Nicole Margaret Ellingwood Malachowski (born September 26, 1974) is a retired United States Air Force officer and the first female pilot selected to fly as part of the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, better known as the Thunderbirds. She later became a speaker and advocate on behalf of patients suffering from tick borne illnesses.
Malachowski was a Civil Air Patrol cadet before she entered the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1992. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant upon graduation in 1996. Her first public performance with the Thunderbirds was in March 2006, and her aviator call sign was "FiFi". She spent the 2006 and 2007 air show seasons flying the Number 3 (Right Wing) aircraft in the diamond formation. Between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009, Malachowski was on special assignment, participating in the White House Fellows Program for the Class of 2008–2009, assigned to the General Services Administration. In 2011, she took command of the 333d Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. In September 2015, she returned to the White House to become the executive director of its Joining Forces initiative for supporting veterans, service members, and military families. She was medically retired from the Air Force in 2017 after attaining the rank of colonel. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
