#dei appointments

Feb 11th 2025 In a social media post, Trump said the advisory boards of visitors for the Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard had been infiltrated by "Woke Leftist Ideologues" and new members needed to be appointed.

Trump appoints Erika Kirk to Air Force Academy Board of Visitors

President Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, to fill a seat on the Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of conservative group Turning Point USA, was a member of the Board of Visitors and attended a meeting before his assassination in September.

His wife, Erika Kirk has taken over has CEO of Turning Point USA since his death. The group says it has more than 800 chapters on college campuses nationwide. It also hosted the alternative half-time show during the Super Bowl featuring Kid Rock.

As a Board of Visitors member, Erika Kirk is one of 16 members responsible for making recommendations to the Secretary of Defense about changes at the Air Force Academy. The board also includes members of Congress including 5th Congressional District Rep. Jeff Crank of Colorado Springs along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Chairman Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, among others.

The board did not announce her appointment. But her name now appears on the list of members.

Turning Point USA said Erika Kirk was unavailable to respond to questions about her Board of Visitors appointment.

During his short time on the board, Charlie Kirk drew attention to the construction delays at the chapel and encouraged the school to emphasize what sets America apart.

“It’s imperative that these cadets know that we are the greatest nation ever,” he said, the board meeting in August.

Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10 at a college event in Orem, Utah.

This story was first reported by the Gazette’s news partner KOAA.

Members of the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors do not receive a salary for their service. As an advisory board established under Title 10 U.S. Code 9455 to review morale, discipline, and academics, these positions are voluntary, though members may be reimbursed for travel and related expenses.

Trump boots advisory board members of Air Force Academy. Here's who its members are.

Rebecca Powell

Fort Collins Coloradoan

Feb. 10, 2025Updated Feb. 11, 2025, 12:43 p.m. MT

Corrections & clarifications:This story has been updated to report that at least one former President Joe Biden-appointed board member's term expired at the end of 2024 and was not affected by President Donald Trump's announcement.

President Donald Trump said Monday he would dismiss the current boards charged with advising the U.S. military academies, including the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

In a social media post, Trump said the advisory boards of visitors for the Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard had been infiltrated by "Woke Leftist Ideologues" and new members needed to be appointed.

Trump did not reveal who would be appointed or whether any current appointees would remain. Some of them are Republican members of Congress.

Six of each board's 15 members are appointed by the president to serve three-year terms, but Trump did not say if his decision would apply only to those members.

Each board's members are appointed by various individuals and panels:

6 by the president

3 by the vice president

4 by the Speaker of the House

1 by the Senate Armed Services Committee

1 by the House Armed Services Committee

Trump is not the first president to take such an action. In 2021, President Joe Biden announced he was dismissing 18 appointees to three boards: six from each.

The Air Force Academy's board of visitors is tasked with inquiring into the "morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other matters," according to the Air Force Academy website.

Agendas from the past five years show the board meets twice per year.

Who was on the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors?

The Air Force Academy website on Monday morning did not include a list of board members, but archived versions of the web page showed a list of members, and a board agenda from fall 2024 listed 14 active members.

Here are those 14 members and their backgrounds as described at the time of their appointments:

Maj. Gen. James C. Johnson, USAF (Ret.), was appointed by former President Joe Biden. He was in the Air Force for 30 years and served in the Department of Defense as a "Highly Qualified Expert on the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military," according to a 2022 news release announcing his appointment.

Jenna Ben-Yehuda was appointed by Biden. At the time of her appointment, Ben-Yehuda was CEO and president of the Truman Center for National Policy and Truman National Security Project. She also founded the Women’s Foreign Policy Network, a global membership organization national security professionals, and is a former State Department official. A 2022 news release announcing her appointment describes her as an advocate for gender equity in national security.

Eric Kenneth Fanning was appointed by Biden, but his term expired at the end of 2024, according to Marta Hernandez, vice president of communications at the Aerospace Industries Association, where Fanning is president and CEO. It's unclear if Biden appointed anyone since the end of Fanning's term. Fanning was the 22nd Secretary of the Army. He is the only person to have held senior appointments in all three military departments and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, according to the 2022 news release.

Dr. Laura Junor-Pulzone was appointed by Biden. She was "Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, Research at the National Defense University," providing support to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prior to NDU, she was deputy under secretary of defense for Personnel and Readiness, covering military and civilian personnel policies, the military health care system, family support services, the Defense Commissary Agency, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and department policy relating to suicide prevention and sexual assault.

Dr. Hila Levy was appointed by Biden. She was a White House Fellow in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and worked in national security, international relations, science and environmental management on every continent. She is a major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, an intelligence and foreign area officer, and has led teams at tactical, operational and joint headquarters-level assignments in the Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, Air Force Special Operations Command and on the Joint Staff. 

Lt. Col. Wesley Spurlock, USAF, was appointed by Biden. He was an active duty lieutenant colonel in the Air Force at the time of appointment, assigned to the Department of the Air Force’s innovation arm, AFWERX. He served as a White House Fellow at the International Development Finance Corporation and the Domestic Policy Council, and as the Military Aide to the president, responsible for the Presidential Emergency Satchel (football).

Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, a Democrat, is a vice presidential appointee.

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a Republican, is a vice presidential appointee.

Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Democrat, is a vice presidential appointee.

Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado's 5th Congressional District was a speaker appointee. Lamborn, a Republican, retired from Congress this year, and Republican Jeff Crank was elected to his seat. A news release late last month from Crank said he had been appointed by Speaker Mike Johnson to serve on the board.

Rep. August Pfluger of Texas. The Republican was a speaker appointee.

Zoe Dunning is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served six years active duty and later became a naval reservist. She was one of the first openly gay members of the military and advocated against the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy after being prosecuted under it. She was appointed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, a Democrat, was appointed by the Senate Armed Services committee.

Rep. Don Davis of Nebraska. The Republican was appointed by the House Armed Services Committee.

Biden also booted military academy board members in 2021

Six of the spots are appointed by the president, but members have historically served across administrations, according to the Military Times.

In 2021, when Biden dismissed board members, spokesperson Jen Psaki said, "The president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you are aligned with the values of this administration.”

Former Trump administration spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was one of the Air Force Academy board members to be dismissed.

A lawsuit challenging the Biden dismissals, brought by three of the former members, was turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, after a lower court ruled their claim was moot.

The U.S. Air Force Academy is getting a new slate of members for its Board of Visitors, a Congressionally directed oversight committee that monitors issues ranging from morale and discipline to curriculum financial matters.

President Trump has replaced the five members of the board appointed by President Biden with five selections of his own:

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

Doug Nikolai

Dan Clark

Charlie Kirk

Dina Powell

Trump revealed his picks March 17, a month after ordering the “immediate dismissal” of presidential appointees on each of the military academy’s Board of Visitors.

The Air Force Academy has 17 board positions, of which six are appointed by the president and 11 by leaders in Congress—new members picked from Congress include Reps.

Don Davis (D-N.C.)

Jeff Crank (R-Colo.)

Gabe Vasquez (D-Texas)

Positions are unpaid, but board members can be compensated for travel and per diem costs. At least two of the Presidential board appointments must be for USAFA graduates.

Appointments are nominally for three-year terms, but recent practice has seen new administrations move quickly to remove holdovers nominated by their successors.

President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III dismissed dozens of defense advisory boards in 2021, including the USAFA Board of Visitors. Hundreds of civilian advisors were dismissed before boards were reset with new members. The Air Force Academhy’s Board of Visitors did not meet for about two and a half years, from November 2020 to April 2022. 

The board’s most recent meeting was in October 2024, with 14 members attending. The next meeting will have a substantially new look, as Biden’s six appointees—including retired Maj. Gen. James Johnson; former Air Force Undersecretary Eric Fanning; and Col. Wesley Spurlock—will be replaced by Trump’s five appointees.  

The board’s website currently lists Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) as members; as chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, they can each designate one appointee to take their place and have done so in the past, but have yet to announce their new picks. 

Of Trump’s appointees: 

Sen. Tommy Tuberville represents Maxwell Air Force Base, home of Air University and a host of other Air Force educational institutes. He’s also shown a key interest in Space Force issues, as the service has ties to Alabama through the Redstone Arsenal base. 

Doug Nikolai is a retired Air Force colonel and F-16 pilot who now works as a subject matter expert and simulator instructor for an aviation training company. He has also given speeches to several Christian groups. 

Dan Clark is a motivational speaker with ties to the Air Force dating back decades. He has served on the service’s National Civic Leaders Board, giving speeches to Airmen deployed to the Middle East, and even took a course at Air University. 

Charlie Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit that focuses on student issues 

Dina Powell served as Deputy National Security Advisor for strategy during Trump’s first term 

I'm hearing Markwayne Mullen's name as well 🙄🤡

The Board of Visitors offers nonbinding advice and input on USAFA operations. In announcing the dismissal of earlier picks a month ago, Trump charged on social media that the academy boards had been “infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years.” His appointees can be expected to focus on social and cultural issues, such as curbing programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

>The Liberty University Law School is unaffiliated with the Liberty online Master's Degree Program. Just go to the website & they say it in black & white. There is no need to sit for the LSAT, GMAT, GRE and certainly not for the Bar Exam.

>Trump terminated the entire board as soon as he became POTUS '47 due to DEI & Woke policies. Go look at the credentials of the individuals that Trump terminated & compare it to Trump's appointments. Erika is another DEI hire in an inherited position which makes the whole thing stink to high heaven with hypocrisy.

>She's in 'loser company' w/2 losers:

1Sen MarkWayne Mullins (R-OK)