Meet Endeavor Air's First Female Chief Pilot

I had never been interested in the aviation industry prior to going to college, but when I was a sophomore I went to flight school and I got really interested in it. I finished up my degree in aerospace at Middle Tennessee State University. Going back home after I had gotten my private pilot certificate and telling a lot of my friends and family, oh I think I'm going to pursue this, and a lot of people told me, are you sure? You know, is this really something you want to do? And hearing those doubtful questions really pushed me to move forward with it because I knew that I could do it. My main inspiration was to prove everybody wrong. So my first year with Endeavor, I was a line pilot, a first officer on the CRJ-900. After about a year here, I joined the management team as an assistant chief pilot where I really learned the ins and outs of the back part of the operation. I really enjoyed it and I became captain and was offered the opportunity to be a chief pilot. A day-to-day as a chief pilot is, it's always something different. I'm working with pilots, I'm working with the flight attendants, we're working with the airport operations. I'm there to support the pilots and making sure that everything runs smoothly there, that communication between the teams continues smoothly, and leading the pilot group in New York. I am out there, I'm with the pilot group, I talk to them every day. I keep my door open for my crew members, I invite them to come in. I keep a candy jar on my desk because I want people to come in and feel comfortable to sit down in my chair, have a conversation. I try to be out at the gates and I meet the crew members as we're walking, you know, through the airports. I wave to everybody. I really want it to be that open door policy. People ask me, oh what do you do? And I tell them I'm a pilot. Sometimes I'll tell them I'm a chief pilot. And it always takes people aback a little bit because women are a very small percentage of the industry and then even being younger also is just a little bit different. I think right now there's about six percent of women in the industry as a total and it's nice to kind of be a part of something that's breaking that glass ceiling. As Endeavour Air's first female chief pilot, I really hope that I can inspire not only the women in the industry but the men to have a different perspective on where we're moving forward in the coming years. Tradition is not a thing anymore. We're starting to see a lot of change and I'm really excited to be part of it.