Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo, president and CEO of Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York City, serves as a member of Civil Air Patrol’s Board of Governors.

As CAP’s top governing body, the 11-member board consists of four U.S. Air Force appointees, three members appointed jointly by the secretary of the Air Force and CAP’s national commander/CEO, and four members-at-large selected by CAP’s Senior Advisory Group. The board moves CAP forward through collective decision-making to develop strategic policies, plans, and programs that guide it today and tomorrow. It is assisted by CAP’s national commander/CEO, the organization’s chief operating officer, and the CAP-U.S. Air Force (CAP-USAF) commander, who act as advisers.

DeVivo joined the board on June 1, 2021, as an appointee of the Secretary of the Air Force and CAP’s national commander.

As Vaughn College’s seventh president/CEO and the first woman to lead the institution, she is well known and well connected in the nation’s aviation/academic university community for her executive-level experience in strategic planning and her efforts to enhance the school’s diversity.

Vaughn has transformed teaching and learning, creating a unique academic experience both inside and outside the classroom. She has led three strategic planning efforts that transformed the college from primarily a training institution to one that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in aviation, engineering, management, and technology. The college now serves about 1,550 students, of whom about 80% are members of minority groups — mostly first-generation Americans and first-generation college students. In a study published in the New York Times, the college was ranked No. 1 in upward mobility among more than 2,100 colleges and universities nationwide for moving students from the bottom income levels to the top.

DeVivo is also chair of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Youth Access to American Jobs in Aviation Task Force. She provided congressional testimony about the growing need for pilots and aviation maintenance professionals, as well as for increased government education funding. She serves on the board of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, Wings Club Foundation, Cradle of Aviation Museum, Greater New York Councils Boy Scouts of America, Queens Advisory Board for Scouting BSA, and International Aviation Women’s Association Advisory Board, and as liaison to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Women in Engineering Committee to the Educational Activities Board and the Entrepreneurship Committee.

DeVivo’s degrees include an associate’s from the University of Maryland in Munich, Germany; a bachelor’s from the State University of New York at Albany; a master’s from Fordham University in New York; and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.