Col Kirk W. Johnson is the Space Force Chair to the National Defense University (NDU) at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC. He represents the Space Force and leads Guardian faculty and students at all six NDU components, including the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, where he serves on the faculty.
Col Johnson graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, earned his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 2000, and holds graduate degrees from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and Texas A&M University. He has served as a Minuteman III combat crew commander and instructor, a developmental engineer in the fields of scientific and technical intelligence and ballistic missile defense, and an educator with research specialties in astrodynamics, satellite formation flying, rendezvous and proximity operations, and cislunar space architectures. He has deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, as a Foreign Military Sales case officer in the Office of Security Cooperation - Iraq, and to Kabul, Afghanistan, on the staff of the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan. He has held faculty appointments from AFIT, the Air War College, and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Prior to his current assignment, Col Johnson was the first Commandant of the Space Force War College (Detachment 3, Space Delta 13) in Washington, DC.