Ms. Kathryn Kolbe is the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Administration of the National Defense University. Ms. Kolbe is a retired Air Force Colonel and former installation commander at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, home to the Ogden Air Logistics Complex, two fighter wings and the Utah Test and Training Range. Throughout her career, she also served as a Vice Wing Commander, a Civil Engineer Squadron Commander, as a legislative fellow in the US Senate and completed two joint deployments during the Iraq War.
She has experience in the federal government at the Headquarters, Department of Homeland Security, where she led the Congressionally mandated consolidation of 22 component agencies in the National Capital Region and as the Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services at Customs and Border Protection, providing full-spectrum mission support for 60,000 personnel, responsible for our nation’s trade, travel, and border security.
She is a graduate of the Eisenhower School, and earned a master’s degree from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Lehigh University, where she earned her commission, as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program.