SPECIAL FEATURE
Dr. Heather Wilson and General Dave Goldfein, USAF (Ret.)
Now being serialized in the Journal of Character and Leadership Development
Citation: Journal of Character and Leadership Development 2026, 13(1): 372. https://doi.org/10.58315/jcld.v13.372
Copyright: © 2026 The author(s)
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.
Published: 09 April 2026
Beginning with this issue, the Journal of Character and Leadership Development is pleased to serialize Get Back Up, a collection of short reflections on leadership and resilience by Dr. Heather Wilson, former Secretary of the Air Force, and General Dave Goldfein (Ret.), former Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
JCLD primarily publishes peer-reviewed scholarship, which typically includes critical editorial review, feedback, and often substantial revision. This special feature is different. The reflections in Get Back Up are primary source material from two senior leaders who have operated under real institutional and moral pressures. Each reflection captures lessons about resilience, judgment, trust, and service—topics that sit at the center of character and leadership research.
We publish these reflections alongside academic articles to strengthen the link between research and practice. Read in sequence, they invite careful interpretation: What is the situation? What virtues or skills are being exercised? What trade-offs are being managed? In that way, this series supports JCLD’s mission to connect evidence, professional experience, and education in the development of leaders of character.
Eschelle L. English
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Character and Leadership Development