Natalie W. Crawford

Natalie Crawford is a senior fellow and distinguished chair in Air and Space Policy at the RAND Corporation. She is also a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She has held a number of leadership positions within RAND Project Air Force, and was vice president and director from 1997 to 2006.

Crawford received the U.S. Air Force Academy’s 2012 Thomas D. White National Defense Award for her significant contributions to national security. In 2011, she received the Air Force Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the advancement of aerospace science and technology. In 2006, she received the OSD Medal for Exceptional Public Service and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Defense Industrial Association’s Combat Survivability Division. Crawford was awarded the Department of the Air Force Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service twice, in 1995 and 2003. Also in 2003, she received the Air Force Analytic Community’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lt. Gen. Glenn Kent Leadership Award, and the Vance R. Wanner Memorial Award from the Military Operations Research Society. She was named an AIAA Fellow in 2011. In 2018 she was awarded the honorary degree of doctor of public policy by the Pardee RAND Graduate School.