#34 - Art Athens

Interview with Art Athens, Colonel USMC (ret)

Colonel Athens recently served as the Director of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership for and previously, as the Naval Academy’s first Distinguished Military Professor of Leadership.   

Colonel Athens is a retired Marine Corps officer with significant command and staff assignments in all four Marine Aircraft Wings and an instructor tour with Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (the Marine Corps’ equivalent to the Navy’s Top Gun school).  He also served as a White House Fellow under President Ronald Reagan, the Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator following the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, and the Commandant of the United States Merchant Marine Academy.  

Colonel Athens currently invests in leaders around the country through his speaking, writing, consulting and coaching.

Colonel Athens is a graduate of the Naval Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies.  

He is married to the former Mistina Root of Williamsburg, Virginia and they have ten children.