Highest ranking woman in U.S. military to speak at Duke Monday

General Lori Robinson is the first woman to lead a major military command and she is coming to Duke Monday to discuss the challenge of “Managing Threats and Relationships Across Two Commands.”

The highest ranking woman in U.S. military history, Robinson is commander of both North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). NORAD is responsible for aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning. USNORTHCOM is in charge of homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation.

Sponsored by the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy, the Sanford School of Public Policy and Duke Political Science, the event will be held Monday at 6 p.m. in Fleishman Commons at the Sanford School. The discussion will be moderated by Peter Feaver, professor of political science and public policy.

Before assuming her current post, Robinson was serving in the Air Force beginning in 1982. She started her military career as an air battle manager, and later became Commander of the Pacific Air Forces and Air Component Commander for U.S. Pacific Command. 

Robinson was featured in the Time Magazine special report “Firsts: Women Who Are Changing The World” as the “first woman to lead a top-tier U.S. Combat Command.”

“I’ve been privileged to be the first at many things. I’m a general, a commander, an airman. And I happen to be a woman,” Robinson said in the Time Magazine interview. “When I put the fact of being a woman as more important than the institution, then I’ve done a disservice to the institution. But I realize I’m a role model."