Charter member John Dorcey of Oshkosh, Wisconsin took the helm of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) last week as interim Executive Director (E.D.), succeeding long-time ED Doug Stewart, who announced his retirement in November. Stewart was a founder of SAFE in 2009 and through the years helped build SAFE to its present eminence.
Dorcey, 64, will serve until a new Executive Director is selected. “We’re so appreciative of John’s willingness to lead SAFE as it starts a new year with a growing membership, new initiatives and new programs,” said SAFE Board of Directors Chair Donna Wilt. “His experience will continue to serve our members well.”
The new interim Executive Director holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate and is a flight instructor, both certificates with single, multiengine and instrument ratings. He served as Operations Manager for Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh until his retirement in 2012. Previously, he was Chief Pilot for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and Chief Instructor for that agency’s FAA-approved Flight Instructor Refresher Clinics.
In the past 22 years, Dorcey has also worked with public school educators in Wisconsin to encourage aviation as a career for young people, producing career fairs for high school students, adapting aviation concepts for elementary school children and presenting aviation career instruction at teacher summer workshops.
Dorcey has been involved with SAFE since the organization was founded in 2009, serving as a Board member from 2009 to 2013 and was Vice Chair in 2012 and Chair in 2013.
SAFE is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellence in aviation education. It offers mentoring opportunities and extensive educational resources for both flight and ground instructors and classroom aviation teachers. It works closely with industry leaders and represents aviation educators before government leaders. Among the benefits of SAFE membership is the Safe Toolkit, an app for iPhone and Android devices used daily by more than 1,500 active flight instructors.
The organization also publishes the quarterly SAFE, The Magazine with articles and observations by some of the nation’s top flight instructors and aviation educators, and SAFE eNews, a bi-monthly newsletter focused on news and analysis directly relevant to flight instructors and K-12 educators teaching tomorrow’s pilots.
