Visiting Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership

Colonel Tom Kolditz is Professor and Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Kolditz has served in an array of military tactical command and technical staff assignments worldwide, commanding through battalion level, and as a leadership and human resources policy analyst in the Pentagon. His department is responsible for teaching, research, and outreach activities in leadership, psychology, sociology, and management at West Point.
 
Colonel Kolditz has published more than 30 articles across a diverse array of academic, military, and leadership trade journals, including Leader to Leader, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Personality, the Japanese Human Resource Journal, Performance, Leadership Excellence, Armed Forces and Society, Perception and Psychophysics, and Military Review, and serves on the editorial and advisory boards of several academic journals. He is a fellow in the American Psychological Association and in the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, and is a member of the Academy of Management and the Society of Psychologists in Management.

An accomplished parachute instructor and coach of the Academy parachute team, he weaves his personal experiences and abilities as a soldier, skydiver, and scholar into the first-hand study, analysis, and practice of leadership in dangerous circumstances—in extremis leadership—and how such leadership can inform the practice of leading in more ordinary settings, across the private, public, and social sectors. Colonel Kolditz and a small team of researchers traveled throughout Iraq to study cohesion for the Army’s chief of personnel, and similar research continues in Afghanistan and Southern Lebanon. His most recent book, titled In Extremis Leadership: Leading as if Your Life Depended on It, was published in 2007 by Jossey-Bass. He was named as a leadership Thought Leader by the Leader to Leader Institute in 2007, and as a Top Leader Development Professional by Leadership Excellence in November, 2008.

He holds numerous degrees, including a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from Vanderbilt University, as well as Masters and PhD degrees in Social Psychology, a Master of Military Arts and Science, and a Masters in Strategic Studies.