Advisory Council

Ryan Adams
Airport director
City of Denton Enterprise Airport

Ryan Adams has spent most of his career in local government management. He currently serves as the airport director for Denton Enterprise Airport since January 2024. Ryan has held leadership positions in the cities of Denton, Irving, and Athens, Texas. He has a wife and two young sons, volunteers for Scouting America, and loves backpacking and sweaters.

Captain Kathi Durst
American Airlines

Durst graduated in 1981 from the second class that admitted women to the Air Force Academy. She was hired by American Airlines in 1988 after serving seven years active duty in the Air Force. In her 36 years at American Airlines, she has instructed on three airplanes (Airbus 300, Boeing 737, and 777), been the B737 fleet captain and a DFW chief pilot.

Captain Deborah Hecker
American Airlines

Hecker is director-flight operations training policies & procedures for American Airlines and flies the Airbus 319/320/321. A graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in International Relations. She began her aviation career in 1990 when she was bitten by the flying bug. Hecker served nine years on the board of directors for Women in Aviation International and last two as chair.

Lindsey Lang
Vice President People
Southwest Airlines

Lang is responsible for developing and executing human resource strategy in support of the overall business plan of Southwest Airlines. She supports all people strategies and services and has oversight of talent acquisition, employee relations, HR technology, HR business partners, and employee services.

Lang joined Southwest in 2001 and began her career in the people department as an employment coordinator and then a recruiter for various operational and business groups. Lindsey later transitioned to team lead for operations recruiting and onboarding, where she co-led the employee transition during Southwest’s acquisition and integration of AirTran. In 2012, Lang promoted to senior HR business partner for the technology department. Lang served in multiple leadership positions on the talent management and HRBP team, serving as the senior director of HRBP & talent management as her last position on the team. In this role, she supported pandemic response, job architecture, and the building out of the HRBP function at Southwest.

Tracy Burdacki

Steve Carlisle

Dana Donati

Courtney Lepschy

Christi Paget

Janet Patton

Lauren Spence

Tyson Walker

Chad Weigand

Ric Wilson