Carlson School Fuels Air Force Academy Faculty Pipeline

The Carlson School of Management launches students’ careers—from working at nonprofits to corporate giants. In recent years, however, the school has supported another pipeline: business education instructors at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Through the Air Force, airmen can apply to earn their MBA as a full-time assignment. Upon completion, they join the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. as a faculty member to teach management courses to cadets. The Carlson School’s supportive environment for military members has attracted five airmen in the last five years to receive their MBAs at the school before teaching at the Academy.

“The Carlson School is directly impacting what I’m doing and what future faculty members at the Academy are going to be doing in the classroom,” shared Captain Sam Sapita, ‘21 MBA.

Sapita is in his third year teaching at the Air Force Academy, where management is the largest major on campus. In addition to teaching corporate finance and entrepreneurship, he also leads the Academy’s innovation capstone, similar to the Carlson Ventures Enterprise. It’s in those experiential learning opportunities that he tries to push his students.

“The cadets are really good at executing to a plan or to a goal, and that is obviously a huge component of business,” explained Sapita. “Where we try to move the needle is getting them to think creatively and critically in the business setting.”

Soon, Sapita will be navigating the business world firsthand as he plans to leave the Air Force this summer to pursue management consulting. His positive experience with the teaching program inspired others, like Captain Matt Serratore, ‘24 MBA to attend the Carlson School. During his classes, Serratore says he’s kept a close eye on not only the business concepts but also how his professors are presenting that information.

“There are things that I’ve written down or presentations or case studies that I’ve pulled aside to a folder that I can look back on because I liked how they framed a lesson or went about drawing out the highlights,” said Serratore.

After Serratore graduates in the spring, he will complete another assignment with the Air Force before beginning his teaching duties. Next in line to join the Academy’s faculty is Captain Tyler Ledford, ‘20 MBA, who will be starting in the summer following his deployment.

“As a logistics officer, I manage an organization with anywhere between 100-200 people and I make sure people and assets get to where they need to be safely and efficiently,” described Ledford. “During my mission, I have used many leadership and technical skills, such as demand forecasting techniques, which I gained at the Carlson School.”

“The connection with the Air Force Academy is a wonderful confluence of our focus on supporting military and veteran students and the Academy’s desire to have faculty with modern management concepts and skills,” reflected Phil Miller, the Carlson School’s Assistant Dean for the MBA & MS Programs. “I’ve been particularly impressed with Sapita and his colleagues’ focus on taking what they learned and applying it to the Academy’s management offerings.”

The aim is to pay those experiences forward to help develop the next generation of leaders within the Air Force.

“I look forward to connecting what we do in the military and how the civilian sector operates for young management major cadets and helping prepare them to be valuable and successful officers—as my teachers helped me become,” Ledford reflected.