RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - La’Shanda Holmes of Fayetteville has been named a 2015-2016 White House Fellow, one of 16 women and men to receive the appointment.

Holmes is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard and is the Coast Guard’s first African-American female helicopter pilot.

The White House website lists her biography as follows:

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After growing up in the foster care system, she put herself through college, became a pilot, and amassed over 1,500 flight hours conducting search and rescue, counter drug, and law enforcement missions. She was previously stationed at Air Station Atlantic City as an Aircraft Commander and managed over 6,800 flight hours for the Coast Guard’s largest MH-65 helicopter unit.  She deployed five times to Washington, DC, as a Rotary Wing Air Intercept pilot where she supervised an 18-member team and sustained two strip alert aircraft to defend the President and the Nation’s capital in support of Operation Noble Eagle.  Her honors include the 2014 Blacks in Government award, selection as one of Grio’s Top 100 History Makers, and a nomination for an NAACP award for her work on The Smithsonian’s “Black Wings” documentary.  She is a Bonner Scholar, graduated Spelman College with a degree in psychology, and is a graduate student at Oklahoma University.  She sits on the board of directors of two non-profits that enrich youth through aviation: Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum and Girls Fly!

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More information on the fellowship is available at whitehouse.gov.