JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri Highway Patrol has just appointed its first female superintendent in its 85-year history.

The News Tribune reports 53-year-old Lt. Col. Sandra Karsten was named the patrol’s 23rd superintendent Wednesday. She will hold the job on an “acting” basis until confirmed by the state Senate. Karsten says she’s been interested in working for the patrol since she was 17 years old. She told nearly 30 members of the current recruit class Wednesday about what it was like working for the patrol was like when she initially joined in 1985.

Karsten created the patrol’s first policy on treating a trooper’s pregnancy as a temporary condition.

She says she advises to women navigating a male-dominated industry to do so “sometimes with a sense of humor, sometimes with your proper attitude.”