President’s Speaker Series to Welcome Former Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett
Barbara Barrett, former secretary of the United States Air Force, will join Pepperdine president Jim Gash in a discussion about her distinguished career—including her pivotal role in the founding of the United States Space Force—at the upcoming President’s Speaker Series event to be held Thursday, March 20, 2025, at noon in the Surfboard Room of Payson Library on Pepperdine’s Malibu campus. Barrett will also discuss the impact of aerospace technology and her perspective on the true meaning of freedom.
The former 25th secretary of the United States Air Force, Barrett was instrumental in establishing the US Space Force.
Barrett chairs the USS Arizona Legacy Foundation supporting the new Virginia-class submarine under construction, whose name will honor the battleship lost at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Barrett is vice chair of the Smithsonian Board of Regents. She is also vice chair of the California Institute of Technology, where she chairs the governance body overseeing NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is president of the Horatio Alger Association Board of Directors.
In past business roles, Barrett chaired the Aerospace Corporation for four terms and was founding chair of Valley Bank of Arizona. She also served on governing boards of the RAND Corporation, Raytheon, Mayo Clinic, and the Space Foundation. She was an executive at two global Fortune 500 companies and interim CEO of both the American Management Association and the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
In president George W. Bush’s administration, Barrett served as US ambassador to Finland. During the Reagan administration, she was deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and vice chair of the Civil Aeronautics Board. She served as a civilian advisor to a dozen secretaries of defense.
An instrument-rated pilot, she is also spaceflight qualified. The daughter of an Arizona cowboy, Barbara and Craig Barrett own Triple Creek Guest Ranch, a Montana ranch resort where they raise cattle and bison.
The event is free to attend, however, registration is required. Visit the President’s Speaker Series website for more information.