President Donald Trump will nominate Shon Manasco, the current acting under secretary of the Air Force, to take the role permanently, the White House announced April 24.
Manasco, who has been serving in the acting role since December, is the assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs. If confirmed, he would take the role last filled by Matt Donovan, who is now the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
Before the Air Force, Manasco was the executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the United Services Automobile Association (USAA), and the senior vice president and chief human resource officer for Constellation Energy.
A former soldier, Manasco commanded a detachment at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the director of finance and accounting for the Office of Military Support in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and the United States Military Academy at West Point.
In the acting role, Manasco recently visited Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, and Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., to observe the changes to basic military training amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We simply can’t accomplish our mission without the dedicated training and medical experts across the [Air Education and Training Command] enterprise,” Manasco said in a release. “Across every aspect of our training pipeline, we are seeing Airmen innovate and find new ways of executing the mission to recruit, train, and educate exceptional Airmen and space professionals while balancing their health and safety.”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on April 30 to correct Manasco’s past experience.