ALPA volunteers work the Association’s booth at the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals 40th Convention and Career Exposition in Chicago, Ill.

To help create a stronger and more diverse airline piloting profession, ALPA’s Professional Development Group (PDG) participated in this year’s Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) 40th Convention and Career Exposition held August 10–12 in Chicago, Ill. More than 1,500 pilots, engineers, and students attended the annual event, which has become one of the premier pilot-employment expos in the United States, attracting hundreds of pilot applicants of all races and genders.

Members of the Association’s Membership and Education Committees, which come under the PDG umbrella, represented the Association serving as ambassadors and recruiters for many of the 55 airlines attending the conference. Hundreds of attendees were seeking interviews offered by Alaska, Delta, FedEx Express, Frontier, JetBlue, United, and Virgin America airlines—along with a host of regional carriers, including Air Wisconsin, Atlantic Southeast, CommutAir, Compass, Endeavor Air, Envoy Air, ExpressJet, Mesa, Piedmont, PSA, and Trans States.

In addition to interacting with current ALPA members at events like these, the Association is also able to reach out to nonmembers—including college students and others who aren’t yet in aviation—to raise awareness about ALPA and the profession, according to Capt. Jolanda Witvliet (United), ALPA’s Membership Committee chairman.

“It’s crucial to see who we can mentor and bring up into the industry, because if we don’t have new people coming in, we won’t have an industry,” she said.

For Capt. William “C.J.” Charlton (United), an ALPA Education Committee volunteer staffing the Association’s booth, one of the highlights of the conference was seeing “living history” walk the halls in the persons of those pioneering black pilots who entered the industry in the 1960s and 1970s.

“It’s always awe-inspiring and motivating,” said Charlton, a Newark, N.J.-based B-757/767 pilot. “I look at them with a sense of admiration, and they look at us with a sense of pride. They’re watching us continue their legacy and building upon what they started 40 years ago.”

The founders of OBAP, Charlton said, served as his mentors—whether they knew it or not—simply by being black and wearing a pilot’s uniform.

Several of those first-generation pilots acknowledged that while the major barriers 40 years ago were racism and intolerance, today the new challenges facing minority pilots are primarily economic, especially the high cost of flight training.

The career paths of three ALPA pilots attending the conference show that while barriers may exist, there are many paths to the industry as long as aspiring aviators bring a healthy dose of determination and receive mentoring along the way.

The military aviator

Originally an army medic, 32-year-old F/O Sakiliba “Saki” Lachelier (Trans States) transferred to an aviation unit and learned to fly Chinook helicopters, later joining a fixed-wing unit. She served tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula before leaving the service and entering the airline piloting profession.

Lachelier credits OBAP with helping her find her first mentor, a FedEx Express pilot who helped her prepare for interviews at ExpressJet and at her current airline where she flies ERJ 145s. She now volunteers with the Membership Committee and mentors other young women considering aviation careers.

The collegian

Growing up in Savannah, Ga., 26-year-old F/O Diana Lugemwa (PSA) always liked watching the airplanes flying over her house but thought she would become a physician—until she realized she was more interested in watching helicopters land on the hospital roof. She graduated from Middle Tennessee State University burdened with thousands of dollars in student loans. But she received strong support from mentors like F/O Stephanie Grant, one of the first black female pilots at Atlantic Southeast, whom she met at an OBAP conference her sophomore year of college.

“I try to go and speak at schools, especially to younger girls, to get them interested in science, technology, engineering, and math careers. Even if it does look like it’s a man’s world, we are doing it, and we are succeeding,” Lugemwa said.

The striver

Forty years of age is late in life to become an airline pilot, but new-hire F/O Paul Andrew Stephens (Mesa) needed every one of those years to get into the right seat of an ERJ 175 in January. In addition to being a minority, he was a foreigner born in Jamaica. But he knew after his first flight at the age of seven that he wanted to be a pilot.

“I fell in love with flying. That’s all I wanted to do. I just wanted to fly,” he acknowledged. “When I grew up and came to the U.S., I started hanging out at airports, meeting pilots, washing their planes, fueling their planes—doing anything with airplanes.”

For Stephens, no job was too demeaning. He parked and washed cars, cleaned roofs, cleaned pools, and walked dogs, all while being mentored and encouraged by numerous pilots who admired his grit.

“They kept me on a straight path so that I could be where I am now, and they’re proud of me,” Stephens said. “All these people believed in me.”

The next generation

The future is wide open for 21-year-old Cameron Chase. A senior at Delaware State University, Chase just earned his CFI in May and is training younger pilots to build flight time. His mentor? William Charlton—the pilot who still draws inspiration from the first generation of pilots he sees at OBAP—and he’s paying it forward by running a nonprofit youth aviation foundation.

Chase attended two of Charlton’s aviation camps and is ready to assume the responsibilities of those who have gone before him.

“He was the reason I’ve decided to choose this path. I’m just trying to work as hard as I can,” Chase said.