Robyn Clay-Williams

Robyn Clay-Williams is an Australian academic and one of the first two women to serve as pilots in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). She joined the RAAF in 1979 and initially served in maintenance roles as women were not permitted to be pilots. After this restriction was lifted she completed pilot training in June 1988 and became a test pilot in 1993. Clay-Williams reached the rank of Wing Commander and led No. 85 Wing. After leaving the RAAF in 2003, she completed a doctorate. As of 2024, Clay-Williams was a professor at Macquarie University.

Career Military service Robyn Clay-Williams (originally Robyn Williams) was raised in Sydney. She was inspired by Deborah Lawrie initiating a sex discrimination case against Ansett Australia in the late 1970s when her application to become an airline pilot was rejected. Lawrie went on to win the case and became the first female pilot with a major Australian airline in 1980.

On completing school, Williams sought an RAAF pilot traineeship. She was rejected as the air force did not permit women to serve as pilots at the time. Williams was trained a radio engineer at the Engineer Cadet Squadron, and graduated in 1982. She was a dux of the course. Upon graduation Williams became the RAAF's first female test pilot, and served with the Aircraft Research and Development Unit. She remained a member of the C-130J Project Office until becoming the commanding officer of No. 85 Wing. She left the RAAF during 2003. As of 2021, she was an associate professor at Macquarie University's Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science and had completed more than 80 peer-reviewed outputs. She was promoted to professor in January 2024.

Clay-Williams' academic areas of interest include "teams and teamwork, decision-making, leadership, simulation, resilience engineering, and usability test and evaluation of medical devices and IT systems".