About The International Pilot Peer Assist Coalition (IPPAC)
IPPAC is a non-profit 501C entity, whose goal is to promote pilot mental fitness and psychological well-being throughout the U.S. and international aviation industry and to assist organizations looking to develop a robust pilot-assist program at their airline.
In addition, we seek to increase our expertise in this area through our annual conference, where representatives from regulators and leading aviation mental health experts are invited to speak on the latest developments in this field.
The International Pilot Peer Assist Coalition(IPPAC) is comprised of representatives from the following:
Project Lift – Southwest Airlines and Southwest Airlines Pilot Association (SWAPA)
Pilot Assistance Network - British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA)
Japan Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Association of Japan (ALPA Japan)
SOAR PSP – United Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA)
Project Wingman – American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Association (APA)
New Zealand Airlines and the New Zealand Air Line Pilots Association (NZALPA)
Center for Aviation Mental Health (C4AMH)
OdiliaClark - Impairment Risk Management
Center for Aviation Psychology (CAP)
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Allied Pilots Association
Leadership Team
CA Charlie Curreri
CA Charlie Curreri is a recenlty retired A320 captain and co-founder of Project Wingman, an industry-leading pilot peer assistance program for over 14,000 pilots at American Airlines. He is the Director of IPPAC, established in March 2018, and Director of the Center for Aviation Mental Health (C4AMH.com).
He is a retired Air Force F16 combat veteran of Desert Storm with over 3000 hours of fighter time. He is also a licensed professional counselor, Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP), and Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) in the state of Texas and holds a Master's in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma and a Master's in Counseling from Colorado Christian University, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Grand Canyon University in Arizona researching "Self-Stigma's Moderating Relationship With Commercial Airline Pilots Help-Seeking Attitudes." Charlie has been married for over 37 years and has 6 children and 7 grandchildren!
CA Curt Joens
Curt Joens is a Dallas-Ft Worth based Airbus 320 Captain for American Airlines. He is one of the initial founding pilot peer support volunteers who started Project Wingman (PW) in 2011.
Previous duties with PW included overseeing the training and mentoring of new pilot peer volunteers. He was also part of the PW Bereavement Committee, assisting pilots and/or families of pilots who had experienced the loss of a loved one.
Curt started his flying career in 1983 with the United States Air Force. In his eight year military career he served as a C-130 Aircraft Commander and a T-38 instructor pilot. He has been with American since 1992 and has flown the B-727, F-100, MD-80, B-767, B-787, and the Airbus. Curt has been married to Margie for 31 years. They have four adult children and one grandchild. For the past ten years, he has been an elder for Grace Community Church, a 1200 member nondenominational church in Arlington, Texas.
FO Natasha Scheglova
Natasha Shcheglova is an A320 pilot for American Airlines. She is a first-generation immigrant from Russia, an ERAU graduate, and a former American Eagles Airlines Captain.
Driven by her passion for serving others she became a Project Wingman volunteer for the last few years and was instrumental in planning and running the 2019 IPPAC conference in Dallas, TX. Natasha is a powerful force in the workplace and uses her positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. In addition to being an airline pilot, she serves as a Scholarship Director on the Board of Directors for ISA+21 (The International Society of Women Airline Pilots). Besides her interests in positive psychology and counseling, she enjoys reading, writing, listening to the opera, and traveling. Her future plans include receiving an MS in Psychology and continuing helping others.
CA Dave Fielding
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 B767, B777, A350 and the A380, which is his current type.
Dave has been a union rep with the British Airline Pilots Association since 1996, specialising in disciplinaries which led to an interest in alcohol and welfare cases, which in turn led to him creating a BALPA peer intervention programme. Following the Germanwings crash of 2015, he worked with British Airways to adapt and improve the programme. In January 2017 the Pilots Assistance Network (PAN) became the first peer support programme in Europe to be launched post-Germanwings. Dave sits on the Executive Board of EPPSI, and has been instrumental in the rewrite of the recently published IFALPA Pilot Assistance Manual.
CA Dave Sanders
CA David Sanders is a founding member of IPPAC in 2018. He retired in August of 2021 at the mandatory age requirement with over 37 years and over 30,000 hours. At SWA, David led the CISM program for 20 years and grew it to one of the most effective teams reaching up to 60 crews a month with critical issues on the job and personal. David, along with his team, launched Project LIFT in 2017 to assist pilots with Depression, Anxiety, and personal issues. Cofounder of IPPAC in 2018. Over 25 years as a Pastor/Elder at HCC, a Christian church in Franklin TN where he serves over 600 people in several capacities, primarily in marriage and family with his wife Susan of 43 years. Published Author and Recipient of the President’s Award, two-time Meritorious service award and Distinguished aviator
award.
CA Pete Whitten
Peter Whitten has flown the Boeing 777 and 787 (his current type) for a major UK carrier. He was one of the founders of the Peer Support Programme, MAPS, and is the Sales Director of OdiliaClark. Pete joined the UK Royal Air Force in 2003 and, on completion of his training, flew the Boeing C-17 Globemaster as both a Co-Pilot and a Captain. He was selected to attend the Central Flying School where he was trained to instruct Advanced Multi-Engine Flying Training on the Textron King Air B200. He holds the dubious honour of being the only two-time display Captain on the King Air to have never flown a display, however, he was fortunate enough to lead the King Air contingent on a number of high-profile occasions including the Queens Birthday Flypast and the opening of the Royal Military Tattoo.
On leaving the Royal Air Force, Pete joined a commercial airline, via a short time flying the King Air for a Corporate client. In 2018 he founded Kura Human Factors (KHF) and the MAPS programme with some RAF colleagues and joined OdiliaClark in 2022.