Another graduation season filled with accomplishment

CGSC Foundation Alumni, Friends, and Supporters –

Another Fort Leavenworth graduation season is upon us and I’d like to offer my congratulations to the Command and General Staff Officer Course (CGSOC) and School of Advance Military Studies (SAMS) classes of 2025.

The CGSC Foundation team has been working diligently to uphold our mission of support to the College, its students, faculty/staff and their families and the Fort Leavenworth community. The latest edition of the Foundation News magazine highlights much of that work since the fall 2024 issue. I won’t belabor those details, so please go take a look at the magazine and enjoy the articles that recap our activities for the last six or so months.

I would, however, like to spotlight a few notable developments. One of our proudest moments came in early April at the Foundation’s spring board of trustees meeting, where we unanimously voted to elect our founding CEO, Col. (Ret.) Robert R. Ulin, as CEO Emeritus. Bob founded this organization and led it with passion as the CEO from 2005 until his first retirement in 2013. After a few years break, he returned to support Foundation operations, fundraising and leadership of the Simons Center program. At the end of 2024, he decided to retire for a second time– but if you ask him, he’ll say he’s failed at retirement! He retired from the Army, from a civilian business career, and now twice from the Foundation. Yet, even in retirement, he continues to serve as the volunteer leader of our Arter-Rowland National Security Forum, a program he began a few short years ago. We admire his passion for our mission and are grateful for his continued involvement.

We’ve also taken on a few communications projects over the past few months, the most significant of which was the development of a new website. After five months of work – alongside many other ongoing projects – we successfully launched the site March 16. Special thanks go to lead web developer/designer Jordan Smith, project lead Mark H. Wiggins (our contracted communications director) and Elizabeth Hill, our assistant operations officer. We also appreciate the valuable feedback provided by a selection of our trustees, faculty, students, alumni, family members, and civilians, some of whom had no previous relationship with the Foundation. The project was long overdue, but the results exceeded expectations: on May 1, we were thrilled to learn that our website earned a Gold Award in the “Website Overall” category of the 2025 Hermes Creative Awards competition.

In January we partnered with SJC Marketing of St. Joseph, Missouri, to help strengthen our social media outreach. Our goal is to connect with the thousands of CGSC alumni who continue to value their experience at the College and may wish to support our work.

As part of this outreach initiative, the board of trustees also voted to revise the Foundation’s name and logo to reflect the inclusion of an alumni association. While it’s a small change, it makes an important statement: there is a dedicated alumni association for CGSC graduates, faculty, and staff.

Lastly — and certainly not least — we bid farewell to Laurie Morgado, who served with us over the past two years, first as operations assistant and later as director of operations. We thank her for her service and wish her and her family all the best. In April, we welcomed our new director of operations, Stephenie Cole. Stephenie joins us from the Combined Arms Center Headquarters Executive Services, bringing with her extensive experience in managing multiple missions simultaneously.

Thank you for your support of our mission. Together we are making a difference in the personal and professional lives of our students, faculty, staff and their families.

Lora Morgan
President/Chief Executive Officer
CGSC Foundation, Inc.