Faculty

Nate Self

U.S. Army Veteran
U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1998
Areas of Expertise

Leadership development, mentoring experience & knowledge transfer, innovation, decision making, resilience 

Experience

Nate is a former U.S. Army officer and founder of a management consulting company. He is a 1998 graduate of West Point and served on active duty in Germany, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. While serving with an elite special operations task force in Afghanistan, Nate was called upon to lead a rescue mission into an Al Qaeda strongpoint to recover a missing-in-action Navy SEAL. The ensuing combat action resulted in a 15-hour firefight on a mountain peak, which has come to be known as The Battle of Takur Ghar” or Roberts Ridge”. Due to his actions, Nate was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart and was honored by President Bush at his 2003 State of the Union address. Nate’s final assignment with the Army was with the storied 101st Airborne Division, where he directly influenced the training of Iraqi Security Forces. He has been featured on the front page of the “Wall Street Journal”, on NBC’s “Dateline”, and in other books.  

Nate has built teams domestically and internationally, in complex operating environments and during organizational transformation, with a heavy emphasis on team resilience, learning, and crisis leadership. He led the development of an experience-based leadership simulation for the Army and the development of a military trivia mobile app. In addition to his work with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense Advanced Research Projects agency, Nate and his team have been serving a major healthcare system in Texas for the past 10 years in several capacities, mentoring employees around resilience, teaching medical leaders, and helping develop high-impact teams. 

Education
  • BS, Engineering Management, U. S. Military Academy at West Point
Publications/Awards
  • Nate’s first book was a memoir of his time in the Army, “Two Wars,” and he co-authored a compilation of junior officer combat stories entitled “A Platoon Leader’s Tour.” He has written articles for Army Magazine, the Journal of Management Education, the Journal for Asynchronous Learning Networks, and several books. He is currently writing a book on the topic of mentoring. Nate was a West Point Honor Graduate and was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart resulting from combat actions in Afghanistan.
Organizations
  • Director, Camp Eagle Adventure Camps
  • Member (former), Texas Veterans Commission Communications Advisory Committee
  • Trustee (former), Salado Independent School District, Salado, TX
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