M'Lis Ward
Melissa "M'Lis" Ward is a United pilot, the first African-American female captain in commercial passenger aviation, according to Ebony magazine. Her mother, Anne B. Ward, was one of the first two black women to graduate from the Pritzker School of Medicine.
Ward was brought up in the South Side of Chicago and attended Whitney Young High School. She was awarded an Air Force ROTC scholarship to college. She gained a BBA from the University of Southern California. She joined the US Air Force where she was an instructor-pilot on the C141. In November 1992 she joined United Airlines in Chicago, as a second officer on DC-10s. After nine months she became first officer on Boeing 737-200s flying out of San Francisco, moving to 727s flying out of Denver in June 1995. By 2000 she was once again flying 737 shuttles out of San Francisco.
She later coached basketball at a high school in Colorado.
