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Meet the team

The Drone Girl® was created with the intent of exploring drones and how they can assist the world via the imagery they produce.

Drones have many positive uses — they’ve been used by park rangers to spot poachers and save rhinos , they can be used for news purposes to show the scope of droughts, and they can even deliver sushi at restaurants.

The Drone Girl®  is an outlet to publish aerial photos, videos and stories about the evolution of drones.

Sally French

Note that The Drone Girl team does not, however, fly drones for commercial purposes or operate any type of aerial photography service. Email Sally here to get in touch!

Sally French, Founder of the Drone Girl

The Drone Girl ®  is the web, drone-flying persona of Sally French. Sally is a journalist and “geek girl” who loves drones.

She was born and raised in southern California native, though she now lives in downtown San Francisco.

She is a world-renowned expert in drones. She has been quoted as an expert in publications including The New York Times and Consumer Reports. She is also a public speaker and has appeared at South by Southwest (SXSW), Harvard Business School’s Making Robotics Fly” event, and has led multiple seminars at conferences including InterDrone and the Commercial UAV Expo.

Sally was also named one of Fortune Magazine’s “4 top women shaping the drone industry.”

Sally first got interested in drones when she served as a photographer and producer at the Missouri School of Journalism’s drone journalism program in its inaugural year.The first “drone journalism” she did was  produce a video for Harvest Public Media in which footage from a drone documents a prairie fire.

In her free time, Sally also loves going to Disneyland and lifting heavy weights. In fact, she is a competitive (and decorated) powerlifter and weightlifter. Her powerlifting titles include 2x USAPL Nationals medalist (2018 and 2019), current USPA Raw Drug-Tested Bench Press National Record holder and former USPA Raw Drug-Tested Squat and Total National Record holder. In weightlifting, she was the 2022 North American Open Series II Champion and won bronze at the 2023 Nike USA Weightlifting National Championships.

You can reach Sally directly at sally@thedronegirl.com.

Hamilton Nguyen, Creative Director

hamilton nguyen
Hamilton Nguyen

Hamilton is the official photographer and videographer for The Drone Girl. He’s responsible for most of the product photographer featuring Sally, as well as many of the video reviews on The Drone Girl YouTube channel. He also contributes to the management of The Drone Girl website.

Hamilton is a photographer in his own right, specializing in street photography. More of his work can be seen on his personal website. And follow him on Instagram, too!

Hamilton graduated from UC Berkeley in 2013 and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Caroline Dobrez

Caroline Dobrez, Content Writer

Caroline is a frequent contributor for The Drone Girl. She also contributes to the management of The Drone Girl website. Caroline was born and raised in Chicago but she currently lives in New Orleans. Caroline has been an educator and elementary school principal in New Orleans for 10 years.

She graduated from Mizzou School of Journalism, alongside the Drone Girl herself. With a knack for storytelling and a love for technology, Caroline blends her writing skills with an understanding of the drone industry.  

When she isn’t researching all things drones, you can probably find her crafting a costume for the next New Orleans festival. 

She loves building connections, find her on LinkedIn here!

Drone Girl is a proud partner of Women and Drones:

http://womenanddrones.com/

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