AFRL officer serves country, community

  • Published
  • By Jeanne Dailey
  • Air Force Research Laboratory
For Capt. Chana Greene, an Air Force Research Laboratory scientist, the past eight years the Air Force has given her what she wanted: a job with meaning and purpose.

"I was destined to be an engineer or a scientist as the daughter of a math teacher and nuclear engineer," Greene said.

Greene arrived at Kirtland in 2013 to work in the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate following an assignment at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and a five-month deployment in Qatar. She leads a team that is developing tools and models to assess and compare the performance of potential processors for future Air Force space missions. She plans to separate from the Air Force in late September.

"Capt. Greene has impressed everyone with her great initiative, and she has made an impactful contribution to the mission of AFRL," said her branch chief Marc Owens. "She will be missed."

Originally from Kennewick, Wash., Greene attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she majored in physics with a minor in Spanish. Upon graduation, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. The commissioning was done on the USS Constitution, which she described as a "pretty cool experience." She earned a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Washington.

Greene is a volunteer in the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, where she has logged more than 1,800 hours.

"Our primary mission is to provide support to a victim post-assault. We want to make sure the individual gets any medical treatment and counseling right away," she said. "I became interested in helping assault victims when I was in college and a close friend was assaulted. At that time there were no formal victim advocate programs at universities. I often wonder how different my friend's recovery might have been had she had a trained advocate to help her."

In 2013, Col. Tom Miller, 377th Air Base Wing commander, recognized Greene at an event for military members with a record of outstanding volunteer service.

"In addition to being very technically competent, I commend Capt. Greene for her generous help to the SAPR program -- a very worthy and noble cause," said Babu Singaraju, the Spacecraft Technology division chief.

Greene said the people she has worked are a highlight of her time in the Air Force.

"The Air Force has allowed me to gain experiences and make impacts that would have been impossible in any other career," she said. "In the Air Force, along with lots of things in life, it helps to have personal initiative. You don't always have someone there to teach you all you need to know about your job or tell you what to do, so you need to learn things on your own."

Greene stays active in her free time as well. She recently started cycling, which allows her to see Albuquerque in a different way, she said. And she helps a former co-worker as a crewmember on his hot air balloon. She and her husband, who is also in the Air Force, spend time with their dogs and they enjoy snowboarding and hiking. She knits and loves to go to movies, especially the Guild Theater in Albuquerque.

"After the Air Force, I'm exploring going back to school for my doctorate in applied mathematics, working at a hardware incubator start-up company or helping out a nonprofit organization aimed at empowering young women who have survived abuse," she said.