Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas J. Amato is the Strategy and Policy Division Director at National Defense University’s (NDU) Center for Applied Strategic Learning (CASL), where he leads the 10-person team that develops and executes 120+ strategic-level wargames and exercises to enhance learning objectives across the five NDU colleges annually. He joined CASL in June 2022 after completing a four-year assignment in the International Affairs Division at Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base (AFB), Hawaii.
Lt Col Amato was commissioned in 2004 through Officer Training School at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He is a career Air Force Developmental Engineer/Acquisition Officer and has served in various operational and staff assignments at research labs, squadron, program management office, and MAJCOM levels. His other assignments focused on Electronic Warfare and Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance/ Air Traffic Management.
Lt Col Amato graduated from the University of Michigan, Dearborn in 2002 with two B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, and he has earned master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering (2009), from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and Military Operational Art and Science (2018), from Air Command and Staff College. He is married with two children.