While in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2012-17, Amber Garrett worked on CH-53s, Hueys and Cobras. Her military experience running the structures shop for the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 29 (MALS-29) has helped her advance quickly in her civilian career path.
Garrett obtained her A&P license from the Aviation Institute of Maintenance in Las Vegas and began working for Duncan Aviation in Provo, Utah, in 2020. She started on the airframes fuel team, transitioned to structures and today is the airframe structures team leader. In this role, her job is “building people and making sure that we’re putting out quality work.”
During a 2022 Duncan Aviation culture audit, Garrett’s team was the highest ranking in terms of positive feedback. This is due largely in part due to the mindset instilled upon her by her parents of “Treat others the way you want to be treated.”
“People are going to treat you nicely if you treat them nicely,” she says. “If you work hard for people and work hard to help them grow, they’ll work hard for you.”
She provides training, mentoring and skill-building opportunities to help her team members grow in their roles and advance their careers. When she noticed new hires often had sheet metal experience, but did not have composite experience, she researched composite schools in the area. Duncan Aviation, so far, has sent four team members to the Abaris Composite School in Reno, and Garrett herself has taken advanced composite courses. Today she continues to look for ways to improve not only herself but her team and the organization.
Her career aspiration is to one day become a tech rep because she says, “I like problem solving.”
