Colonel Steven M. Vick is the Deputy Commander, Space Base Delta 41, headquartered at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado. As Deputy Commander, he leads a 3,278-member team providing Base Operating Support to more than 18,400 military, Department of Defense civilians and contractor personnel serving at 23 operating locations worldwide. These personnel execute critical U.S. Space Force missions including offensive and defensive space operations; missile warning; space domain awareness; positioning, navigation, and timing; satellite communications; electronic warfare; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; and cyberspace operations.
Prior to this assignment, Colonel Vick served as the Chief of Staff, Dean of Faculty, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. He exercised command authority and executive oversight of approximately 750 military and civilian faculty and staff across 20 academic departments and 7 staff agencies, a $16.6 million budget, and facilities totaling two-million square feet to deliver an accredited Bachelor of Science degree and graduate 1,000 Air Force and Space Force officers annually. Col Vick also served as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, where he advised and instructed cadets in officership, engineering sciences, and construction practices.
Col Vick entered the Air Force in June 2004 after commissioning through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program upon graduating from Loyola Marymount University. His background includes experience in design engineering, construction project management, asset management, contract oversight, construction programming, civil engineer readiness, and automation for infrastructure applications. As a career civil engineer, he has served in a variety of installation, staff, and special duty assignments.
EDUCATION
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2004
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Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
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2008
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Master of Science, Construction and Engineering Management, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
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2009
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Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, AL (Distinguished Graduate)
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2014
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Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, AL (Residence Equivalent Program)
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2018
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Doctor of Philosophy, Construction Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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2020
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Air War College, Maxwell AFB, AL, by correspondence
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ASSIGNMENTS or CAREER CHRONOLOGY
- August 2004 - July 2006, Natural Resources Manager and Chief of SABER, 15th Civil Engineer Squadron, Hickam Air Force Base (AFB), Hawaii
- July 2006 - June 2007, Executive Officer, Installations and Mission Support Directorate, 13th Air Force, Hickam AFB, Hawaii
- June 2007 - July 2008, Masters Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
- July 2008 - July 2009, Asset Management Flight Commander, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron, Kunsan AB, Republic of Korea
- September 2009 - December 2011, Quality Assurance Flight Commander and Director of Operations, 39th Civil Engineer Squadron, Incirlik AB, Turkey
- December 2011 - September 2014, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Executive Officer, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
- September 2014 - April 2018, Doctoral Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- April 2018 - June 2021, Chief of Modernization Investments and Civil Engineer Readiness Branch Chief, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii
- June 2021 - June 2022, Commander, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron, Kunsan AB, Republic of Korea
- June 2022 - June 2024, Assistant Professor & Construction Division Chair, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado
- June 2024 - May 2026, Chief of Staff, Dean of Faculty, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado
- May 2026 - Present, Deputy Commander, Space Base Delta 41, Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado.
MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Legion of Merit
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Joint Service Achievement Medal with one oak leaf cluster
Air Force Achievement Medal
PUBLICATIONS
Vick, S., Brilakis I., “A Review of Linear Transportation Construction Progress Monitoring Techniques,” The 16th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (2016)
Vick, S., Brilakis, I., “Asphalt Road Layer Detection for Construction Progress Monitoring,” LC3 2017: Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Computing in Construction (JC3) (2017)
Vick, S., Brilakis, I., “Road Design Layer Detection in Point Cloud Data for Construction Progress Monitoring,” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 32 (5), 04018029 (2018)
Vick, S., “Automated Spatial Progress Monitoring for Asphalt Road Construction Projects,” Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (2018)
Li, X., Wu, C., Wu, P., Liqun, X., Shen, G., Vick, S., Li, C., “SWP-enabled constraints modeling for on-site assembly process of prefabrication housing production,” Journal of Cleaner Production, 239: 117991 (2019)
Paal, S.G., Vick, S., Kopsida, M., “Chapter 5 – Use Cases for Architects and Engineers” in Infrastructure Computer Vision, 203-266 (2020)
Tang, P., Vick, S., Chen, J., Paal, S.G., “Chapter 2 – Surveying, Geomatics, and 3D Reconstruction” in Infrastructure Computer Vision, 203-266 (2020)
Vick, Steven, Serrano, Matthew, and Mulholland, Sean. “Infrastructure Digital Twins: A Definition.” Proceedings of the 2024 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering. July 28-31, 2024. Pittsburgh, PA. (2024)
EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION
Second Lieutenant June 5, 2004
First Lieutenant June 5, 2006
Captain June 5, 2008
Major February 1, 2015
Lieutenant Colonel July 1, 2019
Colonel March 1, 2025
(Current as of May 2026)