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Mandy Galaxia reflects on her journey from Navy nuclear electrician to aerospace leader and how a lifelong curiosity for flight shaped her approach to problem-solving, training, and people-first leadership.
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Mandy Galaxia’s fascination with flight started when she was a kid sitting on the roof of her Florida home, watching Space Shuttle launches arc across the sky. Today, when she hears a plane overhead, she still looks up every time.
In this Q&A, Mandy reflects on how she continues to follow her curiosity - from 17-year-old Navy nuclear electrician to rocket enthusiast in the Mojave to six years at GE Aerospace and now six years at Covalent - and how her journey has shaped her thinking on problem-solving, training, and human-centered leadership.
Mandy: Military service runs deep in my family. I have relatives I deeply admire who served, including several who fought and died in major world wars, so I felt a strong pull to give back to a country I loved. I joined the Navy at 17.
I had been accepted to college too, but the Navy's nuclear program gave me a guaranteed path to do big, meaningful work fast, with the added adventure of seeing the world. I knew if I wanted to pursue college later, that option would still be available later.
Mandy: Navy nuclear training is over two years of relentless education where you master every nitty-gritty detail of how a reactor works. You aren't just memorizing operational steps; you are forced to understand the why.
Because we mastered the underlying physics of the system, we could troubleshoot complex failures under pressure, ask deeper questions, and react correctly when unexpected issues arose. That level of deep comprehension instilled a mindset I still rely on every single day.
Mandy: I was obsessed with space and flight for as long as I can remember. I went to Space Camp three times, joined the Civil Air Patrol, and learned to fly young. Growing up in Florida, I used to sit on my roof just to watch Space Shuttles launch into orbit.
After my Navy service, I was ready for civilian life and didn't want to miss any more major family milestones. Naturally, I turned back to my first love: things that fly. Embry-Riddle is the #1 school in the nation for aerospace engineering, so I attended an open house out of curiosity. The moment I saw what undergraduate students were building, I was hooked.
I started in Aerospace Engineering, briefly considered Mechanical to build space rovers, and ultimately landed on Engineering Physics with a Space Systems minor, because I wanted to work on space stuff and the fundamental laws pushing technology out into the cosmos.
Mandy: It was electric. The campus is connected to the Daytona Beach Airport, and aviation is woven into every part of campus life. When hundreds of people obsessed with the exact same passion gather in one place, magic happens. Literally, anytime a plane flew overhead, every person on campus stopped and looked up.
In the physics department, they made us derive every single equation from scratch. They taught us that if you master the underlying mechanics of physics rather than memorizing homework patterns, you can solve any novel problem that comes your way.
Mandy: It all comes down to the people. Systems only work because knowledgeable, empowered people run them.
Early in my time at GE, we were hiring new team members every week, and I noticed a gap: people were executing steps simply because they were told to, not because they understood the bigger picture. I redesigned our onboarding program to teach new hires everything from how a jet engine operates to why regulatory tolerances are so critical. I would bring technicians to an engine, show them the exact spot where their part fit, and explain why being off by a thousandth of an inch mattered for safety.
When you tell someone what to do, you get compliance. When you teach them why it matters, you get mastery. Bringing that standard to shop-floor technicians creates a culture where people feel respected, capable, and deeply accountable. The more information you arm your team with, the better decisions they will make for the business. That same thought process carries into my work at Covalent today, helping our customers strengthen how they train and support their people to make better decisions on the floor. It’s similar to my work at GE but at a much bigger scale.
Mandy: The industry is facing a massive skills shortage, and the opportunities are endless. Veterans bring discipline and composure, while aerospace graduates bring technical curiosity; both are invaluable.
My advice? Figure out what excites you, find a company doing that work, call them up, and ask to shadow someone for a week. People are often surprised by what’s being built right in their own backyards, from advanced composite structures to revolutionary propulsion systems.
You never know until you ask. The worst they can say is no, but the best thing that can happen is finding yourself working on the next generation of technology about to take flight.
We’re proud to have Mandy on our team as a Senior Customer Success Manager, where she brings those lessons in technical rigor, training, and people development to the industrial teams she supports every day.
Building a well-structured and comprehensive training program is a challenging yet critical component of achieving operational success on the shop floor. No role is more central to the construction and execution of these programs than a manufacturing training manager. We've recently sat down with Mandy Björkland Galaxia, current Customer Success Manager at Covalent, who has extensive experience as a manufacturing training coordinator . We discussed how vital the training process is and the steps organizations can take to improve it.
We’re thrilled to introduce Yogi Rana, the latest addition to the Covalent team. In his role as Director of Product Strategy, he oversees the research and development of net new opportunities to expand our platform and add more value to customers.
