Col. Ron Scott, PhD, USAF retired, is the President and CEO of Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS).
He previously served as Vice President and Director of Operations, American Constitution Foundation; Founder and Principal Consultant, Vectored Solutions LLC, where he consulted on international and national security matters; and Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Leading-Edge Research Institute, a think tank focused on accelerating international development, employing complexity, complex adaptive system, and social network theories.
On behalf of the Institute, Ron presented papers on development-related concepts at national conferences. Two papers were invited for publication in peer-reviewed journals: “International Development in a Complex Adaptive System” in Public Administration Quarterly (2008); and “The Science of Muddling Though Revisited” in Emergence: Complexity & Organization (2010).
Ron recently retired as professor of public policy and administration with Northcentral University, teaching ethics, policy analysis, public administration, and research methods. He served as chair and subject matter expert on dissertation committees. He also served as the lead faculty member for the public administration curriculum.
From 2004 to 2008, Dr. Scott served as a Principal Scientist with Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), as a charter member of their “Futures Group” at North American Aerospace Defense Command-United States Northern Command. The Futures Group completed a CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, enhanced explosive) Detection Study that became a major national-level framework for understanding and mitigating the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) threat.
Dr. Scott then became a member of ARA’s “Chairman’s Group,” providing strategic analysis on counterterrorism concepts and architectures in support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. Some of his work led to advanced concepts for intelligence considerations and attracted major interest from the Office of the Director for National Intelligence. He authored or edited 25 technical papers.
From 2002 to 2004, Ron completed a Ph.D. from Arizona State University. His dissertation dealt with strategic communication and provided strong empirical evidence to support his theory of a reverse Hawthorne Effect (e.g., while well-intended, senior-level strategic communication alienated people).
He also conducted a program evaluation of Arizona’s economic security program, published (with Laura Peck) as “Can Welfare Case Management Increase Employment? Evidence from a Pilot Program Evaluation” in Policy Studies Journal (2005).
From 1973 to 2003, Ron served in the United States Air Force as a pilot (primarily in the OV-10, F-4E, and C-130E/H), war planner, strategic analyst, and commander.
Assignments included the Pentagon (where he directed the Air Force 24/7 operations center and stood up a readiness center) and operational commands in the United States, Middle East, Europe, and Asia.
He commanded operational C-130 units in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War and in Turkey, providing humanitarian airlift to Kurdish refugees in the mountains of northern Iraq. He retired as a colonel.
Dr. Scott also holds a B.S. in life sciences (molecular biology and genetics) from the USAF Academy and an M.A. in psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. He is the author of The 2012 Political Contest in America: Conversations with a Gadfly.
Currently serving as the President, Class of 1973, United States Air Force Academy.
Ron has been married to the former Mary MacIsaac from Aurora, Colorado for the past 50 years. They have two married daughters and five grandchildren.