Colonel Leslie A. Blackham is currently assigned as Commander, 753rd Electronic Systems Group (Cyber Integration Group), 653rd Electronic Systems Wing, Electronic Systems Center, Air Force Material Command, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. She is responsible for the acquisition, integration and rapid fielding of Combat Information Transport System (CITS) and Theater Deployable Communications (TDC) cyber capabilities and is the Electronic Systems Center lead for support to Air Force Cyberspace Command (provisional). Colonel Blackham was commissioned in 1983 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has served as Division Chief for Policies & Plans and Program Element Monitor at the Secretary of the Air Force’s Directorate for Space Acquisitions. She was the System Support Manager for Ground Theater Air Control Systems and Deputy Program Manager for the Milstar space program. She taught at the United States Air Force Academy, conducted research at the Air Force Phillips Laboratory and served on the Site Activation Task Force which stood up Falcon Air Force Station (now Schriever AFB).

Colonel Blackham is a designated member of the Defense Acquisition Workforce and certified Level III in the Program Management and the Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering acquisition fields. She is also a command-level Credentialed Space Professional.