Celebrating aviation change maker M’Lis Ward

In recognition of LGBTQ History Month, MAC acknowledges M’Lis Ward as an aviation changemaker.

M’Lis Ward is the first African American woman and member of the LGBTQIA+ community to be a U.S. airline captain.  

Ward was brought up in the South Side of Chicago and earned an Air Force ROTC scholarship to college. She gained a Bachelor of Science from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. She then joined the U.S. Air Force, where she was an instructor-pilot on the T-37 and a first pilot on the C141.  

In 1992, she joined United Airlines in Chicago, as a second officer on the DC-10 wide-body aircraft. After nine months, she became first officer on the Boeing 737 flying out of San Francisco, moving to the B727 flying out of Denver in June 1995.  

Ward upgraded to captain on the Boeing 737 in 1998 and then the Airbus 319 and 320 in 2010. She is the first woman to be an evaluator and FAA designee for United Airlines.

Three decades after starting her aviation career, Ward paves the way for future aviators as a flight instructor. Ward told Colorado Public Radio, “I’d like to leave a legacy by being a part of something that’s bigger than myself.”