Impactful Women of the 918: Maia Treleaven

One of Maia Treleaven’s favorite sayings is, “Delay is not denial.” Although disappointed following her first interview at Collins Aerospace, a second interview led to her being hired as an Engineering Administrator. She has now been with the company for 26 years and has traveled around the world in her role as a quality compliance auditor.

“What pulled me toward aerospace is that the stakes are honest,” Treleaven says. “There is no such thing as ‘close enough’ on an aircraft. The standard I work to is simple: Do what you say, say what you do, and prove it with objective evidence. That’s not just an audit standard, that’s how I try to live.”

Outside of her work at Collins Aerospace, Treleaven is a published author, family historian and is building an urban homestead. She has started a mentorship platform, Maximize You, LLC, and volunteers in Tulsa’s District 6, particularly with the YMCA at East Central. She has also volunteered with Lego League teams, Introduce a Girl to Engineering, the Queen Bess Centennial Aviation Arts Festival and other organizations.

Treleaven encourages others to use their gifts, be kind, and celebrate other people’s accomplishments out loud. “So much recognition goes to whoever is most comfortable promoting themselves,” she says, “and that leaves out some of the most excellent people in this city. Put someone else’s name forward for an award, a stretch assignment, a board seat, and then tell them you did it.”

Q&A wth Maia Treleaven

Please give us a little background on what you do at Collins Aerospace — and what Collins Aerospace does.

Collins Aerospace designs and builds the systems that make flight possible and safe avionics, interiors, power and controls and mission systems for commercial and military aircraft. My job is to make sure the way we build those systems holds up under scrutiny.

As a central quality compliance auditor, I conduct regional, multi-site internal audits. I serve as both lead auditor and co-auditor, and over my career I’ve been responsible for auditing at least 20 locations a year across Europe, Asia, Canada and Latin America. I’ve been in quality compliance since 2010.

I came to Collins in July 2000. A recruiter I knew from my church mentioned an opening; I interviewed, and I was turned down. A second interview later, I was hired as an Engineering Administrator. That’s where one of my favorite sayings comes from: Delay is not denial.

In 2010, an executive leader asked for me by name to move into quality, over my then-manager’s objection. I said yes, but I asked for three things first: training, a mentor and support. I’ve tried to give all three back to every person who’s come behind me.

What pulled me toward aerospace is that the stakes are honest. There is no such thing as “close enough” on an aircraft. The standard I work to is simple: Do what you say, say what you do and prove it with objective evidence. That’s not just an audit standard, that’s how I try to live.

If you’d like to share a little about your personal life, please do.

I’m a wife, a mother and a grandmother, and those three roles keep everything else in perspective. I’m also my family’s historian, and I take that seriously. I lead the Descendants of Henry and Ester Henrietta Green reunion project, and we’re planning to gather here in Tulsa in 2028. I’ve traced our matriarchal line back generation by generation, and part of that story runs straight through Greenwood — one of our ancestors, George D. Bell, rebuilt after the district was destroyed in 1921.

Most recently I’ve been documenting my great-grandfather’s business, Bell’s BBQ. It sat on north Greenwood, about where the overpass is now, a small white building, open through the 1960s and 70s, and torn down during Urban Renewal. It was rebuilt after that, across from Naifeh’s corner store on Cincinnati, now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and it stayed open there until it closed. Someone posted about it in a Tulsa memories group, and the comments filled up with people who still remembered it: folks who worked downtown and stopped in every payday, people calling it the best barbecue in the city.

That is exactly why I do this work. A building gets demolished, and the only record of it lives in strangers’ memories until somebody writes it down. Documenting where we come from is its own kind of quality work. You’re preserving the objective evidence of a family’s life so the next generation inherits more than a few half-remembered stories.

I’m a reader and a writer. This year I released two books, both available on Amazon: Before the World Speaks:100 Days of Faith, Purpose & Authentic Living, a 100-day devotional, and its companion journal, Persistent Grace: Transforming Detours into Destiny. They came out the week of Juneteenth.

And outside of all of that, I’m building an urban homestead, a growing garden that has survived more than one flood while I was traveling for audits, with my dogs Simba and Zola supervising, poorly.

I hold a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership from Langston University, and I’ll be pursuing a master’s in Leadership and Organizational Development.

You were nominated because others felt you have an impact on the community in some way. How do you feel that your position impacts the community? Why is that important to you?

I’m humbled and honored. But honestly, I think everyone impacts the community, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. Community is where we live. Think about trees. Trees survive and thrive because of the root system. If one tree is deficient, the others can share through that root system and keep it alive. If one is diseased, the network responds. We are not as separate as we like to think we are; what one of us has, the rest of us can be fed by.

In my work, that root system is mostly invisible. Every audit I complete is connected to a part that flies, and a family boarding a plane who will never know my name. Doing that job with integrity is one of the quietest forms of public service I know.

The impact I can actually see happens in people. In aerospace quality, I am often the only person in the room who looks like me. That means two things: I have to be excellent, and I have to leave the door open. So I mentor, I nominate people for recognition, and I tell young women and young people of color that these careers exist and that they belong in them.

I also serve on the Tulsa Sales Tax Overview Committee, because how a city spends its money is how a city states its values.

Your nominations mentioned your commitment to mentorship, and that you’ve founded Maximize You, LLC. Can you talk about why mentorship is so important to you and what Maximize You does?

Mentorship has been part of my journey since high school. I participated in the Mayor’s Summer program and had an amazing internship at PITC, and the mentor relationships I built there were formative. So this isn’t theoretical for me, I know exactly what it does for a young person to have someone in their corner who knows the unwritten rules.

Maximize You, LLC is the platform I built to do that at scale. The tagline is “Elevate the Standard. Maximize the Moment.” It houses my coaching work and several sub-brands — Momentous Moments with Maia T, Quality Moments and Espresso Excellence — along with my two books. The newest piece is an apparel line I’m launching called Wear the Message™

— clothing with purpose, words that last. The designs put typography first rather than graphics, because I wanted the words themselves to be the thing you see. Each one starts from a lesson I’ve learned or a truth I’ve lived: “Discouragement is a visitor – don’t make it a resident.” “Don’t chase trends, chase purpose.” “Fail up.” Every shirt carries a QR code so you can read

the story behind your design. Same instinct as everything else I do: If a message helped me, it probably belongs to somebody else, too.

At work, I currently mentor six or more people, including two formal mentees through the Collins mentoring program, and I train and coach newer auditors on live audit assignments. One is a shift manager who told me she was interested in quality; we built her a path toward lead auditor certification instead of leaving it as a nice idea.

And I helped start what I call an Elevation Circle with a small group of colleagues. We encourage, celebrate elevate and recognize one another. Recognition shouldn’t be something you have to chase alone.

What other activities, volunteer work, etc. do you do, and why is that important to you?

I loved the LEGO League teams. I haven’t been able to do it the last few years because of my audit travel schedule, but it is so rewarding to watch young people solve problems. They are so smart and so talented. The work isn’t teaching them, it’s empowering them and reminding them of their superpowers. Introduce a Girl to Engineering is the same. I haven’t done it since COVID, and it is definitely missed. I’m a hands-on person, and watching those girls’ faces light up and getting to evolve the program every single year was my biggest gift. I’m ready to get back to it.

I also volunteer in the community I live in, District 6, also known as the Global District. I work with the Y at East Central and helped with their annual fundraiser, which matters enormously for East Tulsa. The Y at East Central is the only facility where families in that part of town can work out together, and it offers so many other viable programs. It is a real resource in District 6.

Beyond that, I volunteer with the Society of Women Engineers and Discovery Lab supporting Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma, and I created social content for the Queen Bess Centennial Aviation Arts Festival honoring Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot’s license. Supporting efforts and raising awareness for this initiative is meaningful and important. Representation in aviation isn’t a new conversation; she started it a century ago.

The reason I keep showing up is simple: A child cannot aspire to a career they have never seen. When a nine-year-old builds a robot and it works, something shifts in how she describes herself. I want to be in the room for that.

What strengths do you see in Tulsa, and what area(s) do you think need to be improved?

As a descendant of Greenwood, I’d say the strength of this city is in our community. People often focus on differences, but differences don’t have to divide us, they’re what make us stronger. High-performing teams are not monoliths. They know and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of each team member, and they build weaknesses into strengths collaboratively. That’s true of a city, too.

Where we need to improve: I believe some people label leaders based on performance instead of substance. Authentic leaders are often the ones you don’t see or hear about, because they are too busy doing the work. Performative leaders are being exposed, but so many people are still caught up in the performance.

I also believe there is an uneven distribution across this city. STEM programs, internships and mentors are not well established, and not reachable, for every part of Tulsa. Efforts are underway, and I want to give credit for that. What I would love to see is more collaboration among the silent leaders, the people already doing the work quietly in their own corners of the city. I believe that is where the momentum will be gained.

What are some ways you would encourage others to make an impact on the city?

We all have a gift, use it. If it’s sharing a smile, kindness goes a long way. This journey called life is a mess. Most people bottle it up or try to hide it. Live on purpose, with purpose, and don’t worry about the mess, because everyone has one. Just let your mess become your message.

I’d add one practical thing: Nominate people out loud. So much recognition goes to whoever is most comfortable promoting themselves, and that leaves out some of the most excellent people in this city. Put someone else’s name forward for an award, a stretch assignment, a board seat, and then tell them you did it.

Do you have a fun fact that you can share about yourself, or a favorite place to go in Tulsa?

One of my favorite go-to spots is Rubicon, great food and great music. I also love MiTea for a good tea and to stay healthy. Once a month, MiTea hosts Tempo and Tea, and the music and the vibe are wonderful. That is really what I love about both places. They are another opportunity for the community to come together, and we need more spaces in this city that create that.

Fun fact: I’m an auditor by trade and a gardener by conviction. I run a small urban homestead, and I once came home from five straight weeks of field audits to a flooded garden and rebuilt the whole thing from the soil up, beneficial insects and all. Turns out root cause analysis works on tomatoes, too.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Only this. I was turned down for the first job I ever interviewed for at this company, and I’ve now been here twenty-six years. Delay is not denial. If you’re in a season where the door hasn’t opened yet, keep preparing, because when it does open, you want to be ready to walk through it, and you want to be the kind of person who props it open behind you. And nothing I’ve been recognized for happened alone. Teamwork in motion, always.