An Interview With Martita Mestey
Being kind to one another. It is such a simple thing to do… The truth is each one of us is going through a struggle. It would make such a tremendous difference if people would just be nice to one another… Just a daily reminder that we are all human beings trying to get through life the best we can.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ted Greenfield.
Ted Greenfield, M.Ed., is the founder and director of Invisible Angels, a nonprofit organization providing air transportation for survivors of human trafficking. A commercially rated pilot, Ted retired from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the spring of 2025, where he served as a multimedia producer, creating safety messaging and training for air traffic controllers and pilots. Before his time at the FAA, Ted served as a senior instructional systems designer contractor at Lockheed Martin, and internet managing editor for Voice of America’s Learning English.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
It’s a pleasure to tell the Invisible Angels story. This path was not on my horizon nor in my plans in any way shape or form. On a spring evening in 2018, a woman came to speak to our small bible study group. She began a presentation on how terrible the sex trafficking situation was in the Baltimore and Washington DC area as well as every other major city throughout the U.S.. American boys and girls are being bought, sold, and trafficked by lone traffickers, pimps, gangs, and cartels. As she began talking, I was so horrified I thought she had to be making the whole thing up. I knew sex trafficking was happening in other countries, but I thought there was no way that sex trafficking was happening here. After her presentation I was stunned and shocked and emotionally paralyzed. The only way I can describe what I was feeling at that moment was that her message landed in my heart like a wet bag of cement and started to harden. For the next few weeks this literally kept me up at night and I just had to get involved. I had no earthly idea that just seven years later it would turn into an air carrier operation that would be providing rescue and recovery transportation for trafficking survivors.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
The circumstances behind each flight we do seem to get worse and worse. There were two flights early on that revealed the horrible reality about sex trafficking — parents are actually selling their own children into the sex trafficking trade. Just after we started operations, we received a call from U.S. Homeland Security about a child under the age of 10 who was put into a child pornography ring by the father, and an 18-year-old woman that was sold to a gang when she was 14 because the mother needed drugs and rent money. We were able to provide immediate transportation for both of these individuals. Homeland Security was especially appreciative as they are not in the transportation business, and they had no way to get the child reunited with their mother. We recently discovered that a minor in the foster care system was being trafficked by a foster care caseworker. Sadly, most trafficking survivors are trafficked by someone that they know. Familial trafficking makes up a large percentage of sex trafficking victims.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I can’t say this was funny, but it was the kind of thing I can laugh about now. Aviation law is extremely complex, so when I started Invisible Angels I thought that I could run the operation as a private nonprofit organization that simply owned an aircraft and was providing much needed transportation for trafficking survivors. I didn’t realize that I was violating just about every FAA 14 CFR Part 135 regulation. Basically, for the first year and a half of operations Invisible Angels operated as an illegal air charter operation. When the FAA discovered our operations, they were anything but amused and came down on us with the full force of the agency. They opened a compliance action against me (formal charges for operating an illegal airline) where the airplane could be seized, my pilot’s license could be revoked, and I was possibly looking at fines in the millions of dollars. To make matters worse and very ironic, I had been an FAA employee for quite some time. Although the FAA was very supportive of what we were doing, they wanted to make sure that we operated with the proper legal authority as a chartered airline. They also wanted to ensure that we had a completely safe operation. They wanted to ensure that this aviation operation was held to the highest safety standards and wanted complete safety oversight of our operation. The FAA shut us down for a time, and we had to apply to become an actual part 135 direct air carrier. This was one of the hardest seasons of my life, but during this time I witnessed miracle after miracle. We watched as people, money, and resources literally dropped out of the sky to help Invisible Angels. We received the funding we needed, as well as over 1500 pages of compliance statements, training manuals, safety management systems documents, and all the administrative support needed to achieve our part 135 air carrier certificate which was awarded to Invisible Angels in May of 2024.
After we received our air carrier certificate, we became an official air carrier and we can enter into contracts with any state, local, or federal law enforcement agency. Invisible Angels now has full legal protection over our passengers as well as complete safety oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration. We now have the same safety standards and legitimacy as any other airline, and we also have the full support of the Federal Aviation Administration behind our mission.
What started out as a nightmare threatening to shut the whole operation down turned into the biggest blessing, laid the foundations of a strong safety culture, and set the stage for future growth for Invisible Angels.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
Invisible Angels is making a significant social impact in two main areas: transportation for victims and public awareness. Before we even began operations, I discovered transportation is the missing piece in the rescue / recovery equation for human trafficking survivors. When trafficking survivors are identified by law enforcement, rescue agencies, or outreach groups, they have to be removed from their environment and taken to safe homes far away from where the trafficking took place for their own safety and security. This usually means 800–1,000 miles away or farther. Trafficking survivors rarely have any family to help, no money, and in most cases, have no identification. In fact, most survivors are unaware of the elaborate network of safe homes and rescue organizations that are scattered throughout the country, so they really don’t know who to turn to. The fact that we can offer flights with a survivor advocate to take them where they need to go at no charge is a game changer. It’s a major piece of the equation they don’t have to worry about.
There is so much more work needed to be done on the issue of awareness. Just about every organization and group I have been spoken to over the last few years are completely unaware that human trafficking is happening in this country at alarming numbers. I can’t really be that surprised, because I was one of those clueless people just seven years ago. I am so grateful for articles like this because they are a tremendous platform to raise awareness about the human trafficking issue here in our own cities and neighborhoods.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
One afternoon, we got a call from a U.S. Homeland Security agent who heard about us from a conference we attended. A young child was trafficked by his father and teacher and the agent said they would “never see the light of day again.” But the agent said they needed to reunite the child with his mother. We had the child back with his mother the next day.
Homeland Security was elated because the government simply can’t move that fast, but Invisible Angels can. We are currently working with Homeland Security on another case, and Invisible Angels will be taking a survivor to make an impact statement at their traffickers sentencing hearing. This is a vital trip because what this trafficking survivor has to say is extremely important and crucial to the sentencing phase.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Awareness. I will always go back to awareness. If the general public knew what the signs to look for, they would be able to spot a suspicious situation right away. An unattended young child out in the middle of the weekday might not seem immediately suspicious, but if you stop and think about it anybody from the age of 8 to 18 should be in school in the middle of the weekday and not just walking down the street. There are also signs such as a young girl with a very much older man who is obviously not her father, and groups of teenage children in vehicles that look suspicious. Most teenagers are smiling, happy and playing games in cars. If there is a vehicle with a number of sad and scared looking teenagers in it, there probably is cause for alarm.
Awareness brought to the general public of what to look for is vital. A simple 911 call saying “I observed a suspicious situation involving children, teenagers or an adult” will instantly bring law enforcement to the problem. Unfortunately, the general public doesn’t necessarily know what to look for or even realize that they are happening in small towns all across the country.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is the result of gaining influence by serving others. In my case, the closest example of leadership for this organization is in the book of Isaiah in the bible, where God was calling for a messenger to the people of Israel and Isaiah simply said: “Here am I. Send me!” I saw a need and I said I’ll do it. I had no idea how, but the desire to fulfill the need created and drove the vision and everything else followed suit. For Invisible Angels, leadership is simply realizing something needs to be done and simply doing it. True leadership is bottom up. It all begins with serving others.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I am glad that no one actually told me these five things because I probably would have been tempted to give up. Looking back now, there was a naivete of not knowing anything about what I was getting into, I was just being driven by the vision. But here are the five things:
1 . Find out what you don’t know.
Starting an aviation transport organization with the specific intent to fly passengers from point A to point B requires an FAA Part 135 air carrier certificate. This typically takes anywhere from 2 to 4 years and can cost upwards of $500,000 or even more. About a year and a half into our operation, the FAA opened a compliance action against Invisible Angels for operating an illegal airline and shut Invisible Angels down. I was looking at potential fines of millions of dollars, having our aircraft seized, and possibly my pilot’s license revoked. This season had a happy ending, and it probably was the best thing that happened to our organization in the long run because it laid the foundation for a solid safety culture for Invisible Angels.
2 . When you start a nonprofit the only thing you will be doing is raising money.
Someone did give me this advice very early on and I didn’t believe them. I thought for a cause like this the money would just come flowing in. After running a nonprofit for five years, my primary task — other than flying airplanes — is to raise money for Invisible Angels.
3 . Don’t be surprised when people don’t care.
I’m incredibly disturbed about the crisis of human trafficking in the United States, and I thought everybody would share that same concern. The truth of the matter is not everybody cares. It doesn’t mean that these are bad people, it just means they don’t care.
4 . Airplane maintenance is expensive.
Aircraft maintenance is staggering. We have to conform to every annual FAA airworthiness directive as well as our FAA annual required inspection, as well as our required FAA 100-hour inspection. Because our aircraft inspections are federally mandated and regulated, everything on the aircraft has to be in perfect working order. Most items are just replaced instead of repaired. This ensures the highest level of safety for our aircraft, but it is unbelievably expensive.
5 . Aircraft insurance is hard to find.
Aircraft insurance is our second largest expense and there are very few companies that will cover a newly minted direct air carrier. Our first year, only one company in the entire United States would insure us… and it was expensive! Our second year was a lot better, and our insurance rates have come down a bit since, but this was an initial shock. If I had known this beforehand, it may have been a barrier to entry so I’m glad I didn’t know.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Being kind to one another. It is such a simple thing to do. I guess it’s because in my line of work I have heard some of the worst stories you can ever imagine — it has made me sensitive to even the daily observances of being rude in grocery stores, restaurants, or while driving. The truth is each one of us is going through a struggle. It would make such a huge, tremendous difference if people would just be nice to one another. If there was some organization out there with a good healthy advertising budget, all they would have to do is put two words on billboards, Internet, television, print, podcasts and radio: “Be Kind.” Just a daily reminder that we are all human beings trying to get through life the best we can.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Exodus chapter 14, verses 13 and 14. “These Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. I the Lord will fight your battles for you; you need only be still.”
This has been my life verse for the past 20 years and it has been true every single time I’ve been in a jam or a major problem. I tell the initial story in my book God Is In This Fight where I was literally staring down the fangs of a nasty corporate attorney yet, unbeknownst to me, God had solved the problem upstream way before it even began.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Billy Joel. I’m a huge fan of his music, but I wouldn’t like to have lunch with him because of his music. I just think we would get along really well.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Go to https://www.invisibleangels.org/and sign up for our e-mails as well as subscribe to our YouTube channel: Invisible Angels.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: How Ted Greenfield Of Invisible Angels Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.