Heather Wilson

Last updated

Heather Wilson
UTEP President Heather Wilson 2021.jpg
Wilson in 2021
11th President of University of Texas at El Paso
Assumed office
August 15, 2019
Wilson's official portrait as Secretary of the Air Force, 2017 Heather Wilson official photo.jpg
Wilson's official portrait as Secretary of the Air Force, 2017

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. [74]

As the 24th Secretary of the Air Force, Wilson was responsible for the matters of the Air Force Department, including organizing, training, equipping and supplying 685,000 active, guard, reserve and civilian personnel and their families. [75]

On March 8, 2019, Wilson announced she would resign from this position to be President of the University of Texas at El Paso. [10]

Business career

Wilson was the head of the consulting firm, Heather Wilson & Company after leaving Congress.

During her Senate campaign, the Department of Energy began a review of her contracts with national laboratories. In June 2013, a Department of Energy Inspector General report claimed that Wilson collected $450,000 from four Department of Energy facilities between January 2009 and March 2011. The report criticized the labs for maintaining unsatisfactory documentation on the work performed. The labs disagreed with the report. [76]

Sandia Corp., one of the laboratories managed by Lockheed Martin, reimbursed the federal government for the fees paid to Heather Wilson & Company. In 2015, Lockheed Martin paid a $4.7 million fine to settle allegations that it had illegally used taxpayer funds to hire Wilson and others to lobby Congress for an extension of Sandia’s management contract. [77] [78] Wilson disputes being mentioned in that agreement. 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." [79] However, critics dispute her denial and have called the arrangement a "revolving door" of the "national security elite." [77] Wilson was also called one of the most "corrupt members of Congress" by the nonprofit government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. [80] [77]

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.

In May 2024, Wilson was appointed to the board of directors of Lockheed Martin Corporation, America’s largest military contractor. [81] She also serves on the boards of Google Public Sector and the Texas Space Commission.

Personal life

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. [82] Their adopted son, Scott Alexander Hone, passed away in 2023. [83]

See also

References

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U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New Mexico's 1st congressional district

1998–2009
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by
Allen McCulloch
Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from New Mexico
(Class 1)

2012
Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by
Robert Wharton
12th President of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
2013–2017
Succeeded by
Jan Puszynski
Acting
Preceded by 11th President of the University of Texas at El Paso
2019–present
Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by24th United States Secretary of the Air Force
2017–2019
Succeeded by
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded byas former U.S. Representative Order of precedence of the United States
as former U.S. Representative
Succeeded byas former U.S. Representative