2021 HENAAC Awards

In her nearly four-decade career at Bell Textron, Patricia R. Sanchez – or Patsy as she’s known to her friends and colleagues – has built a reputation as an expert on Bell’s 412 aircraft, the descendent of the legendary Huey helicopter.  She became an authority that designers and project leads would lean on to verify their plans and designs, and “go ask Patsy” became a common phrase around Bell.

Her deep knowledge of the components and processes employed to build and maintain the 412 and many other legacy aircraft led to her becoming a project engineer in Bell’s commercial business, where she excelled and worked effectively with a variety of departments in the U.S. and Canada. Her latest role as a commercial applications engineering manager was a step up for her in responsibilities, and recognition of her value to Bell Textron.

Patsy’s story is one of persistence, perseverance, and continual advancement. She began her career 1981 in Bell’s Mass Properties discipline where she became a technical point of contact for the company’s mainframe database WAVES program.  Over the years, Patsy led successive upgrades and re-platforming projects for WAVES, the success of which has been essential to Bell’s ability to meet precise customer requirements.

From her time as a college student at the University of Texas at El Paso, this first generation Mexican American from the Texas-Mexico border – and the fourth of six sisters – has poured her heart and soul into the community. Among the many initiatives she’s taken up, her leadership roles with various groups that help women experiencing domestic violence find full-time housing and job training opportunities is perhaps the most laudable.