Faculty Associate Kerry Muehlenbeck promoted to brigadier general

Kerry Muehlenbeck, a longtime faculty associate for the ASU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and previously the ASU School of Justice Studies, has been promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Arizona Army and Air National Guard. 

Muehlenbeck was given the rank at a promotion ceremony held June 7 at the Air National Guard's 161st Air Refueling Wing at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.

“For me, this is another opportunity to do something new, broaden my scope, and contribute,” says Muehlenbeck, whose parents and sister were on hand for the ceremony. “It’s another opportunity to either succeed or fail. I prefer success, but you can’t be afraid to fail, especially if you learn from it. You’ve got to go out and try. That’s what my parents always taught me.”

Muehlenbeck previously served as a Deputy Judge Advocate General (JAG) for the United States Air Force and has served as a prosecutor in her hometown of Saginaw, Mich. and in Tucson. In addition to teaching full-time at Mesa Community College, she will oversee Arizona Army and Air Guard joint operations, special staff agencies and programs. 

Air Force Brig. Gen. Kerry Muehlenbeck has taught CRJ 260 Substantive Criminal Law and CRJ 410 Procedural Criminal Law for the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She also developed and taught a contemporary base issues course for the Air National Guard taken by thousands of commanders, crew chiefs and first sergeants over the years.

She is the first woman to serve as a general in the Arizona Army and Air National. 

“If I succeed or fail, it’s not because I am a woman, it’s because I did or didn’t do a good job,” Muehlenbeck says. “I am not a pioneer. There were certainly pioneers within the generations of women who came before me, and those are the shoulders I’ve been standing on throughout my career. They fought battles that I didn’t have to fight.”