Lina M. Cashin is a senior project engineer in the Defense Systems Operations Group at The Aerospace Corporation. She develops strategies, policies, and requirements for space-based capabilities and supports national security missions. Cashin also serves as a policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, which provides objective research to ensure well-informed and forward-looking policy.
Cashin excels in translating complex concepts from engineers and scientists to operators and acquirers. She provides system engineering and requirement analysis for U.S. Space Command and U.S. Strategic Command deterrence, nuclear operations, and space missions. She focuses on satellite communication and has co-authored a biennial threat report, Joint Space Communications Layer Initial Capabilities Document Change 1, along with an implementation plan. She also drafted the USSTRATCOM 2016 GPS Timing Error Operational Review Board Report. Additionally, Cashin researches national and international security implications. She co-wrote Space-Enabled Persistence and Transparency in the Arctic to Support Infrastructure and National Security Needs and Developing a Sustainable Spectrum Approach for 5G Services and Critical Weather Forecasts. She also orchestrated a space debris forum on Capitol Hill to educate congressional staffers.
Before joining Aerospace, Cashin was a strategic planner for U.S. Strategic Command’s Integrated Missile Defense in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She supported the missile defense strategy and policy team in thought leadership and foreign military sales recommendations. She prepared the leadership for congressional testimony, missile defense boards, and global force-management decisions.
Prior to this, Cashin served 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, where she was an expert in space and cyber operations, policy, and strategy. She established the U.S. space situational data-sharing program, ensuring safety of spaceflight and pioneering international transparency for improved spaceflight operations, culminating in seven international agreements. Cashin also served many space operations assignments: orbital analyst; Delta II launch controller; flight commander and operations officer at the Air Force’s officer leadership training school; and commander, Detachment 1, 533rd Training Squadron, technical training for Cheyenne Mountain operations.
Cashin’s staff assignments included lead for space exercises at the Air Force Doctrine Center; Chief of Space Policy, U.S. Strategic Command; Director of Staff, 45th Space Wing, Patrick Air Force Base; and Chief, Policy, Doctrine, and International Engagement Division, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base. Cashin retired from the Air Force in 2013 with the rank of colonel.
Education
Cashin earned her bachelor’s degree in math and physics from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, and her master’s degree in space systems management from Webster University, Colorado. She attended Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, the Joint Forces Staff College, and completed Air War College during her service in the Air Force. She is a doctoral candidate at Creighton University, Nebraska.
Awards and Honors
Cashin was selected for an Aerospace doctoral fellowship in 2020 and was named an Aerospace Woman of the Year in 2019. In 2018, she was awarded the Mount Holyoke College Alumna Achievement Award for outstanding achievements and service to society. Among Cashin’s military awards are the Defense Meritorious Service Medal; the Meritorious Service Medal; the Air Force Commendation Medal; the Joint Service Achievement Medal; the Combat Readiness Medal; the National Defense Service Ribbon; and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Affiliations
Cashin is a member of the Air Force Association; Military Officers' Association of America; Aerospace Military Veterans (national vice president); and Aerospace Women's Council (regional vice president).
