By:  Capt Katie Hansen, Capt Frank Larkins, and Capt Thomas Fister

The 71st class of Air Force Education With Industry Fellows gathered in Orlando, Florida to share their company experiences with leadership from Air Force Acquisition (SAF/AQH and SAF/AQX), Manpower, Personnel and Services (HAF/A1D), Air Force Institute of Technology, and the Air Force Personnel Center as part of their DoD mandated Mid Tour Review. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Capt Frank Larkins)

Kicking off the new year, the 71st class of Air Force Education With Industry (EWI) Fellows gathered in Orlando, Florida to share their company experiences with leadership from Air Force Acquisition (SAF/AQH and SAF/AQX), Manpower, Personnel and Services (HAF/A1D), Air Force Institute of Technology, and the Air Force Personnel Center as part of their DoD mandated Mid Tour Review.  Among the program’s strongest partners, Loews Hotels has hosted the EWI Mid Tour Review as they have for the past 16 years. 

The current class, comprised of 61 officers, enlisted, and civilians, traveled from 20 states to share their lessons learned and insight from industry.  These fellows brought a myriad of perspectives representing 17 Air Force career fields, embedded and working at 39 different companies. The company partners range from traditional DoD, non-traditional, Fortune 500, private equity firms, small business, and national laboratories – all providing unique viewpoints unavailable without this vital program.  In a direct response to the SECAF and CSAF’s top priority of developing strong innovative Air Force leaders, each EWI Fellow will return to the Air Force with an exclusive perspective, industrial insight, and practiced business acumen at the end of the 10 month program.   
   
During the review, each fellow provided a fifteen minute briefing on their lessons learned thus far, to include highlighting their Capstone Insight to Industry (I2I) paper topic.  This research paper is the culmination of the EWI Program and addresses best practices or insight learned from industry to help resolve top issues facing their respective career fields and the Air Force today.  These briefings allow for open, empowered discussion that lead to a greater perspective into business best practices from the entire industrial consortium.

A few of the many highlights from the Mid Tour Review included:

• In response to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Multi Domain Operations Challenge, SSgt Armando Cabrera, an Intelligence Analyst, and Capt John Radovan, a Weather Operations Officer, working at Amazon, shared their plans to prototype a Machine Learning (ML) Base Camp, with the goal of organically building ML knowledge across the Air Force, mirroring Amazon’s Machine Learning University.  
• Capt Teresa Crampton, a Logistics Officer working at Fed Ex, has observed an industry best practice for asset management through utilization of Radio-frequency identification tags (passive tracking) and Bluetooth devices (active tracking).  With a follow-on assignment to the Defense Logistics Agency, Capt Crampton has been focusing her research on how the logistics career field can implement similar technology and processes to refine our asset management. 
• Mr. Thomas Dawson, an AF information technology civilian working at Boeing, shared his Spark Tank idea with the group. Thomas was a semifinalist in the 2019 Spark Tank competition with his idea of implementing a Knowledge Management Framework (KM-F) to gain efficiencies across the Air Force. Developing a usable KM-F would improve efficiency by increasing, encouraging, and enabling the creation, sharing, discovery, and reuse of knowledge.
• Ms. Audra Dorn, an experienced contracting officer is working at the University of Dayton Research Institute and gaining an immensely valuable perspective from a contractor’s point of view.  Ms. Dorn has personally prepared over 70 proposals, and is recommending additional opportunities for contractor-initiated innovation efforts.  She is currently researching the feasibility of revitalizing the unsolicited proposal process as an agile acquisition solution.
• TSgt Lakindra Favors, an acquisition financial manager working at Apple, has learned that not only is process improvement critical to their success, but also that everything centers around improving the customer experience.  She is researching the feasibility of utilizing Apple’s accessibility principles for implementation into the Air Force Civilian Pay process.
• Capt Caleb Leestma, an acquisitions officer working at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, has received an incredible amount of mentoring and soft skill development in his first 5 months. He has met one on one with over 20 of Wyndham’s senior leaders, learned how Wyndham intentionally develops their culture – which leads directly to favorable results, and is leading Wyndham’s and LaQuinta’s integration effort at 300+ hotels. His capstone paper is focused on maintaining a strong culture by optimizing organizational change management.
• Capt Ronisha Carter, a cyberspace operations officer working at VMware, has co-authored two technical papers on Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence identifying key implementations of ML and will be working with the Amazon EWI Fellows to identify how to advance the Air Force in development of new technology and ML knowledge.
   

Meeting GAO directed requirements, fellows received valuable feedback from SAF/AQH and SAF/AQX leadership on their paper topics.  Lt Col James Townsend, SAF/AQX Industrial Preparedness Program Element Monitor, stated “the relationships developed and insights gained by these fellows are unrivaled by any other Air Force experience. Fellows see first-hand the gap between what warfighters need and capabilities industry brings to the table.  We must capitalize on the innovative ideas from these fellows’ capstone papers, which synergizes our Air Force with industry thru streamlining our acquisition processes, innovating concepts that modernize our squadrons, and delivering modern warfighting capabilities.” 

Overall, the Mid Tour Review was a success.  EWI fellows participated in critical cross-discussion, shared thoughts and ideas on their experiences, and vastly expanded their network with their peers.  The program is an invaluable experience for Air Force officers, enlisted, and civilians.  There is no question as to why this program has continued to grow exponentially yearly, with next year’s class size projected to have as many as 75 students in fall of 2019!

For more information on EWI, a program sponsored by SAF/AQH and managed by the Air Force Institute of Technology, please contact Capt Thomas Fister, thomas.fister@afit.edu
 

EWI Fellows posed in front of a Delta IV Medium Booster - GPS III Mission.  During the EWI Mid Tour Review, Fellows toured both the United Launch Alliance and Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control facilities.  Senior leadership from both companies took the time to provide their perspective on partnering with industry and shared what’s made them successful. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Capt Frank Larkins)

EWI Fellows at Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 37.  During the EWI Mid Tour Review, Fellows toured both the United Launch Alliance and Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control facilities.  Senior leadership from both companies took the time to provide their perspective on partnering with industry and shared what’s made them successful. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Capt Frank Larkins)