Courtney Wright is in her twelfth year working for INCOSE as the Certification Program Manager. She first became involved with INCOSE when she became a CSEP in 2007.

Prior to her time at INCOSE, Courtney worked as a contractor for multiple US government agencies. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia, she started off performing modeling and simulation for the US Air Force. She then continued her education with a Master’s in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and she transitioned to working at NASA. Courtney performed discrete event simulations, requirements analysis, and many other SE functions while working at Johnson Space Center as an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton.

In addition to performing systems engineering, Courtney has taught SE professional development courses to hundreds of FAA employees and contractors. She enjoys helping professionals learn that what they’ve been doing throughout their career fits under the Systems Engineering umbrella, and that there are best practices available for it! This relates closely to her work with INCOSE’s Certification Program, where she helps people who are new to formal SE learn how much opportunity there is to learn and grow within the field.

Courtney created INCOSE’s Academic Equivalency Program, which draws in hundreds of new SEPs each year. She also created the paper exam path to delivering the knowledge exam and led INCOSE to transition to online testing. Under Courtney’s leadership, the Certification Program has quadrupled in size and expanded to more broadly cover the globe. It also gives her a platform for puns like SEPtember and T-shirts advertising her as “deSEPtively STRONG.”  

If you cross paths with Courtney, you are sure to see her smiling and offering help.