“I’m honored to win this award at the AETC level, especially during Women’s History Month,” said DePalmer. “I am thankful for my leadership’s support and to be an instructor at the Civil Engineer School where I get to show students what it means to ‘Lead the Way!’ for women in Civil Engineering and the Air Force.”
As the CE career field’s only female asset management instructor, DePalmer instructed in over 60 course offerings educating 2,800 civil engineers. She led students through their CE initial skills course and mentored more than 100 officers to earn the CE badge. DePalmer also published four peer-reviewed academic journal articles and was the sole female CE School faculty to pass the eight hour professional engineering exam and earn her PE License.
“I am so thankful that we have instructors like Capt. DePalmer at the Civil Engineer School,” said Col. Laurie Richter, dean of the Civil Engineer School. “She is a positive example of combining talent and passion to improve the work environment for all.”
Passionate about diversity topics and furthering women in engineering, DePalmer earned the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate through the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business and recently completed the eCornell’s Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program. She chaired the AFIT Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group, leading a team of 20 volunteers who have hosted six “Women in the Arts” book/film clubs, cultural intelligence training for AFIT senior leaders and generated an AFIT demographics report.
She also co-led the first ever Women in Civil Engineering panel discussion where three colonels discussed their experiences as women in the CE career field.
In previous assignments, DePalmer served as the officer in charge for the 4th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Requirements and Optimization Element, the facilities design engineer for the 557th RED HORSE Squadron, and a project programmer for the 4th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Engineering Flight.
DePalmer earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from University of Colorado, Boulder and a master’s degree in engineering management from AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. As an AFIT graduate student, she was selected by her classmates to receive the Ivan B. Thompson Award recognizing the member of the graduating class who had shown exceptional service to the class, school, community and Air Force.
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