A new chapter in Monterey Bay’s aviation workforce story is underway.

Monterey Bay DART, in partnership with Hartnell College, is implementing the Maturing Regional AgTech and Aerospace Job Readiness Pathways program, known as MsUAS Pathways, a two-year initiative made possible by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation. The program is designed to do something deceptively straightforward: connect people in our region to real, well-paying careers in drones and aerospace technology, including residents who’ve never seen themselves reflected in this industry before.

MsUAS Pathways is the community-embedded implementation arm of a broader regional sUAS workforce ecosystem that DART is building alongside UC Santa Cruz’s CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER). Under a recently amended Memorandum of Understanding, MsUAS Pathways and CIDER’s Drones Uplifting the Central Coast (DUCC) initiative now function as complementary components of a single regional strategy — what we and our CIDER partners describe as “a regional sUAS ecosystem, two complementary investment strategies.”

What Is MsUAS Pathways?

The drone industry is growing fast. From agricultural monitoring in the Salinas Valley to advanced air mobility operations emerging in Marina and beyond, employers across our region are actively looking for workers with technical training and FAA credentials. But for many community members — first-generation college students, farmworker families, residents of Seaside, and military veterans, the path into these careers has been unclear, if visible at all.

MsUAS Pathways is built to change that.

Over the next two years, the program aims to serve 150 participants across Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties, preparing at least 50 individuals to earn FAA Part 107 certification, the core commercial drone credential, while building durable pathways into aerospace careers.

How It Works: Five Workstreams, One Regional Vision

The program works across five coordinated areas:

1. Community College Drone Education. DART and Hartnell College are developing a standalone Part 107 certification course, built around CIDER’s publicly available FAA Part 107 curriculum, and integrating drone curriculum into existing STEM and agricultural technology programs. Faculty training is underway, with the first student cohort set to launch this summer. Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) is also part of this effort, with a drone pathway pilot planned for the Seaside and Marina campuses.
2. Community-Based Pathways in Seaside. In partnership with the Monterey County Black Caucus (MCBC) and local schools, the program is creating accessible entry points for Seaside youth and adults who face the greatest barriers to high-growth technical careers. Community workshops, outreach, and wraparound student support are central to this effort.
3. Veteran & Military-Connected Pathways. The Monterey Bay region is home to the Naval Postgraduate School, the Defense Language Institute, and a significant veterans community, yet military-to-civilian career transitions in aerospace remain frustratingly fragmented. MsUAS Pathways is working with local veteran-serving organizations to map military skills to FAA certifications and create a clear, supportive transition pathway.
4. Employer Engagement. Workforce training only works if it connects to real jobs. The program is building active relationships with employers across aerospace, agriculture, construction, public safety, and advanced air mobility, including companies like Joby Aviation, to ensure students move from training into employment.
5. Coordination, Evaluation, and Sustainability. DART is investing in the infrastructure needed to make this work last: program coordination, regular reporting, and a sustainability plan designed to secure long-term funding through state workforce programs and employer partnerships after the grant period ends.

Leading the Work: Peter Church

DART welcomed Peter Church as MsUAS Project Lead in January 2026. A former U.S. Navy H-60 Seahawk pilot, Naval Academy flight instructor, and Joby Aviation training developer, Peter brings exactly the kind of cross-sector experience this program requires: deep aviation expertise, a commitment to education, and firsthand understanding of what military-to-civilian transitions actually look like.

“This program will create great opportunities and community-based on-ramps to a growing industry,” Peter said when he joined the team. “We can’t wait to connect people to quality training and meaningful careers in UAS operations.”

Part of an Integrated Regional sUAS Ecosystem: DART & UC Santa Cruz CIDER

MsUAS Pathways doesn’t stand alone. It operates as one half of a coordinated, two-part regional strategy with our longtime partner, the UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) — a program under CITRIS Aviation, led by Faculty Director Ricardo SanFelice, with CIDER Director Rebecca Fenwick leading the initiative’s drone education work.

Through its Drones Uplifting the Central Coast (DUCC) initiative, funded by California Jobs First, CIDER provides statewide stewardship of FAA Part 107 curriculum, instructor training, and delivery-coordination capacity, expanding access across K–12 systems and community colleges throughout California. MsUAS Pathways, supported by the James Irvine Foundation, focuses on community-embedded adoption within the Central Coast: bringing CIDER’s curriculum into Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College, supporting faculty development, and opening direct on-ramps for adult learners, veterans, and community-based organizations.

As the partnership’s shared attribution language puts it: “The Maturing sUAS Pathways Project enables CIDER’s publicly available Part 107 curriculum by supporting its local adoption, instructional use, and integration within select Central Coast community colleges.”

Put more simply: DUCC widens the funnel statewide; MsUAS Pathways ensures institutional adoption and learner progression through it at home. Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College serve as the integrating backbone where these two investments meet — so learners experience one coherent pathway rather than parallel programs.

This partnership builds on years of shared work, including the 2021 Drone-Forestry Career Pathways Report and video, the 2023 Emerging Technology Workforce Skills Demand Study, and Drone Camp programming from 2020 through 2025. Together, DART and CIDER are demonstrating a replicable statewide model: CIDER provides curriculum and coordination at scale, while trusted local partners like DART drive community-embedded implementation.

Why This Matters for Our Region

MsUAS Pathways doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s part of a layered regional system that DART and its partners have been building for years — from the RV-12 Airplane Build Lab at Pajaro Valley High School, to the Aircraft Maintenance Technician Apprenticeship at Joby Aviation, to drone curriculum stewarded through UC Santa Cruz’s CITRIS Institute for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) and scaled statewide through the DUCC initiative. MsUAS Pathways extends this ecosystem further, adding new community-facing entry points and a dedicated veteran pathway.

The goal isn’t just to train workers. It’s to make the Monterey Bay region a place where anyone, regardless of background, income, or prior exposure to aviation, can find a credible on-ramp to a career in one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sectors of our economy.

We’re grateful to the James Irvine Foundation for making MsUAS Pathways possible, and to California Jobs First for enabling CIDER’s companion DUCC investment. Our thanks also go to our partners at Hartnell College, Monterey Peninsula College, the Monterey County Black Caucus, UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Aviation and CIDER, including CIDER Director Rebecca Fenwick, for bringing this work to life.

Stay tuned for updates as cohorts launch, partnerships deepen, and community members take their first steps toward the runway.

To learn more about DART’s workforce programs, visit mbdart.org/programs/workforce-development.