The Department of Transportation (DOT)’s newly created Safety Oversight and Certification Advisory Committee (SOCAC) will include representation from the business aviation industry. Honeywell director William Ayer and West Houston Airport president Shelley Lesikar DeZevallos, both of whom are also NBAA directors, were appointed to the committee.

Ayer is a member of the FAA’s Management Advisory Council and the immediate past chair of its NextGen Advisory Committee. He also serves on the boards of University of Washington, the Museum of Flight, and the AOPA Foundation. He began his aviation career in 1981 as a salesman for Piper. 

DeZevallos also serves on the AOPA Foundation board, is a founding member and president of Texans for General Aviation, and teaches as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University. She has been a member of the Transportation Research Board and the Government Interrelations Committee for the National Academy of Sciences. 

“Both are exceptionally qualified, given their long, distinguished carriers in the aviation industry,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “The expertise they will bring to this important committee will help provide government and industry with informed decision-making on the highest aviation safety priorities.”

SOCAC was created as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 to provide the DOT with guidance on aviation industry safety issues.