Who she is: The first openly gay commander of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.
What she’s accomplished: Lauderback, a 42-year-old colonel in the U.S. Air Force, assumed the leadership of NASIC May 28. Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, the agency provides intelligence reports to combat troops, Congress, and the president. It has a $350 million annual budget and 3,100 military and civilian employees. “I’m humbled, honored, and privileged to command NASIC,” Lauderback told the audience at the change-of-command ceremony, attended by about 700 people at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson. She also thanked her wife, Brenda; the two married in Carmel, Calif., about a month ago.
Lauderback, who has been in the military for 21 years, spoke to the Dayton Daily News about being the first openly gay commander of NASIC. “I would say first and foremost, I am very proud,” she said. The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” didn’t change the way she approaches her duties, she said, but it makes a difference for her personally, in allowing her to be open about her relationship with her spouse.
The colonel previously oversaw the 67th Cyberspace Operations Group at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas. Her background in technology is likely to be an asset in her new job, according to the Daily News report. “I can tell you that cyber is a growth area for the Air Force, and having just come from the cyberspace operations group, I’m well-versed in understanding and acquiring the need out there for cyber,” Lauderback told the paper.
In officiating the change-of-command ceremony, Maj. Gen. John N.T. Shanahan, commander of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, noted that Lauderback’s predecessor, Col. Aaron M. Prupas, is taking a high-ranking position at the Pentagon. “He has set the bar very high indeed ... when considering his replacement only one officer was singularly qualified and that was Leah Lauderback,” Shanahan said, according to a report on NASIC’s website. Prupas, who received a medal for his services to NASIC, also spoke highly of Lauderback during the ceremony, saying, “I leave you in great hands and have no doubt that Leah will be an incredible leader.”
Lauderback takes over an agency that has seen some decreases in funding along with increased demand for its services. But she expressed confidence in NASIC. “NASIC is a crown jewel,” she told the Daily News. “We work for everybody throughout the [Department of Defense] and they do fantastic things.”
For more information: Read the Daily News story here and NASIC’s account of the ceremony here.
Choice quote: “It’s been amazing the last couple of years the changes … that have been made. The repeal of DADT, et cetera, that allow me to function as the best officer that I can be, and if that’s with somebody by my side, that’s with somebody by my side. So to be able to do that publicly, personally, is just fantastic.” — Lauderback to the Dayton Daily News
