Leadership.
Dr. Jeffrey Gardner
Chief of Curriculum and Senior Faculty
Dr. Gardner has been the Chief of Curriculum and Senior Faculty at the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) since 2023. He is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served at all levels from tactical to strategic. He has deployments to the Balkans, Afghanistan and in a Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq. He served at the U.S. European Command and on the staff of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. After retiring he worked at NATO Allied Command Transformation as a counter terrorism planner and instructor. He also served as a Colonel of Militia commanding a state defense force brigade for incident response, command and control and crisis management.
Dr. Gardner has also worked as faculty at the NATO Special Operations University for 10 years teaching intelligence and advanced courses such as Countering Hybrid Threats and Comprehensive Defense for Allied Special Operations Command (SOFCOM). Dr Gardner has over 18 years of instructional experience including in the U.S. National Defense University Joint and Combined Warfighting School as an Assistant Professor, Curriculum Lead and won faculty of the year in 2011. He holds three master’s degrees, a PhD in Homeland Security, is an Army Strategist, a U.S. Joint Planner, and an Air War College graduate. Dr Gardner also instructs civilian college courses on Homeland Security/Defense.