As a young girl, Wilma “Willi” Walker would look up at the sky and dream of flying as she watched the airplanes fly over. In high school—at a time before any major United States airlines had hired women pilots—Walker wrote letters to airlines inquiring if they had women commercial pilots.
“Believe it or not, two of them answered, and one responded saying that while they had no policy against women being commercial pilots, not to bother because they weren’t planning on hiring any women pilots,” Dr. Walker recalled. The discouraging response from the letter Walker received, however, couldn’t keep her grounded. With a longing to spread her wings, she chose to pursue a career in education, moving to Michigan and California and teaching children of the military overseas in England and North Africa. Ultimately, she got her long-awaited opportunity to learn to fly when she landed at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) as a geography professor. Then, as fate would have it, Walker launched and built EKU’s renowned aviation program—the only one of its kind in the state.
It was more than 40 years ago that former EKU vice president Dr. Joseph Schwendeman chaired a feasibility study, determining the Commonwealth of Kentucky needed a university-level aviation program. Schwendeman had previously been chair of EKU’s Geography Department—where Walker taught as a professor—and, as a certified pilot in general aviation and former Naval aviator, Schwendeman had also been Walker’s flight instructor.
“Joe (Schwendeman) found me in the hall of the administration building one day, tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Oh, do I have a job for you!’” Walker recalled. This is how it all started. “I never asked Joe why he tapped me to develop the program, but I think he saw me as someone who persevered no matter what,” she said.
Walker began developing EKU’s aviation program, all the while teaching geography. In 1983, the first courses in aviation were offered at EKU. The next year, an aviation minor was available, and 18 students enrolled. By 1989, the program hired its first full-time faculty member. Walker’s perseverance paid off when the program finally earned approval to offer Kentucky’s first baccalaureate degree program in aviation in 1991.
Walker led the aviation program for the next decade until her retirement in 2000 and has since continued to serve on the local airport board. Throughout her tenure at EKU, she guided countless students, including women, to achieve their dreams of a career in aviation.
Lisa Anderson, ’87, was among the first students in EKU’s Aviation program. Unsure of a career path but adventurous at heart, Anderson changed majors eight times before encountering Walker, who offered life-changing advice: “Decide what you’re good at, what you enjoy doing and what will keep your attention to keep you going.” Walker went a step further, giving Anderson the opportunity to decide on a major in geography with a travel/tourism option and to include aviation courses.
As a graduate, she pursued advanced courses in aviation, acquiring two master’s degrees in the field. “From that early experience, I learned the importance of having champions in your life and now, being a champion for others,” Anderson said.
After working as a contract pilot, crew member and aviation consultant, Anderson spearheaded the development of the United Nations Aviation Risk Management Office (now Commercial Air Travel Safety Unit) in 2011. In this role, she manages the safety assessment process for more than 7,000 commercial air operators in nearly every country in the world. Working within a highly male-dominated department, Anderson is one of less than a handful of female chiefs in U.N. aviation globally.
One of many other success stories is Katherine Reynolds, ’97, originally from Berea, Kentucky, who is a captain for Delta Airlines and has been named “Flight Operations Employee of the Quarter.” Reynolds and Walker still keep in touch.
With the foundation that Walker built, EKU’s Aviation program continued to expand and make strides in recruiting women to the field beyond Walker’s retirement.
Megan Atkins Thoben, ’10, like Walker, knew she wanted a career in aviation from a young age. Currently, Thoben is the vice president of operations and customer engagement for the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) and Bowman Field (LOU), leading airport and terminal operations.
Throughout her childhood, Thoben accompanied her father, who flew for leisure, to nearly every general aviation airport in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. This bonding time in the skies led Thoben to have the same love for aviation as her father. With the support she received from her family and her high school, she never questioned her ability to have a career in the field as a woman.
“My mom, although she wasn’t a pilot, taught me from the very beginning that anything that I wanted to do, I could do,” said Thoben. “That was especially powerful in aviation because it is a very male-dominated field. My dad gave me my passion and love of aviation as well as the focus and determination it takes to do it. However, my mom was key in supporting and empowering me to make my way in the industry.”
Thoben knew she also loved to work with people. While pursuing the aerospace management concentration of the aviation degree at EKU, she learned how to efficiently organize airport operations and ensure the smooth coordination of flights, passenger services and ground activities all while maintaining seamless travel experiences for passengers. For Thoben, it perfectly combined her love for flying and working with people.
Thoben graduated with her aviation degree in three years and has worked in airport operations for more than 14 years. Her contributions to the industry have earned her recognition in Louisville Business First’s Forty Under 40 list in 2021 and Today’s Woman Magazine as Most Admired Woman in the Young Executive Category in 2022.
Throughout her career, Thoben felt uplifted by her colleagues. “By and large, a big reason for my success is because I had male allies that didn’t make me feel like I was the foreign object in the room—they made me feel like I was needed,” said Thoben.
She continued, “It was the fact that I was bringing up things that the rest of the group wasn’t thinking about or wasn’t tracking and that I can multitask all these different things. Women are wonderful in chaos. And what more chaotic place to put in front of you than an airport? Being able to multitask and being able to think about multiple factors at once, then prioritizing them and being able to address them in a way that is most effective—that value in me has been seen and noticed by my male counterparts, and I have been elevated by them.”
Thoben attended EKU at a time when aviation students had to complete flight training hours at the Montgomery County Airport in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Once Madison County acquired a fixed base operator to support airport operations, EKU’s program landed much closer to campus at the Madison County Airport (now named Central Kentucky Regional Airport). This led to an increase in students in the program and aided in student success within the aviation industry.
Today, EKU’s Aviation program has an enrollment of more than 450 students, a fleet of 32 airplanes and a partner ownership in the Central Kentucky Regional Airport.
To support this growth, EKU recently announced an investment of $4.5 million to construct a general aviation terminal at the Central Kentucky Regional Airport. EKU was awarded $3.5 million from the federal Community Project Funding and will match $1 million of the funding toward terminal construction.
The 50-year-old airport serves as the hub for aviation student training. Ownership of the airport belongs to four entities including EKU, the City of Berea, the City of Richmond and the Madison County Fiscal Court. The airport is overseen by an eight-person board—two appointed from each entity—and EKU is contracted to manage the daily operations.
The airport was originally built to accommodate small volumes of general aviation traffic. In the last decade, airport traffic has dramatically increased due in part to the growth of EKU’s Aviation program. Along with the current terminal, two government surplus trailers were brought onto the property to provide relief classrooms and training space for EKU Aviation students.
Construction of the new terminal will enable Central Kentucky Regional Airport to accommodate the volume of customers as well as the needs of a modern-day pilot while addressing outdated facilities.
“What we see happening today at the airport is something that Joseph Schwendeman, Kenneth Hansson (former dean of the College of Applied Arts and Technology) and I had all talked about as what we would like to see happen. So it’s taken a while, but it’s happening,” Walker said.
As for building EKU’s successful aviation program from scratch as a woman in a male-dominated field, Walker chuckled and said, “It feels wonderful.”