Welch earns Master’s Degree via Strategic Thinkers Program

Colin A. Welch

Contributed photo

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Hannibal native, Colin A. Welch, a U.S. Army veteran and currently a civilian with the Department of Defense, recently earned a Master’s Degree in the Strategic Thinkers Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

The selective program, which began in the 2019-2020 academic year, is designed to build a cohort of strategic thinkers to advise senior principals throughout the Department of Defense, in order to engage this nation’s top civilian and military leaders on the military strategy and operations.

Students immerse themselves in the conceptual dynamics and trends of war and strategy and analyze their role in the development of effective decision-making and execution of strategy and military operations.

“The degree I received was a Masters of International Public Policy,” he said. His cohort was part of a larger Masters in International Policy Degree program from Johns Hopkins.

Welch served active duty with the Army from 2002-2007 as a tank commander, and since then he has been filling various roles at the Pentagon.

He is a 1998 graduate of Hannibal High School, and received his BBA from the University of Notre Dame in 2002. He was commissioned out of the ROTC program at Notre Dame, which was just recognized by the Department of Defense as the number one ranked Army ROTC program in the country.

During the one-year masters program, Welch was part of a 12-person cohort, consisting of military leaders and three civilians.

As a finale to the program, the students visited the scene of the Normandy invasion, studied it from multiple perspectives for a week, and delivered strategic analyses on those key battles, returning to the states the night before graduation.

Since leaving active duty, he has been working for the Department of Defense, and lives in the Washington D.C. area with his wife Cate, and their five children.

"I’m assigned to an organization within the DOD, the defense innovation unit,” he said.

He, as well as his four siblings, served in the First Gulf War.

For his role, he won a Bronze Star, and the Army’s Valor in Combat Medal.

After he left the Army, he was recruited to work as a civilian for the Department of Defense at the Pentagon.

He is the son of Joseph and Sharon Welch of Hannibal.