Col. Shawn Willis returned to the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering Management as the Associate Dean in July 2023. His return is 20 years in the making having earned his master’s degree from AFIT in 2003.

As the Associate Dean, Willis is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Graduate School encompassing six academic departments and seven research centers. He leads a team of more than 280 military and civilian faculty teaching 57 graduate degree and certificate programs.

Willis brings experience as an instructor and researcher to the leadership position. He served as a research physicist in the Air Force Research Laboratory, an assistant professor of physics and deputy department head at the U.S. Air Force Academy, a space vehicles division chief and legislative liaison at the National Reconnaissance Office and deputy chief of the Enabling Capabilities Science Division at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

He plans to integrate his experience as a student and faculty leader to remove roadblocks to accomplishing the mission and enhancing AFIT’s reputation.

“I want people to look at AFIT and see a high caliber degree granting university that is also a great place to come and work,” said Willis. “Additionally, I would like to promote a culture of a Graduate School that is united and works together and with the other Schools at AFIT.”

Willis’ Air Force career began in 1992 when he enlisted and went to tech school to become an electronics technician.

“My grandfather had convinced me to go down and talk to the recruiter,” said Willis. “He was in the Army and Air Force for over 30 years between active and reserve time.”

Five years later, he received a Reserve Officer’s Training Corps scholarship and went to the University of Idaho where he studied physics. After graduating in 2001, he commissioned back into the Air Force and came to AFIT where he earned a master’s degree in applied physics.

“I remember it being very rigorous and studying constantly,” said Willis. “I remember taking a quantum class from Dr. Glenn Perram and the average test grades were in the 30s. He was good and I thought the class was great, but we all though his tests were very, very hard.”

His master’s dissertation titled “Phasing a Dual Optical Path System Using an Optical Fiber as a Phase Conjugate Mirror” focused on coherently recombining directed laser energy after splitting it to travel multiple paths. Ultimately the goal was to use the system to create a higher energy beam by splitting the beam into multiple paths that each pass through an amplifier before recombining into a single beam.

Following graduation from AFIT, Willis moved across the street and began work in AFRL’s Sensors Directorate.

“I got to do a lot of bench level research while also managing contracts,” said Willis. “I liked getting experience in both. It was what I hoped to do.”

While at AFIT, Willis became friends with a PhD student who was slated to teach at USAFA following graduation. The friend connected Willis with the personnel officer in physics and luckily, he was selected to join the USAFA faculty team. The assignment turned out even better than planned when Willis received the school’s annual sponsorship slot to earn his doctoral degree at Oxford in the United Kingdom.

“My wife and I went to England for three years where I studied the physics of charge transport in organic and novel solar cells, and our first child was born there,” said Willis.

Before returning to USAFA, Willis went to the NRO where he researched and developed solar cells for satellite space power as well as other satellite power management and distribution technologies and then served as the NRO’s legislative liaison for the R&D and special programs portfolios.

“I would go down to the capital to represent the NRO and explain why we needed the budget that we needed,” said Willis. “That was a lot of fun and a whole different way of thinking and explaining things; trying to take the technical and put it in regular language.”

After his time at the NRO, Willis returned to USAFA where he spent five years teaching and leading USAFA’s physics department.

In 2020, Willis deployed to serve as the Detachment 4 Commander for the 602d Training Group (Provisional) at Fort Bliss, Texas. The detachment manages the Air Force members attending the Army’s combat skills training course at Camp McGregor.

“I went down for six months as the commander right at the height of COVID when everything was shut down, but we were not shut down,” said Willis. “This was in April of 2020 when no one knew anything about the virus yet and we were trying to learn how to operate in 115 degree weather with masks and still accomplish the training mission.”

Next, Willis went to DTRA at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico where he led a team of researchers in the Enabling Capabilities Sciences Division working on explosive and radiological testing. He then spent ten-months at Air War College in Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama before moving north to AFIT.

Married for 29 years, Willis and his wife have two children. He calls Idaho home and his wife is from Oregon, but they have been thinking about retiring in Dayton for a couple years.

“We bought a house next door to some friends of ours here about four years ago and have been renting it,” said Willis. “So now that we are living in the house we are testing it out as a possible retirement place.”

Willis looks forward to making a positive impact on teamwork at the Graduate School during his time here.

“I like to have a team with a good sense of belonging,” said Willis. “We are all on the same team and want to make AFIT better. That is the environment that I want to foster.”