Industry voice: Fixing the most important mission in aviation

Laura Epstein, pilot turned Founder and CEO of Pulse Charter Connect, explains how she is applying aviation’s culture of precision, accountability and preparation to help move organ transplant logistics forward

I inherited my love of flying from my dad. He owned a company that specialized in transporting precious art – including globally recognized exhibits like the Terracotta Warriors – to and from museums around the world. From him, I learned early that logistics is both an art and a science. That any flight, when done right, is less about speed and more about precision.

So it was only a matter of time before I pursued my private pilot’s license. I earned it at 23 after graduating with an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Virginia. Like many young pilots, I dreamed of flying fast, flying far, and maybe even flying for NASA. But I could never have imagined that aviation would one day lead me to the mission of saving lives through organ transplant logistics – a system that is complex, fragmented, and overdue for transformation.

Years later, while working at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), I had a front-row seat to the challenges of air operations in the USA. There, I worked with technologies like controller–pilot data link communications (CPDLC), a system that replaces voice transmissions with digital messaging to streamline air traffic control instructions. Seeing its efficiency firsthand – how it reduced radio congestion, minimized hear-back / read-back errors, and saved critical time for crews – I wondered: why couldn’t similar tools bring precision to organ transport logistics?

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