First M2M2 NATO doctorate awarded as programme expands into fifth year

Dr Howard, a US citizen, has two decades of experience in strategy/policy advisory and staff director positions across the US government and NATO. Her successful thesis examined the development and implementation of strategic planning in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military headquarters’ and was sponsored by NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT). 

 

She praised the programme as ‘a phenomenal opportunity’ that offered a doctorate directly linked to her official position and functions at NATO. She said the research helped improve her recommendations to the Alliance and was ‘personally and professionally significant’.

 

She added: “My advisors facilitated my evolution in thinking over five years and the result was I ultimately created new knowledge in the field of multinational strategic planning and change management by connecting theory to practice in ways that can directly benefit NATO for years to come.”

 

M2M2’s Managing Director (Academic) Dr Andy Miles welcomed the programme’s first graduate and said she would be followed by several more successes soon. He said: “LeAnne has worked with great energy and insight, and we are very proud of her achievement. We are also looking forward to several other candidates completing their doctorates in the coming months.

 

“As our Professional Doctorate Programme enters its fifth year, it now embraces around 60 senior NATO officers and is growing year by year as well as attracting interest from other NATO nations. It has delivered clearly documented benefits to both the individuals and the whole organisation.”