Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams was raised in Grand Marais, Minnesota, a small town of 1,200 people on the shores of Lake Superior. In the 8th^. grade she decided she wanted to join the military, and thanks to a great guidance counselor in high school was encouraged to apply to a service academy. She was commissioned a Second Lieutenant at the United States Air Force Academy in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Management and in 2000 a Master of Science in Organizational Human Resource Development from Abilene Christian University. She set her sights on serving in a position working with people and chose aircraft maintenance. Throughout the first half of her career she served in a variety of aircraft maintenance positions spanning five Major Commands and deployed in support of Operations NORTHERN and SOUTHERN WATCH, JOINT FORGE, IRAQI FREEDOM, and ENDURING FREEDOM.

After these operational tours she was selected for squadron command at Grand Forks AFB and Sheppard AFB. She then served on the Air Combat Command staff writing policy and training for 44,300 maintainers and led an operational planning team for the Joint Strike Fighter with nine partner nations. After staff, Sarah served as a deputy group commander at Beale AFB, California, supporting the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance mission with U-2 and Global Hawk aircraft. She then moved to Suffolk, Virginia, as an Observer/Trainer for the Joint Staff J7 Joint Force Development Directorate, advising combatant commands and senior leaders on best practices.

Sarah was most recently a logistics planner for HQ USSOCOM. She coordinated logistics support for 70,000 SOF personnel through acquisition, sustainment, and resourcing of SOF assets, developed planning input for DoD, Joint Staff, GCCs, Services and Government agencies on logistics, and performed strategic level campaign planning, development, and assessment of global SOF and compartmented activities.

Sarah is a lifetime member of the Logistics Officer Association and Air Force Association. She is active in the local community in the National Defense Industrial Association, Women in Defense, The American Legion, Global Special Operations Foundation, K9 Partners for Patriots, Carrollwood Area Business Association, and The Humane Society of Tampa Bay. She is on the advisory panel for the Military Aviation Logistics and Maintenance Symposium.

Sarah lives in Tampa, Florida, with her German Shepherd Dogs Blaze and Lucky.