Faculty Spotlight: Retired Lt. Col. Amy McGrath

Retired Lt. Col. Amy McGrath is currently an Adjunct Professor for the Patterson School. She is a retired Marine fighter pilot and former political candidate for the state of Kentucky. McGrath was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as the first to pilot the F/A-18 on a combat mission. In her 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, she flew 89 combat missions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. McGrath was determined to join the Marines because she wanted to join the best of the best. 

At just 11-years-old, McGrath discovered her love for flying while watching a History Channel documentary about WWII. In the documentary, McGrath was introduced to jets and decided that she wanted to fly combat aircraft. Unfortunately, at that time, women were still excluded from many combat job classifications. Although, in 1993, Congress rescinded the combat exclusion law and former president Bill Clinton called for the military to integrate women into combat aircraft and service ships. This significant victory came right for McGrath who went on to become the first of many beneficiaries of this historic change. McGrath's interest in politics developed as she learned how laws were passed and the impact of congressmen votes, of which she became heavily involved once she retired from the Marines. 

In February 2022, President Biden appointed McGrath as a member on the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Naval Academy. McGrath was also recently inducted into the Council on Foreign Relations. During the fall of 2021, McGrath joined us at the Patterson School teaching National Security Policy and will be returning to teach again Fall 2022.  When asked about her experience teaching in the Patterson School, McGrath said: 

"The students at Patterson bring a different perspective to the table. It’s a lot different from teaching military students. Students at Patterson bring a diplomatic perspective and look at issues from all angles, which is a different experience altogether. It was refreshing and I loved being able to bring a military perspective to people who are not in the military. I like seeing the light bulbs go off for students as they learn about what actually takes place in real world operations. Patterson students understand how to approach problems from a global perspective and what it means to approach aggression. How do we make the world secure while continuing the world order and looking at alternatives are some of the things we discuss in class. Making someone who has never thought about doomsday to think about doomsday. How do we mitigate current global conflict and having students discuss these issues is essential when thinking about diplomacy. Questioning our assumptions and looking at U.S. grand strategy is something I think is very important for students to think about."