Dr. Tony Kern is one of the world’s leading authorities on human performance in high-risk endeavors and has researched, written, and trained around the globe for over three decades.

 

Tony has authored eight books on human performance and is also a featured columnist for Skies and Vertical Valor magazines. Despite his three graduate degrees, Dr. Kern rejects the label of “academic” and prefers to be called a “knuckle dragging bomber pilot” due to his operational roots in the U.S. Air Force as a Command Pilot and Flight Examiner in the B-1B bomber. Tony writes in a voice that communicates often complex topics in an easy-to-understand manner.

 

Often witty and occasionally politically incorrect, he gives it to the reader “straight from the shoulder” in a clear, convincing manner.

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He is a former Associate Professor and Director of Military History at the USAF Academy, and upon retirement from the Air Force in 2000, served as the National Aviation Director for the U.S. Forest Service, where he directed the largest non-military government aviation program in the world in support of federal wildland fire suppression. Tony holds master’s degrees in political science and military history, and a doctorate in Education Administration, specializing in human factors research.

 

He is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and the US federal government Senior Executive Service Development Programs. Tony has dedicated his adult life to helping individuals and organizations reduce error, mitigate losses, and optimize their performance.  But he still finds time to enjoy his personal hobbies of hunting, fishing, sports of all kinds, and writing. He and Shari, his wife of 34 years, currently live on a Texas hill country ranch with their six dogs and livestock.