Lt Col Michael Nishimura
Commander
Lieutenant Colonel Michael J. Nishimura is the Commander, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 585 and Department Chair/Professor of Aerospace Studies at Duke University. He is responsible for overseeing the recruitment and preparation of officer candidates through a comprehensive education and training program. This program develops and produces professional leaders of character, who are dedicated to serving the nation, while leading the United States Air Force and the United States Space Force in the 21st century.
In 2003, Lt Col Nishimura commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Indiana University. He has served through a variety of roles as flight commander, military personnel exchange officer, executive assistant, Southeast Asia country director, operations officer, and Logistics Readiness Squadron Commander. His staff tours include duty as a logistics exchange officer in the Royal Thai Air Force’s Logistics Directorate, as a member of Pacific Air Forces’ International Affairs Division, and as an executive assistant to Pacific Air Forces’ Chief of Staff. Lt Col Nishimura is a Distinguished Graduate from the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and attended the Royal Thai Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College in-residence at Don Muang AFB in Thailand. He also holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Oklahoma University and a certificate in Regional Security Studies in East and Southeast Asia from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He has deployed in support of Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM.
Captain Ryan Allen
Recruiting Flight Commander
Captain Ryan Allen is the Recruiting Officer, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 585 at Duke University. He is responsible for overseeing the recruitment of officer candidates and the instruction of 100 and 200 level Aerospace Studies curriculum.
Captain Allen received his commission through completion of Officer Training School at Maxwell AFB, AL in November 2016. Prior to his commission in the Air Force, Capt Allen achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant (E-7) in the United States Marine Corps. During his 16 years of service as a Marine, he acted as Substation Commander, a Canvassing Recruiter, a Wounded Warrior Battalion Recovery Care Coordinator and Section Leader, Operations Clerk, and a Tactical Vehicle Operator. Capt Allen worked closely within the Joint Service Medical Evacuation Process as a Marine Corps Hospital Liaison at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, and at Ramstein AB, Germany. His enlisted tour of duty included two combat deployments to Iraq in 2003 and 2005, completing over 90 tactical convoys throughout the Al Anbar Province in Support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM phases I-III.
As an Air Force Officer, Captain Allen served as Assistant Installation Deployment Officer, Flight Commander - Materiel Management and Executive Officer, 56th Mission Support Group at Luke AFB, Arizona before being assigned to Seymour Johnson AFB, NC and filling roles as Flight Commander, Deployment and Distribution Flight, deploying as a Special Operations Command Central Liaison Officer to Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation INHERENT RESOLVE in 2020 and assumed duties as the Director of Operations in June 2021. Captain Allen holds a Master's Degree in Management and Leadership from Webster University and a Graduate Certificate in Project Management. He began his current assignment at Detachment 585, Duke University in April 2022.
Captain Kip Sumner
Operation Flight Commander
Captain Kip Sumner is the Operations Flight commander, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 585, at Duke University. He is responsible for cadet training, student professional development, and the instruction of the 300 level Aerospace Studies curriculum.
Capt Sumner earned his commission as a Public Affairs Officer through the University of South Carolina’s AFROTC Detachment 775, graduating there with a B.A. in Public Relations. As a Public Affairs Officer, Capt Sumner has been responsible for a variety of Air Force public communications functions, to include news media content creation, community outreach, civic leader partnership programs, and global media engagement. During his time in service, he has handled strategic communications for the Air Force Recruiting Service, two Fighter Wings, combat camera squadron, and an audiovisual production squadron.
Prior to this assignment, he served as the Public Affairs Officer for the F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team, based out of Hill Air Force Base, Utah. During this time, he travelled to airshows across the continent, directing social media, news media, audio-visual production, and community outreach operations for the Air Force’s newest stealth fighter jet and one of the service’s premiere aerobatic teams. His photography work has been published in several Air Force publications, and he was named the Department of Defense’s F-35 Joint Programs Office top photographer of 2021. During his time at Hill AFB, he earned a M.S. in Communications form Syracuse University, with an emphasis on strategic communications and Public Relations. He began his current assignment at Detachment 585, Duke University in July 2022.
Technical Sergeant Austin Rozelle-Murphy
Non-Commissioned Officer
Technical Sergeant Austin Rozelle-Murphy is from Boston, Massachusetts, and is the Non-commissioned Officer in Charge and Visiting Lecturer for Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, Detachment 585 at Duke University. She is responsible for overseeing a wide array of administrative functions; to include: scholarship retention, financial programs, student advisement, enrollment, and much more.
TSgt Rozelle-Murphy is an Air Transportation Craftsman and core Logistics Specialist. She enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in November 2014, after completing Basic Military Training from Joint-Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. Throughout her career, she has served in a variety of roles, to include unit deployment manager, joint airlift inspector, hazmat material preparer, and aerial port operations instructor. Her enlisted tour of duty includes a combat deployment to Iraq in 2021 in support of OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE, where she was responsible for all passenger and cargo movement into and out of theatre at Erbil Air Base, Iraq.
Prior to this assignment, she has also operationally deployed to Bahrain and Burkina-Faso as well as to support humanitarian operations in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. She most recently served as the Ramp Operations Supervisor at Travis Air Force Base, California, where she was responsible for over a hundred personnel overseeing logistics movements for the Air Force’s “Gateway to the Pacific”.