Teresa L. Dicks, DM
Colonel, USAF (Ret)
Associate Professor

Teresa Dicks is an Associate Professor at the Joint and Combined Warfighting School in the Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University, in Norfolk, VA.

In her 26-year Air Force career she held numerous command, staff, and joint positions. Her commanding officer (CO) tours were at Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), Hurlburt Field, FL as the 16th Logistics Support Squadron Commander (LSS/CC) and the 16th Helicopter Generation Squadron Commander (HGS/CC). She stood up the first maintenance group at Balad, Iraq from 2004-2005, reactivating the storied Tuskegee lineage with the 332 Expeditionary Maintenance Group Commander (EXMG/CC). Her joint tours included two assignments at United States Special Operations Command, first as the Special Operations Forces Support Activity (SOFSA) Operations Officer and then speechwriter to the commander in chief (CINC) or currently, CCDR.

After attending National War College from 2001-2002, she returned to SOCOM as the deputy political advisor running ambassadorial orientations for newly minted ambassadors. Prior to assuming command in Iraq, Associate Professor Dicks served as the senior Air Force advisor to the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, also a joint assignment. A career maintainer, Associate Professor Dicks had multiple front line maintainer assignments serving across the Combat Air Forces at posts in Europe (Torrejon, Incirlik, Germany, Greece, and Aviano) prior to entering special operations service in 1987 spanning 20 years of unprecedented growth as the SOF force structure. Her final assignment on active duty was as the Deputy Director of Logistics, Installations, and Mission Support in the Air Education and Training Command—culminating her career in 2007 after serving as the senior Air Force representative on the SecDEF Enabling Forces Assessment Team to Afghanistan in 2006.

Associate Professor Dicks teaches across the curriculum at JCWS. Previously she led or assisted in multiple electives, including the Special Operations, the US Interagency, and the National Intelligence Community (NIC). Associate Professor Dicks is a 1981 distinguished graduate of the University of Virginia ROTC program with a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies (English). She earned her Master of Science degree in Management from Troy State University and another MS in National Security Strategy from National War College. She completed requirements for the Certificate in College Teaching from the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education and is also graduate of Air War College. She completed all requirements for a Doctor of Management degree in Organizational Leadership with University of Phoenix in 2019.

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