Mark Anarumo

Dr. Mark Anarumo, a member of the Senior Executive Service, serves as Executive Director, where he leads enterprise strategy, policy, and execution for Guardian development across Space Training and Readiness Command. In this capacity, he serves as the senior civilian executive responsible for cultivating the United States Space Force cadre, spearheading comprehensive education, training, talent stewardship, and character development initiatives. Dr. Anarumo directs programs designed to forge agile, technologically adept, and strategically minded space warfighters equipped to operate, deter, and win across contested multi-domain operational environments.

Dr. Anarumo collaborates closely with senior leadership across Headquarters United States Space Force, the Department of the Air Force, the Joint Staff, combatant commands, interagency partners, and international allies. He synchronizes accession pipelines, specialized professional military education (PME), advanced continuum-of-learning models, and warrior ethos immersion to ensure Guardians develop lethal competence, intellectual agility, and ethical decision-making. By leveraging emerging technologies and innovative learning methodologies, he drives transformation in how the Space Force recruits, develops, and retains top-tier national security space professionals.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Anarumo served as an AD-26 civilian Deputy Director for the Air War College Enterprise at Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. There, he advised the Commander on resident Senior and Intermediate Officer PME, advanced strategist production at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, innovation and bureaucracy hacking through the Blue Horizons program, and international officer senior leadership integration.

Following service as a Non-Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army, Dr. Anarumo attended college on the G.I. Bill. He entered the Air Force ROTC program at Rutgers University, and in 1994 commissioned as a distinguished graduate while earning a Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice. He has served multiple tours in the U.S. and overseas as a proud “Defender” in the Air Force Security Forces. Dr. Anarumo is a two-time Air Force Fellow and a graduated National Security Fellow, completing Master’s, Doctorate, and Post-Doctorate studies. Dr. Anarumo has deep experience in leadership development, building high performing teams, international relations, terrorism, political violence, and higher education executive leadership. Dr. Anarumo served as a squadron commander in the U.S., Korea, and Kyrgyzstan; as a Vice Wing Commander in Turkey during events leading to the 2016 coup d'état; as Chief of Co-located Base Reactivation in 2018 during elevated tensions on the Korean peninsula; and as a Permanent (Full and Tenured) Professor at the US Air Force Academy as Director of the Center for Character and Leadership Development. He retired in 2020 following 30 years of uniformed service to serve as president of Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.