[1] She is the Founding Director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) and teaches within the Aviation programs.
Kearns earned her Doctorate of Philosophy from Capella University in Education, specializing in Instructional Design for Online Learning.
[8] Kearns began working full time as a lecturer of aviation at the University of Western Ontario in 2004, at the age of 24.
[28] In 2017, Kearns was recognized by Wings Magazine as one of the Top 20 under 40 in Canadian Aviation[29] and in the same year she was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS).
In 2019, Kearns received the Elise MacGill Northern Lights award[31] (Education Category) recognizing women who make outstanding contributions to aviation and aerospace.
[32] Designed to be different, WISA mobilizes the interdisciplinary research capacity of all six faculties at the University of Waterloo to drive meaningful and lasting change within the aviation, aerospace, and space industries.