Alumni Profile: Leading the Charge

Tracy Norris, MBA ’15, is appointed first female Adjutant General of Texas.

After completing her undergraduate degree on an ROTC scholarship, Maj. Gen. Tracy Norris entered the National Guard. She says her plan was to serve for six years and then get out. Along the way, her plans changed. Thirty-three years later, this January, the Iraq war veteran was named the first female adjutant general of Texas.

As adjutant general, she commands the personnel of the Texas Military Department and reports to the governor on the Texas Army National Guard, Texas Air National Guard, and Texas State Guard.

“When I look back at all the hard jobs I did that led to this,” Norris says, “I appreciate that the governor saw that and selected me for the position.”

Norris has served at the company, battalion, and brigade levels. She was chief of staff of the 36th infantry division when she was deployed to Iraq. “It’s been a hard job, but very rewarding, and it was a very good experience for me that not everybody gets,” Norris says.

After returning from Iraq, Norris enrolled in the Texas McCombs MBA program. She says business and the military have two important goals in common: risk assessment and strategic planning.

“The MBA education opened up my view from being so focused on military missions,” Norris says. “I was exposed to different experiences that people had, and I learned how to just listen and apply it to some of the things that I was doing with the Texas Military Department.”

Military service is great preparation for leadership in the civilian world, she says.

“Those are not always skills you can get anywhere else,” Norris says. “You see people come out of the military having been called on to do some really hard things — and accomplish them.”

—London Gibson

This article appeared in the spring 2019 issue of McCombs magazine. Click on the link to see the full issue.