HomeNewsArticle Display


Redirecting...

ACSC vice commander honored by Cambridge University

  • Published
  • By Michael Ritz
  • 42nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  An Air University advocate of air power leadership and innovation was named recently a "practitioner fellow" to the new Centre for Social Innovation at Cambridge University' Judge Business School.

Col. Joseph DeMarco, Air Command and Staff College vice commander, was notified in October that he is one of the first 10 Fellows from various career disciplines selected by the center at the English university.

"Of course, Cambridge University is internationally known. For me, it's a great honor to even be considered by Cambridge for this, let alone selected as a Fellow," said DeMarco.

The selected practitioner Fellows, who have international backgrounds, will form an advisory board and work with faculty on practitioner-focused research, according to the university's website. They will deliver guest lectures and help mentor social innovators, but they are distinct from the center's research Fellows.

"I was stationed in Germany when I had the opportunity to first interface with Cambridge University's Judge Business School leadership, including several of their exceptional faculty members," said DeMarco. "Among my mentors from those same faculty members are leaders in social innovation and organizational socialization, including Neil Stott, executive director, Centre for Social Innovation, and Christopher Loch, director of the Judge Business School. These are the same leaders who guided me toward being honored as a practitioner Fellow."

The colonel said he hopes the practitioner Fellowship helps bring back to ACSC a further expanded rigor in its curriculum.

"We're also expanding leadership focus in the area of ethics," he said. "That's one of several academic expansions related to leadership and innovation that we can pull out and bring back from Cambridge to influence what we're doing here at ACSC."

DeMarco concluded, "Perhaps we can even consider an innovation or leadership center here. I believe we can help fill what sometimes is a blank canvas by filling that canvas with the color and texture of initiative and creativity developed by our future leaders."

DeMarco's selection as a practitioner Fellow at Cambridge University is not the first time he's been honored with a fellowship.

"I also did a fellowship at Stanford University in 2008. That gave me the opportunity to develop strong relationships with leaders and innovative practitioners, as well as with their academic counterparts," he said. "Indeed, I was able to share and exchange ideas with the likes of George Schultz and Edwin Meese. It was an exceptional education in a host of leadership topics."