A Daphne native who once dreamed of being an astronaut has spent her career bouncing between two worlds most people would never think to connect: designing software used by the nation’s missile defense programs, and building a homegrown business celebrating local artists and crafters back in her hometown.
Elizabeth Hayes, 34, grew up in the Daphne area as part of the Volovecky family and graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2002, followed by a master’s degree in aerospace engineering with a concentration in astrodynamics in 2007. She has said her path into the field was straightforward for anyone who loved math and science but couldn’t quite major in “astronaut.”
In 2004, Hayes began working for Science Applications International Corporation in Huntsville, joining a team of roughly 150 people doing Department of Defense work supporting the missile defense agency in Washington, D.C. She worked with both Army and Navy customers, including partners based in Virginia, and helped develop the software behind a program called Umpire, which allows users to input missile attack scenarios and model the likely outcomes using real defense data. The Umpire program, still in use today, was made available free of charge to government employees.
Hayes moved back to Daphne in 2006 but continued working for the Huntsville-based company remotely, still traveling frequently for her job. Her career took a turn in 2012, when defense budget cuts hit her employer and Hayes, who by then was managing the Umpire program, chose to shift to part-time work so the rest of her team could keep more hours. That same year, her father’s business, Belforest Small Engine and Marine Repair, burned to the ground.
Roughly three weeks after the fire, Hayes said she had an idea: build something the community could rent out, which quickly evolved into a business promoting local artists and crafters. As she weighed her uncertain future with a company in the middle of splitting into two separate corporate entities, Hayes began laying the groundwork for what would become a consignment shop for local makers.
Her path changed again in October 2013, when she learned about Algae Systems, a research company, during a Lake Forest Garden Club meeting she attended with her grandmother. Curious despite not job-hunting, she reached out to the company for more information, and by that November, Algae Systems had offered her a position. She now serves as an operations manager and research engineer there, applying her aerospace background to an entirely different scientific field while continuing to build her craft business, Seasons consignment crafts and gifts, which opened locally around the same time.
Rob McElroy, Algae Systems’ vice president of operations and market development, said Hayes has quickly proven herself an asset to the company. He noted that the engineering field remains heavily male-dominated, and praised Hayes not as a standout among women in the industry, but simply as a standout engineer, period.
Hayes has said she sees no real conflict between designing missile-scenario software and stitching together a handmade nap mat for her son’s preschool bag: both come from the same underlying drive to build something from nothing, whether it serves the country’s defense needs or simply helps a Daphne neighbor find a market for their crafts.