Lieutenant Colonel Jessica C. P. Lopez is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Head for the Department of English and Fine Arts, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. As Deputy Head, she assists in support of a 27-member Department, manages a $270K operation budget, guides assessment, vectors strategic curriculum, and ensures the instruction of more than 200 sections for 4,300 cadets. Additionally, she leads the Digital Humanities Center for the Academy to advance research, engage conversations, and develop courses incorporating STEM with humanities to champion human-centric understandings of leadership, technology, and warfare.

In her role as an Assistant Professor, Lieutenant Colonel Lopez is the course director for English 212, a course she created as a core substitute for English 211 (Intermediate Composition and Introduction to Literature) in which quantitative methods of analysis are combined with the qualitative exploration of literature. Additionally, she has taught English 111–Composition and Research, English 211–Intermediate Composition and Introduction to Literature, English 345–Digital Humanities, and English 411–War Literature and Public Speaking. She is a graduate from Michigan State University where she received both her PhD in English and the Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate. Her dissertation, Autistic Characters: (de)coding embedded sentiment explores autistic characters through qualitative traditional close readings and through quantitative scaled readings, a method she created to visualize and analyze novels through graphs and patterns.

Lieutenant Colonel Lopez earned her commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2004. She graduated from Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma in 2006. She has served in a variety of roles within the 621^st Contingency Response Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey as part of Phoenix Mobility, Air Mobility Command’s leadership development program. She has also served in a variety of roles within the 62^d Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington and the 437^th Airlift Wing at Charleston AFB, South Carolina. She is a Command Pilot with more than 3300 flight hours in the C-17A, E-11A, and T-53A and 1,300 combat hours in the C-17A and E-11A.

Air War College (Correspondence), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama (2022)

Doctor of Philosophy, English, Michigan State University (2020)

Air Command and Staff College (Correspondence), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama (2015)

Squadron Officer School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama (2010)

Master of Arts, English, College of Charleston & The Citadel, South Carolina (2008)

Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training, Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma (2006)

Bachelor of Science, Mathematical Sciences, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado (2004)

Assistant Professor, Deputy Head, T-53 Instructor Pilot, Department of English and Fine Arts, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado (2022-Present)

E-11A Instructor Pilot, Chief of Training, 430^th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron, Prince Sultan AB, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2022)

Assistant Professor, Director of Operations, T-53 Instructor Pilot, Department of English and Fine Arts, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado (2020-2022)

Ph.D. Candidate, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan (2017-2020)

Instructor of English, Assistant Director of Operations, T-53 Instructor Pilot, Department of English and Fine Arts, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado (2015-2017)

Air Mobility Command Phoenix Mobility Officer, Operations Flight Commander, Communications and Aircraft Ground Equipment Flight Commander, Wing Executive Officer, 621 CRW, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (2012-2015)

C-17A Instructor Aircraft Commander, Weapons and Tactics Assistant Flight Commander, Operations Flight Commander, Wing and Group Executive Officer, 62 AW, Joint Base Lewis-McChord (2009-2012)

C-17A Aircraft Commander, Command Post Duty Officer, 437 AW, Charleston AFB, South Carolina (2008-2009)

Graduate Student, College of Charleston & The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina (2007-2008)

C-17A Airlift Pilot, Scheduler, Standardization and Evaluation Liaison Officer, 17 AS, Charleston AFB, South Carolina (2006-2008)

Student Pilot, Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training, Vance AFB, Oklahoma (2004-2006)

Flight Information

Rating: Command Pilot
Flight hours: More than 3,300
Aircraft flown: T-37B, T-1A, C-17A, T-53A, E-11A

Effective Dates of Promotion

Lieutenant Colonel  August 1, 2021
Major  July 1, 2014
Captain  June 2, 2008
First Lieutenant  June 2, 2006
Second Lieutenant  June 2, 2004

Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster

Air Medal with seven oak leaf clusters

Aerial Achievement Medal

Air and Space Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters

Air and Space Achievement Medal

Combat Readiness Medal with one oak leaf cluster

National Defense Service Medal

Afghanistan Campaign Medal with one service star

Iraq Campaign Medal with one service star

Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal with one service star

Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal

Global War on Terrorism Service Medal

English literature with an emphasis in digital humanities. Lieutenant Colonel Lopez is currently pursuing research on autistic characters through the use of computational analytics with sentiment analysis to ask the following questions:

• How does the sentiment that lies coded within texts contribute to narrative feelings about those texts?
• Do close readings and/or scaled readings contribute to better understandings of the sentiment that lies coded in texts?
• Does identifying literature as ableist in construction provide more insight into the coded nature of embedded sentiment?
• Do ableist constructions of literature perpetuate harm against and contribute to the silencing of neuroatypical communities (specifically for related autism research)? Additionally, can these constructions ever provide helpful insights?