Retiring colonel to head university homeland security program
Col. Joseph “Greg” Kaufmann Jr., special assistant to the chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium, will lead the Institute for Global Security Studies at Austin Peay State University.
“I’m looking forward to pulling the faculty, administration and students together,” said Kaufmann, a 30-year military veteran and soon-to-be retired Army colonel. “I think it’s going to be great fun. It’ll be sort of like forming that pot from the clay. I just get chills up my spine.”
The new institute will develop academic degree programming related to global security in disciplines such as chemistry, biology, political science, criminal justice, foreign language, agricultural science and history.
Kaufmann — set to arrive at the new post at the end of July — has served in a wide range of international and national security affairs positions.
He was director of the secretary of defense’s Balkans Task Force and a fellow at Harvard University. He’s also taught English at both the University of Pennsylvania and the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Kaufmann said he was attracted to the job at Austin Peay because of his desire to retire in the area and the university’s liberal arts foundation.
“We had decided we were going to come back here to retire,” he said, adding that he was introduced to his wife while stationed at Fort Campbell in the 1970s.
University President Sherry Hoppe said Kaufmann’s experience managing financial and other resources would be invaluable.
“Col. Kaufmann brings to this vital startup position a proven record of substantive and practical leadership on the national and international levels,” she said.