Terry L. von Thaden, PhD

President and Founder

Terry von Thaden is professor of Information Science and Human Factors at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. von Thaden holds a B.S. cum laude in Air Traffic Control/Aviation Management/Flight Operations from Daniel Webster College, an M.S. in Safety and Health/Human Factors from the University of Southern California’s Institute of Safety and Systems Management, and a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds professional certification in Aviation Safety, Accident Investigation, and Safety Management. She is a licensed pilot and motorcyclist.

Dr. von Thaden’s research involves methodologies for measuring the culture of safety and information behavior in high-risk, safety critical sociotechnical systems including transportation systems, security, and medicine. Her work investigates human factors affecting risk, decision making, information behavior, training, performance, emergency preparedness, crisis response, corporate relations, and regulatory oversight. In 2010 she founded Illumia, home to the SCISMS, the Safety Culture Indicator assessment tool she developed under multi-year research awards from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Illumia applies her approaches and methods with major industry clients, worldwide.

Dr. von Thaden is a past Fellow of Zonta International, The Transportation Research Board, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and is a member of both the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Beta Phi Mu International Honor Society. She is a member of many professional organizations including the Ninety-Nines, International Organization of Women Pilots (which her grandmother co-founded), The Society of Air Racing Historians, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Association of Aviation Psychologists, the Aerospace Medical Association, American Psychological Society, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the American Society of Information Science and Technology, American Society of Safety Engineers, and Women in Aviation International.