Flying High

When Lt. Col. Kimber Nettis (B.A. ’07) took over the leadership of Baylor University’s Air & Space Force ROTC Detachment 810 in the summer of 2025, she made history by becoming the first female to serve as the commander of the detachment since it was created in 1948.

While attending high school in the Dallas area, Nettis joined a new Junior ROTC program that had just been established there. She first laid eyes on Baylor when her JROTC group took part in a summer camp held at the University.

“I fell in love with the campus, and I knew that if I ever went to college I wanted to go to Baylor,” she said. “In my mind, no other school was in the running.”

One of the formative events in Nettis’s life took place in the summer between her junior and senior years in high school. While on a trip with her Christian youth group to a church camp, the bus they were riding on hit a bridge support.

“The collision killed five people. My friend sitting in front of me and another friend sitting behind me both died,” Nettis said. “I thought that the bus was going to explode because there was diesel fuel everywhere, and I ended up pulling a number of people to safety.”

While that tragedy made a lasting impact on Nettis, it also ended up leading indirectly to her being able to afford a college education and come to Baylor. As a result of her lifesaving actions after the crash, a four-star general came to Nettis’s high school and presented her with the ROTC’s Gold Valor Award. That award, combined with her excellent high school record, led the Baylor ROTC detachment to offer her its lone four-year scholarship available to a cadet during the upcoming school year.

Baylor cadet years

Nettis began at Baylor in the fall of 2003, majoring in communications. She quickly made friends and took advantage of service and leadership opportunities available in Detachment 810.

“I took part in the Blue Knights, which is our unit that performs in drill competitions and presents the colors at athletic events,” Nettis said. “I was also involved in the Arnold Air Society, which is the Air Force ROTC service organization at Baylor that does a lot around the community.”

Nettis graduated from Baylor with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications in May 2007. By that time, she had decided on a career in military service.

“I’m a Christian first and foremost, and I wanted to know what God had for me. Whatever that was, I wanted to make sure that he was telling me to do that as a career,” Nettis said. “I felt as though God was calling me to a military career, and I told him I’d stay in that as long as He wants me to. So, whatever it is, I’m here for Him.”

“I felt as though God was calling me to a military career, and I told him I’d stay in that as long as He wants me to. So, whatever it is, I’m here for Him.”

—Kimber Nettis

Gaining experience and expertise

The first assignment Nettis received after leaving Baylor was serving as a communications officer at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Over the next 18 years, she completed 13 assignments in six states, as well as assignments overseas in Iraq and Qatar. Along the way she earned three different master’s degrees –– in Homeland Security, Christian ministry and military operations ––and received advanced training in operations, intelligence surveillance reconnaissance and cybersecurity.

“By trade, I’m a cybersecurity or cyber warfare officer, and I taught that for a few years at the Air Force Institute of Technology,” Nettis said. “I developed a course for them revolving around multi-domain operations, which is the new doctrine in warfighting. I also wrote a paper that was published in several journals. To this day, they are still using that paper in a lot of different military curriculums all around the world.” 

Role model

Nettis said she’s proud to be the first woman chosen as the commander of Baylor’s detachment, but noted that she has gotten used to working in environments that are mostly male.

“There are not a lot of females in the military in general, and many times I have been the only woman in the room. It’s just normal to me,” she said. “But it’s such an honor to be at Baylor in the first place, and being the first female commander on top of that is very exciting. Notably, the Baylor AFROTC detachment has historically had a significantly higher percentage of women –– around 40 percent compared to about 10 percent at other detachments.”

Onward and upward

Nettis inherited an Air & Space Force ROTC organization at Baylor that is ranked as the No. 1 medium detachment in the country, outperforming 49 other detachments nationwide. And keeping the 810’s standards high is one of her top priorities as commander.

“My first goal is to keep that momentum going, continuing to get better in all areas and keeping our place as the No. 1 detachment in the nation,” she said. “We now have our largest class in 10 years, with more than 100 cadets. My passion is to teach them and grow them into future leaders. I want to produce the high-quality officers with exceptional character that Baylor has always been known for.”

And while she stays busy doing that, Nettis is enjoying every day back in Waco.

“Sometimes when I walk through this campus I tear up because I realize that God has brought me back here,” she said. “I’ve wanted to do this job ever since I was a Baylor cadet. I just feel so blessed.”

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.