Photo By Robert Martin | Lt. Col. Christy Licklider is a USAWC Fellow at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA....... read more read more
Lt. Col. Christy Licklider is a USAWC Fellow at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. A native of Upland, Indiana, Licklider holds master's degrees from Webster University in Human Resource Management and the Air Force Institute of Technology in Systems Engineering and Engineering Management.
Tell me about your fellowship.
The fellowship is part of the Public Policy Program within Arts and Sciences, and it prepares students for careers in policy at the federal, state, and local levels of government, as well as non-profit and private sector consulting firms.
What has been your favorite part of being an AWC Fellow?
The people are my favorite part of being an AWC Fellow. The professors and students in the W&M public policy program have service-oriented hearts, much like my fellow service members. However, the professors and students have focused their passion on civil service while ours is on military service. They are brilliant, passionate people who want to improve their communities, states, country, and world. Studying with them allows me to understand them better, their drive, and the government structures within which they will work. I hope our academic partnership will lead to more effective professional partnerships with civil servants.
Tell me about your research paper.
The Army is staffing a legislative proposal to consolidate some budget line items to support a capability-based budget structure within the Unmanned Aerial Systems/Lethal Effects, C-UAS, and Electronic Warfare portfolios. For my Fellows Strategic Research Paper, I am applying the Authorities, Players, Processes, Leverage Points, Evaluation Criteria, and Workarounds framework to provide a structured environmental assessment to facilitate the Army's attempt to implement the proposed changes to funding practices for UAS/LE, C-UAS, and EW.
Army War College professors Chuck Allen and Bob Bradford suggested the APPLE(W) framework to assess the enterprise environment and help future action officers provide better staff support to DoD leaders.
William & Mary's proximity to the national capital region has enabled me to interview the players involved with this proposal. I have interviewed Army personnel, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Congressional staff to inform my application of APPLE(W) to provide an enterprise-wide environmental assessment supporting the Army's legislative proposal. The interviews have been developmental, broadening my understanding of the strategic environment and better preparing me for my next assignment in the Headquarters Department of the Army. Understanding players' varying positions on proposed changes and addressing their concerns is essential in getting change efforts across the legislative finish line. I hope my paper will be useful for future staff officers with limited knowledge and experience working at the strategic level.
How was your experience studying/learning at a civilian institution? What surprised you?
Two observations of my experiences at William & Mary stand out to me. First, William & Mary values the military and veteran-connected population. Starting with the Chancellor, former Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates. His guidance for William & Mary includes how to help the military-connected population meaningfully and ways to partner with DoD and Veterans Affairs meaningfully. In the Office of the President is a Special Assistant for Military & Veteran Affairs, Kathleen Jabs, whose responsibility is to help coordinate and support existing military and veteran programs across the university and forge connections with external partners across military commands, corporations, veteran executives, alums, federal programs, and other universities.
Several programs specialize in supporting military and veteran populations at the school and department levels. At the student level, the Office of Student Veteran Engagement coordinates and provides opportunities to help military and veteran students thrive at William & Mary. Additionally, military veterans are serving on the staff and faculty. I have had two veteran professors and one Army Reservist who bring their military experience into the classroom. I greatly appreciate William & Mary's recognition of the military and veteran population, both their challenges and the potential they bring when they integrate with the civilian world.
My second observation, which is individual evidence that supports the first, is that my experience provides valuable insights for the William & Mary community. Before I started the fellowship, others commented on how I would be able to bring my experiences to the classroom. However, I underestimated the extent to which my lessons learned as an Army Operations Research/Systems Analysis teacher at the United States Military Academy and serving on Army, Joint, and OSD staff would align with the teaching objectives of the Public Policy program. We have had discussions about leading change, bureaucracy, evidence, behavioral health stigmas, and ethics in analytics, to name a few. It has been so rewarding to offer what I think has been valuable support and counters to discussions with professors and students inside and outside the classroom. I sincerely hope that I have enriched their William & Mary experience as much as they have mine.
What has had the most impact on you while at W&M?
This is a challenging question because while the classes, professors, speakers, and books are all individually quite impactful, the totality of the experience is most remarkable to me. With my level of experience and education, auditing master's level courses have enabled me to stop, study, reflect, and plan for the leader that I want to be in the future. Engaging with speakers like Russell Travers, reading "How Democracies Die," and participating in classes such as Applied Ethics resulted in a professional development experience that exceeded my expectations for this fellowship.
What advice would you give the next officers to enter into the fellows’ program?
The flexibility of the fellowship experience means that you can fill gaps in your knowledge or lean in on your experiences to mentor fellow students. You can volunteer in your community or further develop your professional network. You can mend ties with your family or work on your fitness. You can decide what you want to do and how much attention you will give each development component. One word of caution: Be deliberate about your goals. The academic year flies by, and the fellowship is over before you know it.
How did retired Lt. Gen. Bill Burleson become a mentor?
During orientation for the fellowship, Lt. Gen. Burleson reached out to me and offered to serve as a mentor during my fellowship experience. We regularly meet for coffee and discuss the fellowship, my research, and plans. We have talked about his Army experiences, and he doesn't hesitate to use his network to help me with research. His mentorship was not something I expected to get out of the fellowship, so I am very thankful for his time supporting my development.
What is your next assignment? My next assignment will be to serve as the chief for the division that works on personnel force structure changes at HQDA G1. Our team's bread and butter is the authorization documents, which provide authorization data at the appropriate level of detail to support the distribution of personnel, strength forecasting, programming, budgeting, accessions, promotions, and training.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2025 09:13 |
| Story ID: | 495497 |
| Location: | CARLISLE BARRACKS, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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