Amelia Dronehart, the women’s drone collective founded by Rhianna Lakin in 2015, launched a new website this week and opened membership to women across the drone industry worldwide. Joining is currently free.
The relaunch comes under new leadership. Kara Murphy, a Part 107 pilot, drone photographer, and writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has taken over as executive director of an organization that has spent most of its life as a closed Facebook group.
The timing is no accident. Amelia Dronehart will have a presence at Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas next week, September 1 to 3, where three of its board members are on the conference program. DroneXL will be on the show floor Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kara Murphy Takes Over a Community Rhianna Lakin Built in 2015
Amelia Dronehart began in 2015 as a closed Facebook group, created as a safe space where women who fly drones could trade advice and encouragement. Under founder Rhianna Lakin, it grew into an international network offering mentorship to women pilots at every experience level.
The name is a play on Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo, as BuzzFeed News noted in 2015 when it called the group the most influential women’s community in the hobby. Lakin herself used drones as a reporting and accountability tool, and trained Indigenous drone pilots during the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests, work rooted in her years witnessing the aftermath of illegal logging in Indonesia.
Murphy inherits that history along with a board and advisory group that pulls from established corners of the industry. Sharon Rossmark, CEO of Women and Drones, serves as an advisor. Aviation attorney Loretta Alkalay, a past guest on DroneXL’s PiXL Drone Show, and Renee Welch of WeRobotics sit on the advisory board and board of directors.
Murphy is direct about how the group positions itself alongside those organizations: “There is plenty of room for all of us.”
Free Membership Moves the Community Off Facebook
Membership is open now at ameliadronehart.com and free for a limited time. Members can build a profile and connect with other members off Facebook, the platform that has hosted the community since Lakin started the group more than a decade ago, with event listings and educational resources to follow.
The announcement doesn’t say when the free window closes. (Smart, either way: the fastest route to rebuilding a decade-old member roster is to not charge for it.)
The site also carries a blog, an events calendar, a merchandise shop, and a submission form for women who want their work in the industry featured on the organization’s channels.
Board Members Take the Stage at Commercial UAV Expo
Commercial UAV Expo runs September 1 to 3 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, and Amelia Dronehart will be there. Three board members are on the conference program, with sessions covering drone applications, technology, and the future UAS workforce, according to the organization.
Attendees can find the group at the Women and Drones booth (#340) and in the Sundance Media Group area (#1852). Jennifer Pidgen, Renee Jones, Sharon Rossmark, La’Quata Sumter, and Desiree Ekstein will sign copies of their books at booth 340, per the organization.
The organization also points to the growing number of women among this year’s speakers and moderators, and Murphy says she’s excited to see more women represented throughout the conference.
DroneXL’s Take
The drone industry talks constantly about its workforce problem, then treats groups like this one as a nice-to-have. The numbers argue otherwise. The FAA counted 492,311 certificated remote pilots at the end of 2025, up 15.1 percent in a single year, and women hold about 9 percent of those certificates, per Women and Drones’ analysis of the agency’s year-end data. A field growing that fast can’t afford to keep recruiting from only half the population.
In the six-plus years DroneXL has covered this industry, the same lesson keeps landing. Oklahoma is building a drone workforce from the classroom up. An all-girls drone team from D.C. won a top award at the national drone championships. Put aircraft, training, and a welcoming room in front of people the industry has overlooked, and pilots show up, something we’ve seen in drone racing too.
Amelia Dronehart kept women in this industry connected for a decade from inside a Facebook group, through every hype cycle and every ban scare. Giving it a real home and free membership is the cheapest workforce program anyone will fund this year.
I’ll be at Commercial UAV Expo Tuesday and Wednesday, and booth 340 is on my list. If you’re a woman flying drones, or thinking about it, this one costs you nothing. That math is easy.
Source: Amelia Dronehart
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
