Michelle D. Johnson

Lieutenant General Michelle D. Johnson is the 19th Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy. She is the first woman ever to lead a United States Department of Defense Service Academy. Her previous position was the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations and Intelligence, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Casteau, Belgium. She was formerly the Director, Strategy, Policy, Programs and Logistics, U.S. Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base. She also served as the deputy director of the Joint Staff's War on Terrorism, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate at the Pentagon. As an Air Force cadet, she was the first woman to serve as Cadet Wing Commander (the senior ranking cadet) at the United States Air Force Academy. She was also an NCAA Varsity Basketball Player all four years at the Academy, and was selected as the Academy's first woman Rhodes Scholar in her First Class (Senior) Year.

Education and training
At Brasenose College, Johnson studied with Vernon Bogdanor and Peter Sinclair who also taught David Cameron, the British Prime Minister
 * 1981 Distinguished graduate, Bachelor of Science degree in operations research, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
 * 1983 Rhodes Scholar, Master of Arts degree in politics and economics, Brasenose College, Oxford England
 * 1987 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
 * 1991 Air Command and Staff College, by correspondence
 * 1996 Air War College, by correspondence
 * 1999 Master of Science degree in national security strategy, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
 * 2002 National Security Management Fellow, Syracuse University, New York
 * 2005 Senior Executive Fellows Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
 * 2007 Fellow, Seminar XXI — Foreign Politics, International Relations and the National Interest, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Military assignments
Johnson attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona from May 1983 to July 1984, and completed her three-month C-141 qualification training at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma in October of that year.

Her command assignments include the 9th Air Refueling Squadron, the 97th Operations Group and the 22d Air Refueling Wing. She commanded a deployed air refueling squadron in Operation Southern Watch and an air refueling wing in support of Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. She has served as the Air Force aide to the President, and as an Assistant Professor of Political Science, instructor pilot, and Associate Air Officer Commanding at the United States Air Force Academy.

Johnson is a command pilot with more than 3,600 flying hours in C-141, T-41, KC-10, C-17, C-5 Galaxy and KC-135 aircraft.

On August 12, 2013, Lieutenant General Johnson assumed command as superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Promotion history

 * Second Lieutenant - May 27, 1981
 * First Lieutenant - May 27, 1983
 * Captain - May 27, 1985
 * Major - Oct. 1, 1991
 * Lieutenant Colonel - Feb. 1, 1995
 * Colonel - May 1, 1999
 * Brigadier General - Jan. 2, 2007
 * Major General - Aug. 2, 2010
 * Lieutenant General - Aug. 12, 2013