Colonel Arthur Athens

Colonel Arthur J. Athens, USMCR (Ret.). Colonel Athens recently left the federal government, having served for the past decade as the Director of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership 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 and the Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator following the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. Colonel Athens currently speaks to public, private and non-profit organizations around the country about leading with competence, courage and compassion, and mentors individual leaders to help them live their lives with meaning and impact.