The Association of Graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy proudly announces Lt. Col. (Ret.) Kimberly Ford, Class of 1990; Col. (Ret.) Shane Hamilton, Class of 1992; and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Nora Rule, Class of 2002, as recipients of the 2025 Leadership Achievement Award.

The honorees will be recognized during this summer's Long Blue Line Awards ceremony.

The Leadership Achievement Award recognizes USAFA graduates who have distinguished themselves by obtaining a high level of professional accomplishment, whether in military or civilian life, demonstrating excellence in all they do. They possess high standards of integrity and character, positively reflecting and enhancing the prestige of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Leadership Achievement recipients are nominated by fellow graduates, evaluated and recommended by a committee of graduates and approved by vote of the AOG board of directors. Graduates between 16 and 39 years post-graduation are eligible for the award.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Kimberly Ford ’90 built a 25-year career as a combat aviator, senior mobility leader and nationally recognized advocate for aviation access and heritage — embodying the Academy’s core values across every assignment she held. 

As a KC-135 and C-17 command pilot, instructor pilot and mission commander, Col. Ford accumulated more than 11,000 flight hours across combat and contingency operations supporting more than a dozen named operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, including sustained enforcement of United Nations no-fly zones. Her decisive airmanship during a critical in-flight landing gear emergency aboard a KC-135 — safely recovering the aircraft while executing a sensitive START Treaty mission — earned her a nomination for the General Robert “Dutch” Huyser Award, the mobility community’s recognition for superior airmanship under extreme pressure. 

Col. Ford’s leadership extended well beyond the cockpit. Hand-selected as a strategic action officer in the Air Mobility Command Commander’s Action Group, she supported command-level decision-making for a global mobility enterprise of more than 134,000 airmen and 1,300 aircraft. She served as principal planner for Operation United Assistance, overseeing approximately $750 million in global mobility operations, and designed and delivered leadership development courses that trained more than 400 officers. Her unit leadership contributed to the 728th Airlift Squadron, earning the Grover Loening Award as the best flying squadron in the Air Force Reserve. 

Following military retirement, Col. Ford has continued to lead with distinction as a commercial airline pilot for Alaska Airlines and as a tireless champion for aviation heritage and access. She spearheaded a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony correcting decades of delayed recognition for World War II pioneers, led legacy flight missions honoring the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots, and helped secure a $250,000 donation supporting the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial at Davis Airfield. She serves as board chair of the Michael P. Anderson Memorial Aerospace Program and as a trustee of the Falcon Foundation and the Seattle Museum of Flight. In 2025, she was inducted into the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals Hall of Fame. 

Col. (Ret.) Shane Hamilton ’92 has spent 35 years at the intersection of intelligence, airpower and national security, where he shaped Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, guided senior decision-makers through moments of global consequence and modernized the intelligence enterprise for an era of peer competition. 

With dual degrees in political science and history, Col. Hamilton went on to become a Weapons School distinguished graduate, a graduate of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies and one of the Air Force’s most accomplished intelligence officers. Early in his career, he authored the Air Force’s foundational strategy for the first use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) before the service owned an RPA — operational guidance that helped usher in a transformation of how the Air Force conducted operations across two decades of conflict following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. During the Global War on Terror, he earned the National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction from the Director of Central Intelligence for his work developing targets for 478 highly classified, presidentially directed missions in the early days of operations in Afghanistan. 

Col. Hamilton led high-stakes intelligence analysis through some of the most consequential moments of the post-9/11 era — serving as senior analyst during the peak of North Korean provocations, leading threat assessments for U.S. operations in Libya, and preparing three presidential daily briefings on China, Iran and Gulf Cooperation Council events. He transformed the National Air and Space Intelligence Center’s analysis hub into the top-ranked unit among 18 squadrons. Col. Hamilton briefed Congress on a foreign information operations threat, testimony that guided a $50 billion shift in national security policy. 

As a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and associate director of intelligence at Air Combat Command, Col. Hamilton directed planning, programming and execution for a $7.5 billion Air Force and national intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance enterprise consisting of more than 15,000 airmen across six major commands. In this role, he implemented the sensor-to-shooter kill chain automation program — now operational across four combatant commands — enabling near-real-time targeting at scale. He guided early AI integration into satellite imagery analysis, reducing human processing timelines by 60 to 80 percent, and secured $150 million in funding to automate long-range kill chain capabilities that had previously faced decades-long impediments.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Nora Rule ’02 is a pioneer in military justice reform, a senior legal executive and a dedicated advocate for survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking. Her commitment to service began at the Academy, where she served as Cadet Wing human relations officer advising on sexual harassment claims, captained the lacrosse team to its first-ever national championship game appearance and earned Second Team All-American honors. She graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration and Mathematical Sciences and earned her Juris Doctorate from Florida State University College of Law in 2006. 

Transitioning to the JAG Corps, Col. Rule built a reputation as a premier litigator and leader. Ranked by the Judge Advocate General as one of the top five attorneys corps-wide, she earned Outstanding Attorney of the Year recognition three times. A decorated multi-theater veteran, service included combat deployments with the U.S. Army in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and as a Staff Judge Advocate during Operation New Dawn. 

As a foundational leader in the Special Victims’ Counsel program, Col. Rule redefined survivor representation across the Department of Defense. She was the first SVC to represent a victim and testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, navigating a landmark case that drew intense nationwide media scrutiny and challenged decades of Feres Doctrine precedent. She provided expert testimony before the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services that guided military-wide implementation of new victim access policies, led strategic oversight of 16 regional offices, stood up four new legal centers and supervised legal representation for more than 250 victims. 

Following retirement, Col. Rule advanced into senior executive leadership in the defense industry. She currently serves as vice president and associate general counsel at Amentum, a $14.4 billion global technology and solutions firm. She serves as vice chairman of the board of trustees at Hampton Roads Academy; on the board of directors of Freekind, a nonprofit combating human trafficking; and on Service Academy nomination boards for Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Bobby Scott.