Wilson, Heather A. (Heather Ann), 1960-

<p>Heather Ann Wilson (born December 30, 1960) is the 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 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 New Mexico's 1st congressional district from 1998 to 2009.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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. She also focused on health care, energy, manufacturing and trade, and telecommunications, serving on the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She opted not to run for re-election in 2008 and sought the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Senator Pete Domenici but finished second in the Republican primary to Congressman Steve Pearce, who then lost the general election to Democrat Tom Udall. 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.</p>

<p>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. On January 23, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Wilson as Secretary of the Air Force. The US Senate confirmed her nomination on May 8, 2017. 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.</p>

<p>In 1998 Heather Wilson became the first woman veteran of the U.S. armed services and the second woman from New Mexico elected to the U.S. Congress. In the House, Wilson served on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the Intelligence Committee where she helped shape national security policy in the years following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. In the House, Wilson spearheaded new consumer protections, as more and more Americans conducted business online, and passed additional regulations for wireless communications as cell phones grew in popularity. Back home, Wilson also passed a number of bills preserving New Mexico’s cultural heritage.</p>

<p>Heather A. Wilson was born on December 30, 1960, in Keene, New Hampshire, to George and Martha Lou Wilson, the second of three children. Her father, a commercial pilot, was killed in a car accident when she was six. Growing up, Wilson wanted to become a pilot like her father and grandfather, and when she was in high school the United States Air Force Academy began admitting women. She applied and was accepted to the academy and graduated an Air Force officer in 1982. She earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University where, by 1985, she earned a master’s and a doctorate in international relations. Wilson served in the Air Force until 1989 when she joined the National Security Council staff as director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control. In 1991, she married lawyer Jay Hone, and the couple settled in New Mexico. They raised three children: Scott, Joshua, and Caitlin. Wilson started a consulting firm and, from 1995 to 1998, served in the governor’s cabinet as secretary of the New Mexico children, youth and families department.</p>

<p>When New Mexico’s Albuquerque Congressman Steven Harvey Schiff declared he would not run for re-election in the fall of 1998 to focus on his battle with skin cancer, Wilson resigned her state cabinet post and entered the Republican primary to fill the seat. She won the support of Schiff and Senator Pete Vichi Domenici, who lent her several trusted aides and called her “the most brilliantly qualified House candidate anywhere in the country.” But when Schiff died in March, the state scheduled a special election for June 23. With Domenici’s support, Wilson won the Republican primary for the special election over conservative state senator William F. Davis, which also propelled her to a sizable win in the June 2 primary for the fall election to the full term. Wilson won the June 23 special election with 45 percent of the vote in a three-way race against millionaire Democratic state senator Phillip J. Maloof and Green Party candidate Robert L. Anderson. Wilson took the Oath of Office on June 25, 1998, making her the first woman since Georgia Lusk in 1947, and the first Republican woman ever, to represent New Mexico.</p>