Executive Committee
Dave Fielding
Chair
Dave Fielding studied Classics at Cambridge before making the perfectly logical step and becoming an airline pilot. He joined British Airways in 1993 on the Highlands and Islands Division, flying the BAe ATP. When Highlands Division closed he moved down to London on the B757 and achieved his command on the Airbus A320 in 2001. Since then he has been a captain on the B757, B767, B777, A350 and the A380, which is his current type.
Dave has been a union rep since 1996, specialising in disciplinaries which led to an interest in alcohol and welfare cases and developing support programmes. Post Germanwings, he worked closely with BA and in January 2017 the Speedbird Pilots Assistance Network (PAN) became the first peer support programme in Europe to be launched after that accident. Dave is the Secretary of EPPSI, the European Pilot Peer Assist Initiative, and co-authored the EPPSI Guide to PSPs. In 2023 he became Chair of IPAAC, the International Peer Assist Aviation Coalition.
Heather Healy
Vice-Chair
For over 40 years, Heather has been designing and directing workplace based behavioral health prevention and early intervention programs across federal, state, and non-governmental and unionized organizations. Over the past twenty-six years as the Director of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Heather has provided clinical and administrative oversight of the implementation and delivery of peer supported behavioral health services for 55,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines. Heather serves as the Program Manager for the Flight Attendant Drug and Alcohol Program (FADAP), an FAA sponsored prevention and early intervention safety initiative addressing both substance use and mental health disorders. Heather is also the Clinical Coordinator for the State of Maryland’s peer-based wellbeing committee for impaired Dental Hygienists and maintains a private psychotherapy practice. Heather is licensed in Maryland and DC as a clinical social worker. She holds multiple professional certifications and serves as a field instructor for the University of Maryland Graduate School Of Social Work.
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Dr Quay Snyder
CEO
Dr. Quay Snyder is President/CEO of Virtual Flight Surgeons, [Aviation Medicine Advisory Service] providing medical certification and aviation safety guidance for pilot and air traffic controller unions as well as business and general aviation pilots. Dr. Snyder has been the Air Line Pilots Association, International Aeromedical Advisor since 2010, after serving as Associate Aeromedical Advisor since 1994. Since 2015, he has served as the FAA / ALPA HIMS Program Manager and has over 20 years experience sponsoring and monitoring substance addicted pilots
Quay holds board certification in Aerospace Medicine, Addiction Medicine, Family Practice and Occupational Medicine. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Duke University School of Medicine and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He served in the USAF, USAF Reserve and Colorado Air National Guard for 25 years as a flight surgeon, glider instructor pilot and in leadership roles.
Dr. Snyder is active in many aviation safety committees and organizations, both nationally and internationally. He is an AsMA Fellow and member of several of AsMA’s Constituent and Affiliate organizations. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine and on the Board of Trustees of the National Aviation Hall of Fame from 2014-2020. He has chaired the National Business Aviation Associations Safety Committee’s Fitness for Duty Working Group and served on both the medical expert group for the FAA’s 2015 Pilot Fitness Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) and as the Medical Lead for the 2024 FAA Mental Health and Aviation Medical Certification ARC. He co-chairs AsMA’s Pilot Mental Health Working Group. Dr. Snyder also serves on several ICAO working groups including Problematic Use of Psychoactive Substances (PUPS), Mental Health, Medical Certification and Standards and CAPSCA. He is a member of the Flight Safety Foundation’s Business Advisory Council and is on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering in the Aviation Safety and Security Program teaching in Fatigue Risk Management and Human Performance, Resiliency and Leadership courses.
Dr. Snyder has been an FAA Certified Flight Instructor (Gold Seal) since 1975 and actively serves as a Designated Pilot Examiner since 1998 and FAA Safety Team representative since 2003. He received the Soaring Society of America’s World Distance Award for 40,000 km (Earth’s circumference) of solo cross country flight in his ASK-24B glider. He is also active in triathlons qualifying for the 2016, 2020 and 2022 Ironman Hawaii World Championships and in 2020, qualified for the International Triathlon Union’s World Championships representing Team USA in every triathlon distance from sprint to long course as an age group amateur.
Herwin Bongers
Director of Standards and Safety
Flying for 40 years, 25 as an Airline pilot, Herwin has been heavily involved in collegial support and managing mental health assistance. He has seen the aviation industry evolve in its approach to mental health both in New Zealand and worldwide.
From training in military jets to Highland jungle operations in Papua and 20,000 hours of airline flying now as a 787 Captain, the importance of safety and understanding the contributing human factors have always been a primary pursuit.
After more recent Masters studies, it has become apparent that to understand the impact of mental wellness upon our industry, simply reacting to extremely rare but tragic events does not do it justice. For the hundreds of thousands of aviation professionals conducting their careers whilst living normal lives with normal stressors, treating mental wellness as a binary medical condition fails to contextualise our professional realities.
Herwin promotes adopting a wellness spectrum model and incorporating Threat and Error Management (TEM) processes to achieve the professional skilled knowledge approach needed to drive an attitudinal shift away from fear based decision making.
Dr Billy Hoffman
Chief Scientific Advisor
​William Hoffman, MD is a board-certified neurologist and an affiliated assistant professor of aviation at the University of North Dakota with a research focus on aircrew brain health and aeromedical screening.Dr. Hoffman has led a multi-institutional and cross-national research effort centered around aircrew brain health and aeromedical screening, with publications in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Military Medicine, Occupational Medicine and others. He is an internationally invited speaker on aircrew health topics with multiple mainstream publications including in Scientific American, Seattle Times, and Flying Magazine and media appearances on NBC, CBS, and NPR News. He served on the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Rulemaking Committee on Mental Health and testified on pilot mental health to the US National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, DC. Dr. Hoffman received two years of post-graduate instruction and training in aeromedical research under Anthony Tvaryanas MD PhD at the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aviation Medical Institute (CAMI). He is the vice-chair of the Aerospace Medial Association Mental Health Working Group and led an effort to establish research priorities related to mental health in aviation.