Anastasia McCune is our Woman of the Week, nominated for her work as an instructional designer and as a newly-licensed commercial pilot. We asked her to tell us how she got from where she started to where she is today: 

“I would say it began at graduate school at the University of Denver. I chose Digital Media Studies, which may not even exist anymore as a degree. It covered any kind of digital media: programming, visual design, website building, etc.

I really enjoyed it, and I learned how to see and speak in visual design terms. At some point I picked up an animation program called Adobe Flash, which is now called Adobe Animate. I began doing a lot of animation work – not on big projects like movies, but things like banner ads. I swear, if I ever look at another Big Mac again, I will not be able to eat it, because I animated so many hamburgers coming in with steam coming off, and that kind of thing!

Adobe had a program where you could take an exam, go through a training class, and then you could teach their software. That's what I ended up doing. I later learned to use their e-learning software, called Captivate. Eventually I was teaching Captivate as well and realized that I was really interested in the design of courses and instruction. This led me to work at Regis University in Denver as an instructional designer. I’ve been working in that field now for twenty-five years.

I love it. It's so much fun. I get to work with subject matter experts in all kinds of areas and learn about all these different domains. But in the end, I’m working with them to design a curriculum or a course. Some subject matter experts are really good at that. But sometimes people struggle to explain their vast breadth of knowledge - they have done it for so long, they forget what it was like to be a beginner. I find it fascinating to help others translate their knowledge into a well-designed course. 

It's been a wonderful career, and it continues to be. I enjoy teaching online, and I enjoy speaking. But on Labor Day 2020, my family took a helicopter ride at Mount Rushmore, and in that moment I thought, ‘Where has this been all my life?’ I decided that I had to pursue training to become a pilot.

I've been flying now for about four and a half years. It took a while. When I began it was during COVID, everything was closed, there was nowhere to fly. I also had to save some money, that kind of thing. So it took me two years to get to the first level, private pilot, where you can just fly yourself and maybe a few passengers. Two years is a very long time compared to some, but that's what I could make possible while working around my career and family. 

The next step up from private is instrument certification, which is where you're flying solely in reference to the instruments in the airplane itself. And now, just a few weeks ago, I received my commercial pilot’s license. With this license, you can be hired to fly. You can do any number of things: tow banners, drop parachutists out of the back, do surveying for the Forest Service, instruct – the list goes on. When you get enough hours, that’s when you can get jobs flying commercial airlines. 

I’ve realized through the process that I love flying, but there's so many other things that I can aspire to in aviation besides just fly big jets. I can teach, I can be an instructor, I can develop curriculum. I’m working on becoming an instructor next. I’m excited to see where things go from here to combine my expertise and experience.”