BRITTANY WOODRUFF

CEO, NOVA TECHNOLOGIES, TALLAHASSEE

Veteran-founded in 1997, Nova Technologies provides modeling, simulation, weapon systems training, simulator operations and maintenance, cybersecurity and mission planning support worldwide to the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Woodruff was promoted to CEO in 2024 after serving as the company's chief operating officer for 15 years. At the time of her promotion, she was credited with helping to restructure the company into a scalable business to support its rapid growth and integrating advanced technologies into Nova's products and services. Woodruff is also an adjunct professor of law at Florida State University.

EDUCATION: University of Florida (BA, MS), Florida State University (JD)

DAILY RITUAL: Most mornings, I wake up at 4 a.m. to walk on my treadmill while knocking out administrative tasks — my version of multitasking and sanity preservation. I guard my sleep like it's a classified program and keep mornings protected for family before diving back into work.

PERSONAL RESET: I lean on a motto pinned to my wall: “Be aggressively optimistic.” When something difficult comes my way, I try to meet it with gratitude and reframe it as part of my path — something guiding me forward rather than holding me back. It's a simple mental shift with massive impact.

NEXT BIG FOCUS: I'm focused on providing thought leadership to the military training community, especially around how AI modernization is reshaping military readiness. If it helps warfighters train smarter and stay safer, I'm all in.

NEXT GEN ADVICE: Learn how to think. Don't let AI replace your ability to reason. To command AI effectively, you must understand how it works and be able to do much of what it does on your own first — then use it to achieve your goals better, faster and stronger. Think of AI as a very smart assistant, not the boss.