<< Back to Team

K. Austin Delorme

Austin DeLorme served ten years on active duty as an acquisition officer in the United States Air Force. Her initial focus, as a scientist, was on early-stage technology development and transition. She quickly became passionate about the vast technology under development in the commercial sector, as well as the challenges associated with transitioning any developing technology into the operational enterprise.

During Austin’s time in service, she was one of the initial founders of AFWERX, the Air Forces innovation organization, and was a leader in establishing the Air Force’s first technology accelerator programs - a process which has now scaled in various forms across the Air Force. In her final position, she served in the Pentagon as a direct advisor to the Air Force Undersecretary for Acquisitions and Senior Acquisition Advisor (SAE). While in that role, she helped rewrite the Air Force’s strategy for executing the SBIR program, lead the Air Force’s first Pitch Day in New York City, and played a key role in establishing programs that eventually found a home within the AFWERX umbrella, to include AF Ventures and Agility Prime.

Throughout this time, Austin's primary focus has been on understanding the political, legal, and cultural barriers inhibiting relationships between the DoD and the commercial enterprise. She has left active service to pursue her passion of breaking down those barriers to create both the near-term wins and long-term changes required to ensure our national security for decades to come.