safety engineering and risk management experience across the private and public sectors supporting Army aviation weapon systems. Before his current role, Daugherty served in various roles within the Aviation Systems Safety Division at the AMCOM Safety Office, including aviation system safety division chief, manned aircraft team lead, safety of flight team lead and system safety engineer.

Daugherty said engineering always intrigued him as a kid.

“I enjoyed learning about all things that moved,” he said. “I didn’t care as much about the finer things of a jet engine as much as I cared about how the jet engine works with the entire aircraft. The design of the entire aircraft from nose to tail intrigued me the most and that macro-level thinking best aligned with ISE when I researched the various engineering disciplines.”

Daugherty also had a personal connection with John Evans, Charles D. Miller Chair Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, through a family member who previously worked with Evans in private industry.

“His vast and pertinent experience made my decision simple,” he said. “He provided great insight to help me make that decision. In short, ISE provided me with the knowledge base and opportunity to have an engineering career that aligned with my interests.”

The Center for Occupational Safety, Ergonomics, and Injury Prevention set Daugherty on the track to become a system safety engineer. He credits an elective course taken during his first semester of graduate school with this trajectory.

“The safety engineering course aligned my career goals of macro-level thinking and processes with my personal goal of finding a career in the defense sector in the Huntsville area,” he said. “After a few long discussions with OSE faculty, I joined the OSE team, and the rest is history. The core ISE curriculum, coupled with the OSE curriculum, set me up for success, but the guidance and insight from professors along the way were an invaluable resource to me. Overall, the ISE curriculum and faculty made me a better student of engineering and a better person. I’m forever grateful.”