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Brigadier General
Cheryl A. Kearney
Permanent Professor 2007–2019
B.A., University of Pittsburgh
M.A., Naval Postgraduate School
M.S., National Defense University
Ph.D., Georgetown University
Cheryl Kearney (née Lynd), the Academy’s 85th Permanent Professor, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1961. She was an Honor Graduate from the University of Pittsburgh in 1983 with a Bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies and received her commission through the AFROTC program. She entered the basic intelligence courses at Lowry AFB, CO, in 1984. Upon graduation later that year, she was assigned as the Chief of the Intelligence Branch, 44th Strategic Missile Wing, Ellsworth AFB, SD. In 1986 Cheryl was assigned to the Naval Postgraduate School and Defense Language Institute (Russian), Monterey, CA. She graduated in 1988 with a Master of Arts in National Security Affairs and was assigned to Scott AFB, IL, as Chief of the Russian and Warsaw Pact desks for Military Airlift Command. Cheryl was next assigned to NATO, Supreme HQ Allied Powers Europe, Casteau, Belgium, where she served as a Political/Military Strategic Analyst. In 1993 Cheryl joined the USAF Academy faculty in the Department of Political Science. She returned to school at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and received a PhD in American Government in 1999. Assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon, she served as the Executive Director, Defense Policy Board and Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Cheryl moved within the Pentagon in 2001 to join the Executive Action Group supporting the Secretary and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and served as Chief, Political and Legislative Affairs. In 2003 Cheryl became a student at the National War College, Ft. McNair, Washington, DC, and earned a Master’s degree in National Security Strategy from National Defense University in 2004. She then moved to Misawa Air Base, Japan, where she served as the Deputy and Interim Group Commander of the 373rd Intelligence Group. Cheryl’s next assignment in 2006 was as Deputy Director, National Security Agency/Central Security Service Colorado at Buckley AFB, CO. Cheryl was appointed Permanent Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science in 2007. From 2011 to 2012 she deployed to Forward Operating Base Union III, Bagdad, Iraq, as Deputy Director, Chief Initiative Group, Office of Security Cooperation, Iraq, and was one of fewer than 200 officers to remain in Iraq after the pullout in 2011. Returning to her position as Department Head, she had the additional duty of Social Sciences Division Chair from 2015 to 2016. In 2016 Cheryl began a sabbatical assignment as a Supreme Court Fellow, only the third military officer selected to be a Fellow since the program began in 1973, and was assigned to the Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the United States. Cheryl returned to her duties at the Academy in 2017. She leads a department that prepares cadets to comprehend the political events that will shape their careers. Cadets examine political theories and ideologies, international relations, the politics of American and foreign governments, international security, defense decision making, organizational behavior, and political economy.
Update (2022): Cheryl Kearney was promoted to brigadier general and retired from the Air Force in 2019. In 2021, she was appointed a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Fellows Commission.