Colonel Deborah Lynn Pualani Zuniga is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Chair at the College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University, Fort McNair Washington D.C. She completed her degree at University of Hawaii and was commissioned in 1996. She began her military career as Network Administrator, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System Program Office at Hill AFB, Utah. She has held a variety of positions in base-level squadrons, field operating agencies, direct reporting units, and the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Previously, Colonel Zuniga served as the Deputy Commander, Joint Communications Support Element, Tampa, Florida responsible for deploying enroute, early-entry, scalable C4 support to the Regional Combatant Commands, Special Operations Command, and various agencies. She lead over 1,100 Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force personnel on Active Duty, Reserve, National Guard and DoD civilians supporting operations in over 50 countries around the world.
Notably, Colonel Zuniga served as a Legislative Liaison Officer and as Executive Officer to the Director, Legislative Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, where she served as a premier Air Force Ambassador for 11 Congressional delegations covering 22 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. As Executive Officer, her professionalism and expertise directly contributed to a phenomenal Congressional engagement strategy resulting in successful confirmation of the Secretary of the Air Force, Under Secretary of the Air force, and Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In addition, she served as 1st Air and Space Communications Operations Squadron Commander at Ramstein AB, Germany and the 455th Expeditionary Communications Squadron, Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.