Former congresswoman, Air Force officer to earn SECAF nomination

By Rachel Cohen / January 23, 2017 at 11:04 AM

Heather Wilson, an Air Force Academy graduate and former Republican congresswoman, is expected to earn the Trump administration's nomination for Air Force secretary, the White House announced Monday morning.

Wilson, 56, has served as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, a public regional science and engineering university, since 2013. From 1998 to 2009, she represented New Mexico in the U.S. House and served on the Armed Services Committee and what is now the Energy and Commerce Committee, and chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's technical and tactical subcommittee.

Wilson graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1982 and served until 1989, when she joined the National Security Council under President George H.W. Bush as director for European defense policy and arms control, according to a congressional biography. She also ran New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department from 1995 to 1998.

While in Congress, Wilson "opposed a plan by the Republican leadership to move management of the nuclear weapons program (largely based in New Mexico) from the Department of Energy to the Pentagon," according to the House biography.

If confirmed by the Senate, Wilson would inherit the post from newly departed Secretary Deborah Lee James. Lisa Disbrow, the current Air Force under secretary, holds the job in the meantime.

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