Over the River, to Grandmother’s House Shapes FAA Community Engagement Officer
Justin Biassou caught the aviation bug early. Today, he combines community outreach skills with a love of flying, demonstrating the breadth of career options the aerospace industry offers.
By Callie Dosberg, FAA Office of Communications
It was in a 1984 Volkswagen GTI Rabbit Hatchback where Justin Biassou, an FAA Community Engagement Officer for the Northwest Mountain and Alaskan Regions, first “caught the bug.”
Trips to visit his grandmother meant traveling over New Jersey’s Bayonne Bridge in the family car. With the sunroof open, Biassou could see jetliners landing at Newark International Airport, and by the age of five, his interest in aviation had begun. When his family moved to Atlanta a few years later, a segment on the local news caught his attention about a nonprofit called Aviation Career Enrichment (ACE) that offered weekend aviation camps.
“I was 12 years old when I saw that news segment, and saw African American pilots getting kids excited about aviation,” said Biassou. “They were teaching ground school, using simulators, and taking kids out flying. I wanted to be a part of that.”
Biassou’s parents made this a teachable moment, telling him if this was something he was interested in he should take ownership of it. They handed him the phone number to call. A nervous Biassou picked up the phone and later got a call back from Julius Alexander, the founder of ACE.
The ACE Academy afforded him many memorable opportunities and experiences, including visits to the Louisville Flight Museum with members of the Tuskegee Airmen and trips to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Biassou received his private pilot’s license at the age of 17 and currently holds a multi-engine instrument rating with over 600 flight hours.
In college at Oklahoma State University, Biassou earned a bachelor’s degree in aviation sciences and management, and, following a run for Stillwater City Council at 21 years old, he met the regional airport authority. This exposed him to another facet of aviation: interaction with government and other stakeholders, a critical component in the field. He began his career in aviation after being appointed by the mayor to serve as chairman of the Stillwater Oklahoma Regional Airport Authority. With passion, enthusiasm and youth on his side, Biassou initiated and successfully led the initiative to recruit American Airlines to provide daily service from Stillwater to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Then, an opportunity came along for Biassou to relocate to D.C. to work for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) as their leadership annual giving manager & Great Lakes regional manager. As he traveled across the U.S. raising funds and advocating on behalf of the Association and its aviation safety and policy initiatives, he again found himself working closely with various groups of stakeholders from government, trade, and industry. An interest and fascination with public policy research then took Biassou to the D.C. based think-tank, the Brookings Institution. While there he served as their associate director, managing community outreach and engagement activities in Seattle, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco for the Brookings Council and Society chapters.
“This was an incredible experience leading external engagement stakeholder discussions alongside the Brookings scholarship, and it was that very subject matter expertise I wished to provide to the aviation space,” said Biassou.
In 2019, Biassou was selected for a newly created role at the FAA as a community engagement officer. In this position, he serves as the liaison to the Northwest Mountain and Alaskan Regional Administrators and is responsible for interacting and engaging with airlines, airports, community and environmental groups, public agencies, and congressional officials to hear concerns and address high profile issues such as a Metroplex implementation. Biassou ensures the FAA’s message is delivered to those important stakeholder groups, presenting agency positions associated with airspace projects, including performance-based navigation (PBN) procedures.
“This role has been a rewarding opportunity to combine my passions for aviation, relationship building, and problem solving to serve an agency which I have engaged with for many years,” said Biassou.
Joining the FAA has also given Biassou the chance to pay it forward and introduce young people to aviation. Today, he serves on the board of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) as the Southwest regional director and the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE) as the vice president of the Pacific Northwest chapter. His work with these groups lets him interact with kids through numerous outreach events and activities, including ACE Academies, which have become a nationally recognized program co-sponsored by FAA, NBCFAE, and OBAP. Just like the Bayonne Bridge first opened his eyes to aviation, Biassou is now a bridge himself to many young people as they learn about aerospace.
“This is a chance to pay it forward and offer some of the same opportunities and exposure to aviation that I had as a young person,” said Biassou. “It’s exciting to keep in touch and hear back from students that may be starting their first job at an airline or moving into the industry.”
The ACE Academy provides unique summer aviation education programs for elementary, middle and high school students who are interested in aviation and aerospace. The program provides students with a wide range of aviation career exploration experiences and also focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Go to faa.gov/education for more information about FAA programs and to find an ACE Academy near you.
