The 2022 Air and Space Force Association Wright Memorial Chapter awards were presented to five AFIT faculty and staff members by Dr. Walter Jones, Air Force Institute of Technology director and chancellor and David Babcock, president of the ASFA Wright Memorial Chapter on May 18.

The awards are sponsored by the ASFA Wright Memorial Chapter and recognize AFIT personnel who advance aerospace power and technology through innovative efforts in education and research. The ASFA has sponsored the awards since 1982.

“We are honored and proud that we have AFIT here and we honor the professors and educators today in the role that they did in multiplying the technical skills and the motivation that they give the students to bring those skills to our Air Force to make it better,” said Babcock.

Jones congratulated all the winners and nominees during his remarks.

“Just to be nominated for these awards says a lot about who you are and what you do and how important it is to AFIT and to the Air and Space Forces,” said Jones.
 

Sandra Stringer received the General Bernard A. Schriever Award. This award is given in recognition of a person who advances aerospace power, technology, doctrine, or the Air Force as a profession. The award is named in honor of Gen. Schriever, an AFIT alum from 1941, who organized and formed the Air Force’s ballistic missile and military space program.

Stringer is a career program specialist in AFIT’s Civil Engineer School. Executing the Headquarters Air Force Director of Civil Engineers’ vision to professionalize the force, she launched the career field’s first centralized licensing and credentialing program. She blazed a new path for civil engineers by writing new implementation policy and launching three professional credentialing courses; the first-ever opportunity to provide no-cost Professional Engineer and Project Management Professional preparation and credential reimbursement. More than 70 engineers took advantage of the program in the first year.

Stringer earned a Diversity and Inclusion certificate from Cornell and led the career field's efforts to educate the Total Force on diversity and inclusion principles, organizing two events that were broadcasted live across the force to highlight the diverse workplace experiences of pioneering engineer leaders.

After 2023 course funding was significantly reduced, Stringer developed new $4M funding strategies for the School's 86-course portfolio and presented these innovative options for decision to the career field's highest educational governing body.
 

Craig DeBeni received the Professor Ezra Kotcher Award. This award is given in recognition of an individual who made significant contributions to curriculum or instructional development within AFIT. The award is named in honor of Col. Kotcher, the first director of AFIT and an aeronautical engineer who worked on inflight fueling and directed the development of the X-1 and X-2 jet planes.

DeBeni is an energy and electrical systems instructor in AFIT’s Civil Engineer School teaching courses on advanced control systems, facility design, and electrical power distribution design and analysis. He developed new ways to fund and execute the Certified Energy Manager program, as well as launch the newly-developed Advanced Control Systems Cybersecurity course. He led a School effort to fund the new controls systems cybersecurity course by establishing a sole source contract for instructional support. His efforts enabled the delivery of cyber education to more than 200 civil engineer enlisted and civilian technicians and bolstered the cyber defense posture for future wars to over 80 Air Force installations worldwide.

By coordinating with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, DeBeni found alternate funding tools to leverage over $108K in expiring funds to create a certification avenue for more than 80 energy managers Air Force wide who seek the coveted Certified Energy Manager Certification.
 

Dr. Mark Reith received the Colonel Charles A. Stone Award. This award is given in recognition of an individual who has made outstanding contributions to furthering the AFIT mission through new and innovative efforts involving demonstrated personal leadership. The award is named in honor of Col. Stone, the dean of AFIT’s School of Systems and Logistics from 1962-1966, who was instrumental in the school receiving accreditation to award master of science degrees.

Reith is an assistant professor of computer science in AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management where he teaches courses in agile software systems, cyber systems security and software engineering.

Reith championed several innovative efforts to modernize higher education at AFIT. He envisioned and guided the development of AVOLVE, a platform for sharing STEM education content across the DoD. He introduced game-based learning, assessment and attestation into educational courses to provide students with richly interactive technology, such as Battlespace Next and Software Engineering Digital Badges. He also invested in relationships with the Air Force Research Laboratory to found Hangar 18, an Air Force-recognized software factory, to provide new opportunities for students, faculty and staff to advance their teaching and research efforts.
 

Maj. Timothy Wolfe received the Gage H. Crocker Outstanding Professor Award. This award is presented to the individual who made the most significant contribution to the AFIT mission through excellence in teaching, research and service in order to maintain the excellence of AFIT’s degree-granting academic programs. The award is named in honor of Col. Crocker who served as the dean of AFIT’s School of Systems and Logistics from 1971 – 1972 and was a coauthor of papers on turbulence associated with blunt body flow.

Wolfe is an assistant professor of electrical engineering in AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management with research efforts in atomistic modeling, ab initio modeling, computational chemistry, high power electromagnetics, plasma science, electronic materials and devices and directed energy.

He demonstrated excellence in teaching with a prolific year teaching three registered core courses following an unprecedented turnover in faculty within the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. He advised the cutting-edge research projects of seven master’s students and two doctoral students in microelectronic reliability and computational electromagnetics. Wolfe volunteered for several initiatives to include serving as an industry partner for the nationally recognized Dayton Regional STEM Fellowship Program and as the outreach lead for the AFIT Chancellor’s Strategic Action Team.

Capt. Dylan Gagnon received the Professional Continuing Educator Award. This award is presented to the individual who made the most significant contribution to AFIT as evidenced through excellence in teaching in order to maintain the excellence of AFIT’s professional continuing education academic programs.

Gagnon is an instructor and readiness portfolio manager in AFIT’s Civil Engineer School. He teaches courses on readiness and emergency management, explosive ordnance disposal flight leadership and contingency engineer leadership.

He single-handedly revived the readiness portfolio that was left vacant for over a year before his arrival. He directed three course offerings and taught in an additional nine courses for an unprecedented total of 76 lessons cumulating in 4,100 student contact hours to 337 Joint and Total Force students.

Gagnon completely overhauled the dormant and outdated Emergency Management Flight Leadership Course curriculum. To modernize the course’s content, he led a three-day educational working group, synchronizing Headquarters Air Force, the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, as well as both the guard and reserve component’s subject matter experts. He created a new two-week course comprised of 32 lessons and six practicums to better educate and prepare officer, enlisted, and civilian flight leaders.

A testament to his skills, Gagnon was selected by the Dean to lead the Officer Field Education portion of the Civil Engineer Officer Initials Skills course. In that role, he led 11 officer peers and 25 enlisted training instructors through a seven-day contingency field training capstone that educated 63 new civil engineer officers on base response to full spectrum threats.