Chief Learning Officer, Air Education and Training Command

Empowering the Future Force: Harnessing Generative AI Across the AETC for Lifelong Learning

Dr. Wendy D. Walsh is the Chief Learning Officer, Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. In this role, Dr. Walsh is responsible for providing leadership support and technical direction to optimize force development outcomes; and enables a culture of learning. She is building a Total Force learning ecosystem to develop, share and refresh accessible, meaningful learning opportunities for mission impact. Dr. Walsh is currently leading AETC in implementing learning engineering principles to advance human-centered, interdisciplinary, and competency-based learning across the force. Dr. Walsh’s, who has been the CLO since 2021, key messages are: Learning is our competitive advantage, Together we are stronger, and Cultivating a shared vision we enable shared mission success.

Dr. Walsh graduated from Sonoma State University in 1999, with a bachelor’s degree in political science and master of public administration in 2003. She successfully completed the information science doctoral course work and competed a certification in systems engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School. She earned her doctorate in Education Leadership from Frostburg State University in 2021. Her dissertation developed a unique sense-making model to understand and facilitate successful implementation in complex adaptive systems. As a result, she was invited to share her work at the Santa Fe Institute Collective Intelligence Symposium in 2023.

A career public servant, she has worked in state and federal agencies for the past 30 years. Dr. Walsh has an impressive track record collaborating with governments, academia, industry, and communities to develop research, grow education, apply innovation, and expand possibilities to create culturally relevant and effective learning experiences responsive to organizational needs.