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Colonel
David B. Porter
Permanent Professor 1996–2001
B.S., United States Air Force Academy
M.S., University of California, Los Angeles
D.Phil., Oxford University
Dave Porter, the Academy’s 63rd Permanent Professor, was born in Berea, Kentucky, in 1949. He was a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy’s Class of 1971 and was sponsored for graduate school at UCLA, where he earned his Master’s degree in Industrial Relations in 1972. He underwent helicopter pilot training at Fort Walters, TX; Fort Rucker, AL; and Hill AFB, UT, before being assigned to fly the HH-53 “Super Jolly Green Giant” at Hickam AFB, HI, first with the 76th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron and later with the 6594th Test Group. Dave also served as Chief Functional Check Flight Pilot, Chief of Quality Control, and Organizational Maintenance Officer for the 6594th, which was awarded the Daedalian Award for best aircraft maintenance in the Air Force in 1978. In 1979 he returned to the Academy to teach leadership and psychology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. He returned to operational flying with the 67th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Royal Air Force Woodbridge, England, where he was also the squadron Executive Officer. His unit won the “Best in Rescue” unit distinction in 1982, and he was the Military Airlift Command’s nominee for the Lance P. Sijan Leadership Award that year. In 1983 he entered Oxford University, earning his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Experimental Cognitive Psychology in 1986. Returning to the Academy from Oxford, he taught over a dozen different courses and published articles relating to psychology, leadership, education, assessment, and accreditation. He was made Department Head in 1995 and appointed a Permanent Professor in 1996. As Chair of the Faculty Educational Outcomes Assessment Working Group, Dave led initiatives that 20 years later have become the cornerstones of the Academy’s educational assessment and accountability processes. Through the American Association of Higher Education and the North Central Association, he gave invited addresses and led workshops on classroom teaching, academic assessment, and total quality education, as well as serving as a Consultant Examiner and leading accreditation teams for large universities and small colleges. Active in many communities, Dave was President of a local Unitarian Church, a founding director of Citizens Project of Colorado Springs, a charter member of the Association of Psychological Sciences, and a council member for Western Governors University for over a decade. Dave retired from the Air Force in 2001.
Upon retirement, Dave became the Academic Vice President and Provost at Berea College, a position he held for four years. During this time, Dave also helped establish and conduct the Appalachian College Association’s Annual Summer Teaching and Learning Institute. In 2005 he returned to teaching as a Professor of Psychology and General Studies at Berea. He has taught courses in General Psychology, Cultural Anthropology, Introduction to the Behavioral Sciences, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cross Cultural Psychology, and the Psychology Research Capstone course.