Mr. Mike Ferguson is the Director of the Joint Exercise Division and the Congressman Owen Pickett Wargaming Center on NDU's Norfolk Campus. He has served at the National Defense University for more than two decades.
He holds degrees from Villanova University (B.A., Political Science with minors in History and Naval Science), the Naval Postgraduate School (M.S., Operations Research & Systems Analysis), and Old Dominion University (Master of Public Administration, Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society). He also completed graduate certificates in Geospatial Information Science (Old Dominion University) and Generative AI (Cornell University).
Mr. Ferguson served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. His assignments included participation in Operation Provide Comfort in Northern Iraq and Southeastern Türkiye, Operation GTMO, the Haitian relief operation in the Caribbean and Cuba, and Operations Restore & Continue Hope in Somalia. At Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One, he organized and became the first Director of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Division, integrating UAVs into Marine Corps tactical aviation. He later served as a Modeling and Simulation Operations Officer at the Joint Warfighting Center, U.S. Joint Forces Command, planning and executing joint exercises and operational mission rehearsals.
At NDU, his responsibilities expanded from leading exercise operations at the Joint Forces Staff College to directing wargaming and simulation programs and now overseeing the Congressman Owen Pickett Wargaming Center as Director.
Today, the Wargaming Center delivers approximately 60 events each academic year, including 25 unique wargames and exercises. These operational and strategic events support the U.S. Military, Allies, Partners, and other Government agencies, covering regions from the U.S. Homeland to Europe, the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific, the Arctic, and beyond.