Arlando Teller (’95, PC) vividly recalls nervously typing his admissions application to Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus.
“I was unsure and I was leaving the nest,” says Teller, who is believed to be the first Navajo and one of the first American Indians to graduate from the Prescott Campus. “But I knew I wanted to go to school here.”
Laura Tyler Perryman (’88, PC) is one of the youngest graduates to have completed an undergraduate degree at the Prescott Campus. She earned her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering when she was just 19 years old.
Both Teller and Perryman were inducted into the Prescott Campus Chancellor’s Hall of Fame on Oct. 6, 2017, during the annual OctoberWest Alumni Homecoming festivities. Prescott Campus Chancellor Frank Ayers established the Alumni Hall of Fame to recognize the significant contributions of prominent Prescott Campus alumni to their profession, the community, the campus and the university.
“I was humbled to be named to the hall of fame, especially as a woman in the predominantly male sector of engineering and sciences,” Perryman says.
Careers of Service
Teller has led a career dedicated to improving transportation for the Navajo Nation. As deputy division director at the Navajo Division of Transportation, he oversees the Navajo Nation’s airport infrastructure and airport system, along with thousands of miles of road maintenance, multi-modal planning, highway safety and project management. He has also been instrumental in creating a partnership between the Navajo Nation, Armstrong Consultants Inc. and Embry-Riddle that provides scholarships for Navajo teenagers to attend Embry-Riddle’s career exploration summer programs.
Perryman’s career has focused on improving lives. She is the founder, co-inventor and CEO of Stimwave Technologies, a privately held medical device company in Pompano Beach, Florida. Stimwave develops, manufactures and commercializes wirelessly powered, microtechnology neurostimulators that provide a pain management solution to patients in more than 38 countries. After her father died at age 58 from advanced-stage type 2 diabetes, Perryman felt compelled to investigate ways to use technology to improve medical care.
“Success for me is really based on how I can improve technology to help others,” Perryman says.
Hall of Fame Distinction
Ayers says both Teller and Perryman are examples of Prescott Campus alumni whose professional contributions are making a difference in their respective communities and industries.
“Arlando Teller’s outreach on behalf of Embry-Riddle and his stewardship of aviation within the Navajo Nation has been longstanding and exemplary,” Ayers says. “Perryman’s commitment to use the engineering skills she gained at Embry-Riddle to help others suffering long-term pain management issues is representative of the service our graduates provide to our nation and society as a whole.”
Before founding Stimwave, Perryman was an executive working in the technology and internet sectors. She held engineering and program management positions at Rocketdyne, Seiko-Epson, Rockwell Semiconductors and Disney Imagineering, as well as completed professional campaign management consultancy engagements with Major League Baseball, Body Makeover, Suzuki, First Alert and Goldman Sachs.
After graduating from Embry-Riddle with a B.S. in Aviation Business Administration, Teller gained valuable experience managing multi-modal transportation projects for planes (airport planning at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor), trains (BART to San Jose), automobiles (corridor management plans), pedestrians (Safe Routes to School with Oakland) and marine transport (the Vallejo Ferry System). Teller grew up on the Navajo Nation in a single parent household, alongside grandparents, one of whom was a World War II Navajo code talker. Wanting to return to the reservation to help his community, Teller began working in 2009 as a senior transportation planner for the Navajo Nation Division of Transportation.