{"id":19358,"date":"2021-09-06T15:08:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=19358"},"modified":"2021-09-06T15:08:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:08:23","slug":"veteran-air-traffic-controllers-rich-santa-and-andrew-lebovidge-take-office-as-new-natca-president-and-executive-vp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/district-of-columbia\/veteran-air-traffic-controllers-rich-santa-and-andrew-lebovidge-take-office-as-new-natca-president-and-executive-vp\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Air Traffic Controllers Rich Santa and Andrew LeBovidge Take Office as New NATCA President and Executive VP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the first time since 2009, the National Air Traffic\nControllers Association (NATCA) has a new president leading the Union that\nrepresents nearly 20,000 highly skilled air traffic controllers, engineers, and\nother aviation safety-related professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rich Santa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rich Santa, a veteran air traffic controller from Washington\nAir Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC), who has served on NATCA\u2019s National\nExecutive Board as Eastern Regional Vice President (RVP) since 2018, today\nbecomes NATCA\u2019s seventh president, taking over from Paul Rinaldi. Santa was\nelected by acclamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored to have the privilege to lead NATCA as we\ncontinue our legacy of improving the status, professionalism, and working\nconditions of all air traffic controllers and other aviation safety\nprofessionals,\u201d said Santa, who began his career as a controller at New York\nTRACON (N90) in 1997 before transferring to ZDC in 2001. \u201cNATCA is a powerful\nvoice \u2013 in the aviation industry, in the labor movement as a whole, and on\nCapitol Hill \u2013 and that is a testament to the passion and dedication of all of\nour activists. Our commitment to aviation safety and labor solidarity is\nunwavering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa has spent most of his career serving NATCA and its\nmembers, including four terms as ZDC local facility representative prior to\nbeing elected as the Eastern RVP. Additionally, Santa has served in many\ndifferent labor relations, training, and information technology roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Andrew LeBovidge<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Also today, Andrew LeBovidge, a veteran air traffic\ncontroller from Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZHU), who has served\nas Southwest RVP since 2015, becomes NATCA\u2019s eighth executive vice president,\ntaking over from Trish Gilbert. LeBovidge started his air traffic control\ncareer at ZHU in 1992. He has served as a representative for NATCA in various\nlocal, regional, and national roles since 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am honored and excited to continue to serve our great\nUnion in this new role,\u201d LeBovidge said. \u201cNATCA\u2019s strengths have always been\nthe talents of our members and our solidarity. I am certain that together we\nwill continue to protect and strengthen our professions, our working\nconditions, and the safety of the National Airspace System.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time since 2009, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) has a new president leading the Union that represents nearly 20,000 highly skilled air traffic controllers, engineers, and other aviation safety-related professionals. Rich Santa, a veteran air traffic controller from Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC), who has served on NATCA\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-district-of-columbia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19361,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19358\/revisions\/19361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}