After retiring from American Airlines as chairman and CEO, Doug Parker helped create a nonprofit to diversify the pilot pool through outreach and recruiting.
CHICAGO—In four years at university, Dr. Tammera Holmes was one of only two African American women enrolled in an aviation program of over 200 students.
“A lot of times when I say [that] ... the audience claps,” she said during a panel at Aviation Week Network’s MRO Americas conference in Chicago. “That’s not okay, that’s not an accomplishment or achievement that I did. Something is really wrong that I’m one of two African American females in four years at a top university aviation program.”
Holmes, president and CEO of AeroStar Consulting Corporation, is now working to give wings to dreams through a nonprofit that has reached over 16,000 youth since 2008. The AeroStar Avion Institute strives to encourage young, underrepresented populations onto pathways in STEM careers, particularly in aviation, through curriculum, programs, activities, and support systems spanning grades K-12.
Holmes urged those in the industry to get involved in mentorship.
“When you actually exceed expectations and you become an anomaly, it’s painful to look back and see how many people didn’t make it—because they didn’t have the fortune, or opportunity and access—and a lot of that has to do with barriers,” she said.
As long as barriers are in place, “we don’t have the best of the best,” concurred Doug Parker who, after retiring from American Airlines as chairman and CEO, created a nonprofit in partnership with his wife Gwen to diversify the pilot pool through outreach and recruiting, mentorship, and financial support. Launched in late 2023, Breaking Down Barriers (BDB) has started recruiting in Dallas with plans to expand both nationally and beyond the flight deck, to include additional aviation professions. A first three students have entered flight school, Parker shared.
Representation from different backgrounds at the table is a competitive advantage for all, noted Marty Nesbitt, founding partner and Co-CEO of The Vistria Group and board chair of the Barack Obama Foundation. “The idea that—somehow it gets twisted—that diversity is for minorities, is kind of crazy,” Nesbitt said.
Diversity, stressed longtime airline executive Parker, makes organizations stronger.
“This pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion is a horrible thing, and we all need to fight it,” he said. “Having it be turned into something that is bad is dangerous.”
Parker added, “I read things where there’s some incident at some airline and then a bunch of people start writing, ‘Well, it’s because they have all these diversity, equity inclusion initiatives,’ which is so incredibly false ... other than maybe a professional athlete, I can’t think of any jobs that are more based upon merit. So to suggest that somehow, we’re lowering the standards to bring in diversity, is just categorically false and we have to scream it from the mountaintops.”
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