Dr. Michelle Atchison is the Director of Federal Relations and Senior National Security Strategist leads for the University of Texas at San Antonio. From 2019-2021, she served as the Federal Partners Group Chief within the Intelligence Community. Prior to joining UTSA, Dr. Atchison was Associate Vice Chancellor for Federal Relations for National Security with the University of Texas System. In her corporate roles, Michelle led Strategic Partnership Development for Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories and Washington Operations focused on accelerating technology transition efforts. Her technical roles included leading the Corporate Technical Investment Program (LMTIP); designing the Corporate Engineering and Technology Research Portal to support integration and coordination of Internal R&D efforts and serving as the first Chief Scientist for the Lockheed Martin Center for Innovation, the Corporation’s premier Experimentation and Modeling-Simulation. In her military roles, Michelle served for 27 years to include key military command and senior staff positions including: Chief, Science and Technology (S&T) Division, USJFCOM Experimentation; Chief Scientist for Air Force Experimentation Office and Science Advisor for the Air Force Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center. Michelle established and managed multi-Service teams to support strategic and industrial plans to identify technology work among Services, DOD, Government agencies and commercial efforts. Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from UCLA; a master’s degree from Catholic University in International Affairs with a focus in senior Wargaming; and a doctorate in Higher Education with a focus on strategic development and organizational design from George Washington University. She is a graduate of the Army Intermediate College and Air Force War College. She serves as a member of the National Advisor Committee for the Federal Laboratory Consortium and on the National Defense Industry Association Science, Technology and Engineering Committee.
