Kimberly R. Pratt

Kimberly is a writer, avid reader, traveler, mentor, potter, and lifetime learner. Originally from Illinois, she has resided in multiple states and overseas. She served for over 40 years as an intelligence officer and policy analyst for the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense (DoD), including positions where she opened doors for women as a "first."

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Following graduation from the US Air Force Academy in 1983, Kimberly attended undergraduate pilot training (UPT). However, she was removed early on for “lack of adaptability”—the Air Force’s euphemism for weight gain. She was then placed in the intelligence career field and, determined to stay connected to flying, in 1986 became the first woman to serve as an airborne intelligence officer on the EC-130. Never losing her dream of becoming a pilot, in 1988, the same bureaucracy granted her a last-chance reapplication to UPT but did not select her. Kimberly continued her Air Force intelligence career.

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In 1992, she left active duty to be a full-time mom and to teach and transitioned to the Georgia Air National Guard (ANG). Kimberly spent 17 years in the ANG, with a highlight being selected as the first commander of the 139th Intelligence Squadron, activated at Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 2008. Kimberly transferred to the Air Force Reserves in 2010 and served as the senior reservist at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retiring as a Colonel in 2013.

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In 2024, Kimberly completed a second master’s degree in Defense and Strategic Studies from Missouri State University, with an emphasis on countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a National Defense University Fellow. She retired from the Department of Defense Joint Staff in 2025. In 2026, Kimberly started a new job as an adjunct professor teaching a WMD class at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

 

She has been learning about her Native American heritage, and was given the Potawatomi name "Idwe Gishek" which means "Both Sides of the Sky." She is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation (CPN), a member of Native American Women Warriors, and the treasurer of the Kwek Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending period poverty in Indigenous communities. She is especially proud of her two children, both of whom have jobs supporting our nation.