Wayne Brasure: His time to help students thrive
His story
Wayne Brasure is a Michigan native, but transplanted himself (and his wife, LeAnn, whom he met at the University of Michigan) to the Southwest, thanks to their military careers.
The couple — who were both active duty Air Force scientists — arrived in Albuquerque the first time in 1985, and they were not disappointed by what they found in the high desert. Wayne immediately enrolled in the UNM Department of Nuclear Engineering’s Ph.D. program, initially taking courses part-time while assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base. He was attracted to the department’s curriculum and research connections to the national laboratories in New Mexico, and also UNM’s striking architecture.
“I knew I wanted to pursue my Ph.D. studies, and the department attracted me,” he said. “And UNM’s campus was striking and unique.”
Before coming to New Mexico, Brasure earned his master of science degrees in systems management from the University of Southern California and in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Brasure worked with advisor Anil Prinja, eventually enrolling full-time at UNM. He earned his Ph.D. in 1991.
He said he was originally attracted to the field of nuclear engineering through an Air Force program that sponsored active-duty officers to enter the field through graduate masters and Ph.D. programs.
“I jumped on the nuclear engineering opportunity, and I never looked back.”
Over the years, his military career and subsequent government civilian senior leadership positions have taken him around the country, serving in a variety of roles — in the U.S. nuclear deterrent, nuclear nonproliferation, counter nuclear terrorism, leading the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and serving as the acting director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO). In October 2016, President Obama appointed Brasure as the director of DNDO, a role he served in until January 2017.
He said he never had the opportunity to meet the president, then added with a laugh, “but I did get to bowl in the White House bowling alley and see the president’s dogs in the Rose Garden.”
He and his wife LeAnn knew they wanted to eventually end up back in Albuquerque. Although retired from government service, he is still applying his nuclear engineering skills. Since December 2018, he has been operations manager and senior engineer at a local small business, supporting national security programs in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration as an independent contractor. When he is not working, he enjoys hiking, photography, and amateur astronomy.
Brasure has also gotten increasingly involved in working with the School of Engineering. He served on the nuclear engineering advisory committee and on the dean’s advisory board and was honored with the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award from the School. During the time he served as a presidential appointee, he had to give up his board affiliations, but Dean Christodoulou reached out to him to get involved again when those commitments had ended.
“I feel connected to the School of Engineering, and it was a no-brainer.”
Although he attended other academic institutions, he said they tended to be big and impersonal, but UNM was different.
“The connection with UNM was stronger because it was smaller and there was a lot more intimacy. I made a lot of friends on the faculty at UNM,” he said.
How he is giving back
Brasure and his wife chose to give to the School via the establishment of the L. Wayne and LeAnn Brasure Endowment for Student Success in Nuclear Science and Engineering, which is focused on providing assistance to the students in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. The fund can be used to assist students with tuition, travel and participation in conferences, professional development (such as travel to important historical nuclear sites in New Mexico) and even travel for prospective graduate students to visit the UNM campus.
He said he was motivated to give back to help students because of the generous aid he received as he pursued his degrees.
“All of my education was sponsored by the Air Force,” he said. “It just feels right to give back and help others and help the nuclear engineering department achieve its goals.”
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