Donor support has helped staff a wide range of high-impact positions at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The Institute for Future Conflict, for example, includes several donor-funded professors and fellows who offer specific expertise on new technologies and changing character of warfare. Similar support can be found in other areas of the Academy, creating additional specialized positions to enhance the cadet experience.

For the 2025-26 academic year, the Department of Philosophy has hired a Class of 1980 Scholar in Residence to teach the ethics class required of all cadets. The Academy has shifted the requirement to be a 200-level course. This created a temporary need to teach both the previous course for firsties and two-degree cadets and the newer course to three- and four-degree cadets at the same time.

The Department of Political Science hosts the Stanton Fellow — supported by the Stanton Foundation since 2020. The Stanton Fellow is dedicated to nuclear-security policy, with a specific emphasis on the intersection of nuclear and space domains. The professor in this role focuses on teaching, facilitating research and publishing the Space and Defense journal.

The Department of Biology has taken advantage of a 1974 graduate’s generosity to add a part-time health professions advisor for cadets interested in pursuing a health profession — medical, dental, nursing, physician assistant and physical therapy — after graduation. The Dr. John Wheelock ’74 Health Professions Support Fund supports the advisor, whose focus is solely on supporting cadets through briefings, one-on-one meetings and working with academic advisors.

Rugby alumni have funded the Rugby Coaches Fund to hire a full-time men’s team coach for the 2025-26 season, the first paid coach since the rugby club team started in 1969. 

“This will help our team regain some of the lost ground to our competitors who have full-time coaches and have moved to being part of the athletic departments,” says Col. (Ret.) Denny Merideth ’73, director of strategic development for men’s rugby. “His entire focus is on the team, meeting with and mentoring players and developing professional-level programs.”