Pardee School Alumna Nominated for Under Secretary of the Air Force
On April 27, 2021, the White House announced that Gina Ortiz Jones (Pardee ’03) will be nominated for Under Secretary of the Air Force.
Jones‘ nomination was one of many national security positions announced by the White House. The statement stated the following of Ortiz Jones:
Gina Ortiz Jones has spent her career working to protect U.S. economic and national security. Commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program at Boston University, Ms. Jones served as an Air Force intelligence officer and deployed to Iraq with the 18th Air Support Operations Group supporting close air support operations. A member of the LGBTQ community, Ms. Jones served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Upon separation from the Air Force, Ms. Jones advised on military operations in Central and South America with the 470th Military Intelligence Brigade and U.S. Army South…She has advanced degrees from Boston University, the University of Kansas, and the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies.
Jones graduated from the Pardee School with a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies. She also has a master’s degree from Boston University in Economics. In 2018 and 2020, she was a Democratic nominee for Texas’s 23rd district. Jones was the second Pardee School alumni to win a Congressional primary in 2018. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Pardee ’11) upset top-ranking House Democrat Joe Crowley in the June 26, 2018 primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District.
Read the full White House statement announcing Jones’ nomination online. Jones’ nomination was also the subject of an article in The Hill.