March 10, 2025
NBAA Flight Operations Specialist Laila Stein has been named vice chair of the board of directors for the Pilot Mental Health Campaign (PMHC), a non-partisan, grassroots organization that works to create an environment where pilots can seek help without fearing professional repercussions.
It was a natural progression for Stein, who was part of the group when it was founded in 2023 and has long had an interest in aviation mental health. As a student at Western Michigan University, she was responsible for 150 freshman aviation students as a learning community assistant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They had just been through an incredibly stressful and tumultuous period, and I saw, working with these students, that our pilot community doesn’t believe that they can get mental health help and still be a pilot,” she said. “So, I would see kids doing things they probably shouldn’t be doing, all of the bad coping mechanisms, and I knew I wanted to make a difference.”
Soon after that, University of North Dakota student and pilot John Hauser took his life, crashing his plane into a farm in North Dakota. “John’s parents said that he didn’t believe that he could fly and seek mental health help at the same time, and he decided he didn’t want to be on this earth if he wasn’t going to be able to fly,” Stein said. “His story really resonated with me, because I had seen him in all of my peers.”
Stein’s honors thesis, entitled, “Mental Health in Aviation: A Study of Aviation Students on Their Perceptions of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Rules Governing Mental Health,” explored how college students have high rates of anxiety and depression, and should be seeking help at the highest rates – but are not.
While presenting her thesis at a mental health and aviation symposium, in the audience were Brian Bomhoff, who would go on to found PMHC, and Hauser’s mother, Dr. Anne Suh, who now serves as the group’s medical board director.
“They invited me to be part of what PMHC was doing, and we’ve all three stuck together to where it is now,” she said.
“Laila Stein has been a standout member of PMHC’s team since day one,” said Bomhoff, who is the group’s chair. “Before she joined PMHC, indeed before she even graduated, she was already an active leader on mental health in aviation. Her academic work in undergrad caught my eye as a body of research that was unique in its subject matter and thoughtful investigation.”
Stein joined the group to provide a young voice in aviation, and Bomhoff said it was a “no-brainer” to name her vice chair.
“She had already spearheaded multiple initiatives and was well respected by the whole team,” Bomhoff said. “I think everyone was pleased to see her take on a new challenge, and I’ve been particularly impressed with her proactive and systematic approach to growing our organization.”
Stein named a couple of pieces of legislation, both sponsored by Rep. Sean Casten (D-6-IL), as among the group’s top priorities. She called Casten “a huge champion of the work that we do.”
One, the Aviation Medication Transparency Act, would require the FAA to publish and regularly update a list of approved medications for aviators. “Pilots don’t have a list of medications that we can take,” said Stein. The bill would provide “some clarity to pilots to be able to work with their medical professional to get them the best care they need and still maintain their flying status.”
The other bill, the Mental Health in Aviation Act, would require the FAA to implement recommendations of the Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Rulemaking Committee, which was created by the FAA to identify and provide recommendations to overcome barriers to mental health care for aviators.
The PMHC is holding an advocacy day April 2 in Washington, DC, to gain traction for these bills and champion other mental health aviation priorities.
“We’re asking the community to rally around getting our young people here too, to use their voice,” she said.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.