Support Staff

David Janos, Quality Assurance Manager

Dave Janis joined Vista Photonics in July 2017. He has been working in Quality/Mission Assurance at various levels and positions over the years, with most of his career in the Aerospace industry. David comes to Vista Photonics with 40 years of experience in Quality Management Systems, with a strong background in NDT. He has worked with numerous government agencies over the years including all military branches, NASA, and FAA Repair Stations. David has worked on special projects such as the Atlas, Minute Man, THAAD, SM1, SM3, and Orion, as well as many other projects during his career. Other projects include refueling outages for several nuclear power plants and electromagnetic interference field units/mobile shelters for the Military. He has performed numerous audits as Lead Auditor in the Aerospace industry for compliance audits for NADCAP, ISO and AS 9100.

Kayla Ryan, Research Scientist

Kayla joined Vista Photonics in January 2018. A native of Minnesota, she received her Bachelors Degree in Chemistry from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Kayla then went on to complete her Masters in Chemistry at Syracuse University in New York. Prior to joining Vista Photonics, Kayla worked as a Chemist at Microtek Laboratories in Dayton, Ohio. As a Research Scientist, Kayla is responsible for recording and analyzing data, writing reports and presenting results, organizing experiments, and insuring that quality standards are met.

Hector Chavez, Electronics Technician

Hector joined Vista Photonics in July 2017. He is a graduate of the University of Texas, El Paso with a BS in Electrical Engineering where he focused on renewable energy, electronics and microelectronics, signal processing, and circuit design. Notable projects in which he participated include a solar powered evaporative cooler with smartphone control, EKG sensor, and a solar powered phone charger. As the Electronics Technician, he works alongside the Research Engineers to troubleshoot electronic applications and insure that all soldering and wiring work is completed efficiently and to required standards.

J. Taylor Pilgrim, Support Specialist

Taylor Pilgrim joined Vista Photonics in November 2017. He attended both New Mexico Junior College and Santa Fe Community College, and worked as a Field Service Technician at Comcast/Xfinity prior to joining the company. Taylor provides day to day administrative and technical assistance for the company, as well as compliance support for the Quality Program. His responsibilities include purchasing, IT support, administrative systems maintenance, managing database systems, special projects, and customer service.