Dr. Jennifer Hesterman is a retired Air Force colonel who served three tours at the Pentagon and commanded in the field multiple times. Her final military assignment was Vice Commander, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, where she led installation security operations, including protection of Air Force One.

A safety and security expert, she is Vice President at Watermark Risk Management International and provides vulnerability assessments for the nation's critical infrastructure. She instructs graduate-level courses for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, advises two DHS Security Centers of Excellence and is on the advisory panel for the Crisis Response Journal. She also serves as an Expert Witness, offering analysis, opinions, and testimony in legal cases involving death or injury linked to deficient safety and security measures.

Dr. Hesterman serves as Chair of the International Guidelines and Standards for Space Analogs Committee and is Co-Founder of the Analog Astronaut Research Journal. She is the Safety and Risk Lead for the World’s Biggest Analog and advises the Coastal Carolina University Space Program. A seasoned analog astronaut, she commanded a mission at the Mars Desert Research Station and lived in the Ares Station cave as a crewmember for the Astroland Interplanetary Agency in Spain. Together with her adventurous family, she explored the Arctic on a Russian icebreaker, traversed Antarctica's interior, and stood at both the North and South Poles.

She holds a doctoral degree from Benedictine University, Master of Science degrees from both Johns Hopkins University and Air University, and a Bachelor of Science from Penn State University. She was a National Defense Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, and is an alumna of the Harvard Senior Executive Fellows program. She is a sought-after speaker and author of four security textbooks and more than 40 journal and magazine articles.