ELIZABETH BOURDEAU
Ms. W. Elizabeth Bourdeau is a first-class cadet at the United States Air Force Academy where she majors in Foreign Area Studies with a focus in Political Science and minors in French and Portuguese. She remains in the top percentile of her class with a remarkable 3.96 Majors GPA and is fluent in French, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. As an indicator of her outstanding performance in academia and in the military sphere, Cadet Bourdeau is a four-time recipient of the Commandant’s Pin award, signifying that she is in the top 20% of her class militarily and consistently maintains above a 3.0 GPA.
Her broad research interests focus on conflict resolution, international political economy, development, and democratic backsliding, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Among other accomplishments, her research on
the effects of government aid on public health and policy in Brazil was awarded the Cadet Summer Research Award for Outstanding Research in Social Sciences and was published in the Latin America based journal, Rède de Pésquisa Solidária. She has worked as a summer fellow at the Hudson Institute, as Cadet-in-Charge of the housing committee of the United States Air Force Academy’s premier political science conference, as a research assistant to Dr. Kelly Piazza, and as Director of Operations for the Air Force Academy Way of Life Committee. Presently, she is a congressional intern in the Colorado Springs district.
Cadet Bourdeau is a passionate leader of the Air Force Academy’s Sexual Assault Awareness Prevention and Response (SAAPR) team, dedicated to eradicating sexual assault within the cadet wing and the military overall. She currently serves as the commander over approximately 1,000 cadets, responsible for guaranteeing their education, training, and welfare in matters of sexual assault, sexual health, and sexual education. In her spare time, she enjoys reading science fiction or fantasy novels, perfecting her embroidery and singing with the Air Force Academy LDS Cadet Choir. Upon graduation, she hopes to further her education with a master’s degree in Public Policy and eventually serve in the intelligence field and as a military attaché before ensuing a career with the state department