Many people who know Dee Bond as a pilot may not know that she trained as a ballerina, became a speech & drama teacher, and studied at university for a BCA in Accountancy and Commercial Law before she discovered the world of aviation.

Growing up sailing, she thought she would become a ship’s captain and sail around the world, but after buying her first aircraft, a LA4-200 Lake Buccaneer even before she could fly, she ended up flying GA aircraft around the world instead.

Dee, now a Life Member, joined the Ninety-Nines in 1989. She has twice served as New Zealand Section Governor, currently serves as the Section Membership Chair, has assisted on several International Committees, served on the International Board of Directors 2018-2021, and regularly represents New Zealand at international events including Ninety-Nines Conferences, the Air Race Classic, AOPA, and at the World Precision Flying Champs. Dee and her partner own and operate a boutique hotel and an airfield in New Zealand with a small fleet of Cessna aircraft, and own New Zealand’s only commercial aircraft manufacturer NZAero. Dee is a senior flight instructor with 1900 hours of flight instruction time, and 5,300 hours total flight time acquired mostly in general aviation sport flying.

Dee recalls that her love for the Ninety-Nines started when she represented New Zealand at the 1996 World Precision Flying Champs hosted by the USA at Meacham Field in Dallas Fort Worth, TX. In Dee’s words, “The Ninety-Nines were the predominant hosting body welcoming us as we stepped off the plane, providing hospitality like no other aviation organization I know, and co-ordinating the whole event. The Ninety-Nines friendships I made at that event, and all the subsequent Ninety-Nines and ARC events I have attended, have been the main reasons I continue my membership and promote the organization in my home country and around the world.”

Stephanie is a Baltimore, MD native. She holds a M.S. in Operations Research from the Florida Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Fellows program and MIT’s Seminar XXI, and holds multiple technical certifications including Physics of Space Systems from the Naval Postgraduate School. Stephanie took her first flight in 2015 and has been hooked ever since! She is a Certified Flight Instructor who most recently added her all-time favorite rating, the Single Engine Sea.

Stephanie is a senior analyst with technical and leadership experience driving mission-critical programs across the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Energy (DOE). Throughout her federal career, Ms. Baynes has been recognized for her ability to lead complex studies, modernize resource allocation, and implement innovative data and software solutions.

A dedicated public servant, Ms. Baynes serves on multiple nonprofit boards, where she provides strategic and fiscal oversight for international and domestic missions. On the Board of Directors of Peter & John Ministries she works to encourage positivity, encouragement, and support within her local Baltimore community.

She serves on the Board of Directors for Operation One, an organization focused on child sponsorship and building self-sustainment in Uganda. Over the past ten years, she has traveled to Uganda five times to support the mission, where she also visits with the children she personally sponsors. During a 2022 trip, Ms. Baynes drew on her experience as a Certified Flight Instructor to teach an aviation class for local students. The class eagerly drew 150 children who were captivated by the principles of flight, inspiring several to dream of pursuing aviation. This effort reflects her goal of using aviation to inspire and create new opportunities for underserved communities. She actively combines her passion for flying with her commitment to humanitarian work through volunteering with the Ninety-Nines, the local EAA chapter, Scouts, and other local organizations. Stephanie is engaged to Jamie Edwards. They have two cats, Hugo and Maya, and are looking forward to saying ‘I do’ this October!”  

Thomas J. Hall was born in Glendale, California and grew up in Northern Nevada, at Lake Tahoe. His father was an aircraft mechanic, pilot, flight instructor, acrobatics flight instructor, and Captain for Western Airlines. Tom received his wings in 1966, with SEL, Glider, and Instrument Ratings, ending with about 2,500 flight hours in various aircraft concluding with his 1981 Beech Bonanza A36TC.

Tom’s achievements and contributions to aviation are numerous:
• Incorporated the Reno Stead Airport Association and served as its President for several decades.
• Joined EAA, AOPA, and ABS, and flew over 100 EAA Introductory Flights.
• Served at the AOPA ASN for Reno-Stead (RTS) Airport.
• Served as President and Chair of the Reno Air Racing Foundation.
• Co-Founded Pathway to Aviation and served as its President for many years.
• Served as Co-Trustee, President, and Chair of George W. Gillemot Foundation, which made the largest gift in the University of Nevada history of $38 million to start a Department of Aerospace Engineering there.
• Organized, guided, and promoted 16 Annual Aviation Speaker Programs at the University of Nevada.
• Assisted in creating the first Aviation Academy in Northern Nevada, with the Washoe County School District.
• Assisted in creating aviation scholarship of $250,000 per year for Northern Nevada student pilots.

Through his involvement with the Reno Air Racing Foundation, Tom has blended his passions for education and aviation. While serving as Trustee and Chairman of the Reno Racing Foundation, he co-founded Pathways to Aviation, an educational outreach program designed to inspire youth though aviation education to become pilots and aircraft maintenance personnel, ending in careers and workforce development.

In recognition of all this work, Tom has been honored by the 2026 Distinguished Nevada Award by the Nevada System of Higher Education .

Award of Achievement for Contributions to The Ninety-Nines Life Member Mohini Shroff, who is a Charter Member of the Indian Section, first joined the Ninety-Nines in 1965. Although her family was not supportive of a career in aviation, she was awarded an opportunity when she received a governmental “Free Flying” Scholarship in 1959. At that time, Mohini was working full time and attending college. One of the requirements of the scholarship was to complete 50 flight hours within a year, a challenging goal for women in India at that time, as women pilots were almost unheard of. She acquired her Private Pilot license in 1965 and in 1967, Mohini, along with fellow female pilots, gathered other women aviators from around the country and founded the Indian Women Pilots Association, IWPA. Today, the group has more than 300 members and supports the development of women in all professions involving aviation and aerospace. Through the hard work of the Indian Women Pilots’ Association, aviation doors were eventually opened to women.

In 2003, Mohini made history as the first woman to participate in the Air-Race India organized by the Aeronautical Society of India—a milestone moment for women in Indian aviation.

Mohini believes that “anyone who takes to flying gets addicted and it starts running into your bloodstream; it is very difficult to give-up like any other passion.”

Mohini continues to fly and keeps her PPL current.

A native of Nebraska, Debby Rihn-Harvey is a third-generation aviator. Her grandfather, Roy Furstenberg, operated a barnstorming business and trained mechanics in Omaha, Nebraska in the 1920’s. He designed and built the Overland Sport Aircraft and was later inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.

Her father, Jack Furstenberg, flew in WWII, and continued the family legacy as a certified flight instructor, guiding many, including all three of his children, to solo on their 16th birthday.

Debby began flying gliders at the age of 13 and soloed at 16 in a Cessna 150 at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield. While earning her biology and medical technology degree at Hastings College, she also completed her commercial, instrument, multi-engine, and flight instructor certificates. She later moved to Houston Texas where she worked in a hospital laboratory and met her husband Eoin “Doc” Harvey who inspired her to begin flying aerobatics. She qualified for the U.S. Unlimited Aerobatic Team in 1983; this was the beginning of a competitive and airshow career spanning more than 40 years. She qualified for the USA Unlimited Aerobatic Team 16 times and has won more world medals than any other US competitor at the time of retirement. She was overall National Aerobatic Champion 3 times, and Women’s National Champion 14 times. She was also inducted into several Hall of Fames. She was often punctuated with a “Yeehaw! Or “C’mon baby!” while performing inverted maneuvers at airshows. In 1989, she became the 11th woman hired by Southwest Airlines, where she worked for 27 years and retired as a Captain.

She and her husband started Harvey & Rihn Aviation, and it has been in existence for 49 years. She continues to work at the business as a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) and brings her trademark enthusiasm with her. Her colleagues often describe her as a “national treasure” whose generosity, skill, and passion have left a lasting impact on the aviation community.

I learned to fly in Grand Island, Nebraska, and was fortunate to experience a tremendously active 99s Chapter, even as a student pilot. My CFI, Dolly Salisbury, was a 99, and my examiner, Bernadette Bower, was a 99. The first thing she had me sign on completion of my private pilot check ride was my 99s application, and that was in 1976.

My original Chapter was Nebraska, followed by Mid-Tennessee, Fort Worth, Golden Triangle, and then becoming a Founding Mother of the Rio Grande Norte Chapter. The women from those Chapters have been integral to my aviation, personal, and professional survival.

I was awarded the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship in 1979 for my M.Ed. in Aerospace Education, and then an AE Research Scholar Grant in 1994 for my research on maternity policies for women pilots. Dora Dougherty Strother McKeown brought me onto the AEMSF as a Research Scholar Grant consultant in 1995, and then I was elected as a Trustee in 1996. I later became a Permanent Trustee.

It has been my sheer pleasure to serve as a Trustee. That work has helped me focus on giving back. I literally would not be where I am, or for that matter, who I am, without the Ninety-Nines, Inc.

Mike Franceus created the Debbie Franceus Memorial Aviation Foundation in 2023, shortly after Debbie’s passing, in response to Debbie’s desire for women to enjoy the love of aviation by pursuing their dreams to fly. Since the Foundation’s inception in 2023, the Foundation has awarded 31 Flight Training Scholarships to women across the United States. These women are not only working on their initial pilot ratings, but also on advanced ratings to fly both personally and professionally. The Foundation plans to continue helping many more women achieve their goals in the coming years.

Mike received his Private Pilot’s License in 1980, accumulating over 1000 hours of flying in single engine aircraft. Mike received his Instrument Rating in 2016 and has been flying the 1962 Beechcraft Debonair he and Debbie purchased together since 2011. In addition to his love for flying, Mike is a skilled scuba diver, and he and Debbie traveled the globe to many remote diving destinations during their 44 years of marriage, swimming together with whale shark, eagle ray, barracuda and other marine life. Mike retired from supercenter retailer Meijer, Inc. in 2019, after serving with them for 44 years in various Leadership capacities, most recently as Market Director for the Toledo, Ohio market. Additionally, during his tenure with Meijer, Mike served as a board member for The American Red Cross.

Mike continues to enjoy playing acoustic guitar, gardening, and hunting whitetail deer and has enjoyed many successful hunts for deer, mountain lion, Alaska-Yukon moose and other big game animals with family and friends. Mike enjoys spending time with his 3 children, Cory, Kurt and Kaysi, along with his nine grandchildren. Mike resides in Temperance, Michigan .