Meet Dustin Norton

Dustin spent nearly six years in Alaska, serving with the U.S. Air Force in the aircraft armament division and working on fighter, bomber, and helicopter aircraft before moving back to Minnesota to raise his family.

Today, Dustin is a Weld Development Specialist with New Flyer in St. Cloud, where he works closely with production, human resources, and the NFI Institute to recruit, hire, and train new weld team members with hands-on training and skills development.

Going on five years with New Flyer, he celebrates the talent, uniqueness, and diversity of his team – values carried forward from military experience.

"I'm doing what I love. Everything we do here can be broken down into 'learnable' segments – everyone learns differently, and I love helping others discover their talents and the right fit for their work. We are understanding: you're not a number here, and coming alongside others to help them be successful is what I enjoy most."

A new place to call home, for 23 years

Shari Waller is a Process Planning Supervisor with New Flyer's Manufacturing Engineering team in Anniston, Alabama. Prior to New Flyer, she served with the U.S. Navy for 8 years.

At the time she was working 12 hour days with long commutes, and as a single parent was looking to be closer to home. Shari joined New Flyer in 1996, and 23 years later, is proud to call New Flyer her own, having gone from "one family to another" – military to manufacturing.

Shari explained, "I enjoy what I do and plan to stay until I retire. My family across the U.S. always says they see New Flyer buses on their streets – and I'm proud to say we built those. I've always bragged about what we do in Anniston, but it's especially nice to point out growth and progress. The Vehicle Innovation Center? That's us. Building electric buses? That's us. Being on this team – it's like growing up with family."

From Cameroon to St. Cloud

Auguste Tchinda moved from Cameroon, Africa to St. Cloud, Minnesota in 2014 – after being denied a U.S. study visa five times before that year. His goal was to pursue education in electrical engineering at St. Cloud State University, but not before pursuing another lifelong dream to join the military. In Cameroon, it was difficult to get a government job without personal connections so Auguste was unable to join the military there, but in 2015, he signed with the U.S. National Guard. He graduated from military training in Georgia and joined New Flyer in 2018 as an Assembly Technician.

Today, he’s a member of the National Guard Reserve and an Electrical Technician with New Flyer, working on bus builds and leveraging electrical construction and infantry skills gained in the military to approach highly technical work. Coming up on two years with New Flyer, Auguste says he’s learned so many new technical skills on the job that he practices at home – so much so that he’s now able to fix his own car. “I practice what I learn: after leaving briefly to study electrical construction, I returned to New Flyer. Everybody I know works here. It’s a good company and I really wanted to work with the team again and knew I had something to share – to put the love for my work into it. I am living the American dream.”

"I'm proud to say I work at New Flyer"

In 1979, James (Jim) Rymer joined the U.S. Army immediately following completion of high school. He spent 27 years in the military, with 8 years active and the latter years transitioning to the U.S. National Guard, eventually retiring in 2006. During his time with the U.S. Army, Jim was stationed overseas in Iraq and worked as part of a transportation outfit, supporting heavy equipment transports such as tanks and concrete barriers. He came to join New Flyer in 1999 as an Alignment Tech, just after the St. Cloud facility officially opened for production. This week, Jim celebrated his 20th anniversary with New Flyer.

When reflecting on the past 20 years, Jim explained that “I love what I do – I’m given the tools and everything I need to do my job well. And it’s important that New Flyer employs veterans across its team. When you’re overseas, you’re part of an outfit: they watch your back and you watch theirs. It’s basically the same thing here – teamwork. Whenever people ask, I’m proud to say I work at New Flyer.”