WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio - Teri French, an instructor of engineering management within the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Civil Engineer School received the 2021 Air Education and Training Command’s Outstanding Airman of the Year Award Civilian Category III.
In 2020, French taught 134 lessons and delivered 243 hours of instruction to 1,800 civil engineers in project programming, financial management, and realty management. During this time, she also served as a Department of Defense-level subject matter expert, providing 45 hours of consulting services on a variety of civil engineering topics and informed Air Force-wide policy updates.
The requirement to rapidly pivot to virtual delivery of courses due to the pandemic didn’t faze French. She helped convert more than 40 courses to a distance learning platform, several having never before been taught virtually. Her efforts enabled nearly 3,000 students to fulfill their continuing education needs.
French is active outside of the classroom, serving as a Combined Federal Campaign keyworker and the programs committee chair for the Society of American Military Engineers Kittyhawk Post where she helped raise $2,700 for a local food bank.
As an active-duty Air Force civil engineer, French served around the world, including Portugal, Afghanistan, Japan, Qatar, Iraq, and Turkey. She retired from active duty in 2015 and has been an instructor at AFIT since then.
French is a graduate of the Air Force Academy with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Colorado, Boulder.