By Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D.
Ann Richart, A.A.E., new Aviation Director for the state of Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is believed to be the first person to serve as the Director in three different states- Washington, Nebraska, and Oregon. This dynamic woman has managed a number of airports, and earned the important aviation industry credential of A.A.E.- Accredited Airport Executive. Ann is still excited to be in aviation after 38 years in significant leadership roles. In 2014, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) awarded Richart the Order of the Silk Scarf, which recognizes industry professionals who improve and enjoy aviation. Fewer than 100 people worldwide earned this unique recognition.
HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INSPIRED TO WORK IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY?
“In 1983, I moved to Fairbanks to attend the University of Alaska, majoring in Wildlife Management. In 1984, at the end of the term, I quit school, deciding that Wildlife Management wasn’t for me. I did not want to leave Alaska so I looked for a job. After a visit to the state employment office, I was interviewed for a position as secretary at Aurora Air Service at FAI (Fairbanks International Airport). The owner of the small Part 135 operator hired me on the spot. Aurora flew scheduled routes to several Alaskan villages. I typed manuals and correspondence, answered the phone, greeted passengers, scheduled charters, sold tickets, did flight following, helped load the planes, and anything else that needed to be done. I even became certified as a flight attendant and served as flight crew on a DC-3 and a Fokker F-27 turboprop. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this adventure! I also greeted the assistant airport manager when he stopped by monthly to collect the rent. He was my true inspiration. In 1988, I left Alaska to attend Embry-Riddle in Arizona with the goal of becoming an airport manager.”
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MEMORY OF AVIATION?
“My family moved often. When I was five, we were living in Utah, but my Mother’s family was in the Seattle-area. I remember flying from Salt Lake City to Seattle with my mother and sister. It must have been about 1968. We dressed up in “church” clothes for the flight. The whole event had an air of glamour about it. Later, we often went as a family to airshows.”
WHO INPIRED YOU THE MOST?
“In fourth grade, I had to read a biography and then create a diorama depicting the person I had read about. I read about Amelia Earhart. My Father took me to the model shop. We got a Lockheed Electra model. I put it together and hung it in a shoe box for my assignment. That experience did not inspire about aviation, per se, learning about Amelia Earhart taught me that women could do anything. At that time, it wasn’t necessarily expected that I would have a career, but if I did, I would be a nurse or a teacher. Reading that book opened my thinking to a world of possibilities!”
ADVICE FOR OTHER WOMEN INSIDE OUR INDUSTRY OR THINKING ABOUT AVIATION AND AEROSPACE?
“Aviation has been a very rewarding career for me. I hate to think that some people may not feel welcome in this field. While there are many more women involved in aviation now than when I started, it is still a male dominated field. I would encourage girls and women to not be discouraged and to jump in if they are at all inclined. The most common bit of advice I give is to be yourself. Don’t feel like you have to act like a man or like anyone else to work in this field. Each individual’s strength is in being themselves. Be yourself and do what you like!”
ANY ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CAREER READERS SHOULD KNOW?
“When I started at Embry Riddle, I had a goal to become an airport manager. And I did!
I have managed airports in Oregon, Kansas, New York, and Massachusetts. I became the Director of the Oregon Department of Aviation after serving as the State Airports Manager for Oregon’s 36 state-owned airports. Ultimately, I left that position to manage an airport. After 15 years and more airport management experience, I took over as the Nebraska State Aeronautics Director as part of the new Department of Transportation. This state DOT had just been formed. I thought I could help the DOT figure out how to take care of airports. Plus, I knew Kim Stevens, who had been the Director of Nebraska Aeronautics Department when I worked for the State of Oregon. Nebraska had a great reputation of being a leader in NASAO (National Association of State Aviation Officials). Recently, I got the opportunity to move back home to Washington State in a similar role. I jumped at it!”
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Because Amelia Earhart has served as inspiration for Ann Richart and many of us over the years, closing Ann’s Focus with a quote from Amelia from over ninety years ago in The Fun of It, seems appropriate. “Too often little attention is paid to individual talent. Instead, education goes on dividing people according to their sex, and putting them in little feminine or masculine pigeonholes … Girls are shielded and sometimes helped so much that they lose initiative and begin to believe the signs ‘Girls don’t’ and ‘Girls can’t’ which mark their paths… Consequently, it seems almost necessary to evolve different methods of instruction for them when they later take up the same subjects. For example, those courses which involve mechanical work may have to be explained somewhat differently to girls not because girls are inherently not mechanical, but because normally they have learned little about such things in the course of their education.”
The times they are changing. All doers are more than welcome to share the joy and excitement we call aviation.
