WASHINGTON – Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., today announced that Col. Vickie Hughes of Boone will serve on her Service Academy Nomination Board.

“Each year I have the honor of nominating outstanding students from across northwest North Carolina to attend our nation’s excellent military academies,” said Foxx. “It’s a privilege to have someone with such a distinguished record of service as Col. Hughes helping me to identify the military’s future leaders.”

Foxx annually nominates students from the 5th Congressional District to America’s service academies, which include the Air Force Academy, Naval Academy, Military Academy, Merchant Marine Academy and Coast Guard Academy. Nominations are required for all but the Coast Guard Academy, to which appointments are made on the basis of an annual nationwide competition. Foxx’s Service Academy Nomination Board evaluates applicants for service academy nominations and makes recommendations to her based on applicant experience and merit. Each fall Foxx hosts a Service Academy Day to help familiarize students with the application and nomination process for applying to the nation's five military service academies.

Hughes retired from the Air Force after 27 years of service with demonstrated leadership in educational instruction, clinical services, administrative supervision, management and program development. During her military career, she served as the commander of the Air Force’s largest medical school as well as director of operations for the Commissioned Officer Training School. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1987.

Hughes is a licensed Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner who is board certified by the American Nurses Association as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Adult Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. She received a Doctorate of Nursing Science from Louisiana State University Health Science Center in 1999, a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1994, a master’s degree in counseling and human development from Troy State University in 1989 and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1986.

She currently serves as an Associate Professor in Appalachian State University’s Department of Nursing. 

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U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx is currently serving her fifth term as the representative of North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District and is the elected Republican Conference Secretary. Dr. Foxx is the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and serves as Vice Chair of the House Rules Committee.