Хетер Энн Уилсон: Әскери қызметкер, саясаткер және университет президенті

American academic administrator (born 1960)

Heather Ann Wilson (born December 30, 1960) is the 11th President of the University of Texas at El Paso. She previously served as the 24th Secretary of the United States Air Force from 2017 through 2019. Wilson was the 12th president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City from 2013 to 2017, and she was the first female military veteran elected to a full term in Congress. She was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for from 1998 to 2009. While Secretary of the Air Force, Wilson focused on restoring the readiness of the force which had declined after years of combat and budget constraints. She proposed and supported three straight years of double digit budget increases for military space capability and publicly acknowledged that space is likely to be contested in any future conflict. Wilson also guided implementation of acquisition reform to reduce the time to get military capability to the warfighter and increase competition by making it easier for innovative companies to supply the Air Force. Wilson was honored by the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Department of Defense for her superior service upon her retirement. While in the U. S. House of Representatives, Wilson focused on national security issues, serving on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the United States House Committee on Armed Services. On March 7, 2011, she announced another run for Senate in 2012 to replace retiring senator Jeff Bingaman, but lost the general election to Democrat Martin Heinrich, her successor in the House of Representatives. In April 2013 she was selected to be president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology by the South Dakota Board of Regents. She was the eighteenth president, and first female president, of SD Mines. Upon the recommendation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, on January 23, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Wilson as Secretary of the Air Force. The U. S. Senate confirmed her nomination on May 8, 2017, and Mattis described her as “a leader for all seasons.” On March 8, 2019, Wilson said that she would resign as Secretary, effective May 31, 2019, in order to assume the office of President of the University of Texas at El Paso. On March 2, 2020, President Trump appointed Wilson to be a member of the National Science Board.

Wilson was born on December 30, 1960, in Keene, New Hampshire, the daughter of Martha Lou, nurse, and George Douglas "Doug" Wilson, a commercial pilot and member of the Experimental Aircraft Association. Wilson grew up around aviation and hoped to become a pilot like her father and grandfather before her. Her grandfather, George Gordon "Scotty" Wilson, flew for the Royal Air Force in World War I and emigrated to America in 1922 where he was a barnstormer and airport operator in the 1920s and 1930s. He served as a courier pilot during World War II and started the New Hampshire Civil Air Patrol where he was a Wing Commander. Her father started flying at age 13 and enlisted in the United States Air Force after high school. The United States Air Force Academy began admitting women during Wilson's junior year at Keene High School (Keene, New Hampshire). She applied and was appointed to the Academy. She graduated in 1982 as a Distinguished Graduate (magna cum laude equivalent). Wilson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford and continued her education at Jesus College, earning an M. Phil. and D. Phil. in international relations by 1985. which won the 1988 Paul Reuter Prize of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Paul Reuter Prize is awarded for a major work in the sphere of international humanitarian law. Wilson won the second Reuter prize ever awarded. An Air Force officer for seven years, Wilson was a negotiator and political adviser to the U. S. Air Force in the United Kingdom, and a defense planning officer for NATO in Belgium, where her work included arms control negotiations.

Wilson served in the United States Air Force until 1989 when she was chosen to serve as director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council staff, She worked for Republican president George H. W. Bush. Her principal responsibilities included guiding the U. S. position on the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) negotiations and NATO affairs during the period of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.

After leaving government in 1991, Wilson founded Keystone International, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico to promote business development in the United States and Russia.

Wilson was defeated in a June 3, 2008, primary against Congressman Steve Pearce by a margin of 51% to 49%. Wilson immediately endorsed Pearce's candidacy, saying that Republicans have "no time for disappointment or for bitterness. Republicans have made their choice and I gladly accept it." In the general election, Pearce was overwhelmingly defeated by Congressman Tom Udall, 61% to 39%.

On November 6, 2012, incumbent Democratic U. S. Senator Jeff Bingaman decided to retire instead of running for reelection to a sixth term. Wilson won the Republican nomination to succeed him, and faced Democrat Martin Heinrich, who had succeeded Wilson in Congress. In the general election, Heinrich defeated Wilson 51% to 45%.

Wilson served as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology from 2013 to 2017, leaving to accept the appointment of Secretary of the Air Force. She returned to academia as the president of the University of Texas at El Paso following her resignation as Secretary of the Air Force.

After being nominated by President Donald Trump on January 23, 2017, and confirmed by the U. S. Senate on May 8, 2017, Wilson became the first U. S. Air Force Academy graduate to be sworn in as Secretary of the Air Force on May 16, 2017. As the 24th Secretary of the Air Force, she was responsible for the matters of the Air Force Department, including the organization, training, equipping and supplying 685,000 active, guard, reserve and civilian personnel and their families. She supervised the Air Force's yearly budget of more than $138 billion and leads strategy and policy development, risk management, weapons procurement, technology investments and human resources management within a global enterprise. On March 8, 2019, Wilson announced she would resign from this position to be President of the University of Texas at El Paso. Sandia Corp., one of the laboratories, reimbursed the federal government for the fees paid to Heather Wilson & Company. There was a settlement agreement with the Justice Department, and Wilson was not mentioned in that agreement. In addition, Wilson stated that she "was not a lobbyist for Sandia and [she] was not a member of the Contract Strategy Team criticized by the Inspector General's report." Heather Wilson chaired the Women in Aviation Advisory Board to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and has served on corporate boards of directors including Maxar Technologies, Raven Industries and Peabody Energy.

Wilson is an instrument rated private pilot. She is married to Jay Hone, an attorney and retired Air National Guard Colonel. They have two adult children and two granddaughters. Their adopted son, Scott Alexander Hone, passed away in 2023.