Dr. Heather Wilson

Published Dec. 12, 2025

Co-Writer for Get Back Up

President, The University of Texas at El Paso

Dr. Heather Wilson became President of The University of Texas at El Paso in 2019 after serving as Secretary of the United States Air Force. She is the former president of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, and she represented New Mexico in the United States Congress for 10 years.

Active in community and national affairs, she is a member of the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation, and serves as a board member of the Texas Space Commission. She was the inaugural Chair of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities and is a member of the board of directors of Lockheed Martin Corporation and Google GPS.

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Dr. Wilson is the granddaughter of immigrants and was the first person in her family to go to college. She graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in the third class to admit women and earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar.

UTEP is located on the U.S.-Mexico border – in the fifth largest manufacturing region in North America – and serves over 25,000 students with 171 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in nine colleges and schools. In the top 5% of public universities in the United States for research and designated an Opportunity University for achieving both high access and high earnings for graduates by the Carnegie Foundation, UTEP is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. It is the fourth largest public research university in Texas and serves a student body that is 84% Hispanic.

President Wilson is an instrument rated private pilot. She and her husband, Jay Hone, have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Get Back Up: Lessons in Servant Leadership

Get Back Up: Lessons in Servant Leadership is a collection of stories illustrating leadership principles from two trailblazing United States Air Force Academy graduates who became Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force — General (Ret.) Dave Goldfein and Dr. Heather Wilson. While the book is most relevant for young military officers, its lessons in leadership are universal.

The book begins with Heather and Dave recounting their paths to the Academy, in the same class of cadets. Heather’s decision to apply was shaped by the influence of her grandfather, a pioneering aviator. Dave’s decision was shaped by his father, a career fighter pilot and Vietnam veteran, following an initial academy rejection that almost resulted in a completely different path.

From there, the book unfolds through 14 chapters that cover leadership lessons learned through life experience. Dave tells the story of being shot down and rescued over Serbia, and Heather served in Congress during 9/11. Some of the most compelling stories were of their service together in the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

[Gen David Goldfein (retired) and Dr. Heather Wilson / 2025 / --- pages / ISBN --- / AU Press Code: B-190 / Format: Print & Electronic]