FORT KNOX, Ky. — Throughout the month of January, 36 Fort Knox civilian employees locally attended and graduated from what previously was called the Civilian Education System (CES) Intermediate Course.
Renamed the Organizational Leadership Course (OLC), the class was broken into two-18-student seminars, providing leadership development and education to mid-level leaders at the grades of GS-10 to GS-13. By the beginning of the third and final week, the classroom walls were covered in paper with drawings, diagrams and charts.
Contrary to other training, OLC provided a relaxed and informal, yet collaborative learning environment.
“I was anticipating this course to be very rigid and doctrine based,” said Fort Knox Network Enterprise Center IT support specialist AJ Hines and a recent graduate. “However, I was pleasantly surprised that while the doctrine was included in the course content, the atmosphere was truly open and accepting of individual perspectives of said doctrine.”
The course was made possible by Army Management Staff College (AMSC), which sent trained facilitators to Fort Knox to educate and evaluate students. Week one focused on self-awareness; week two on team development; and week three on accomplishing the mission and improving the organization.
“The course is three weeks long and that sometimes makes people reluctant to sign up,” facilitator and AMSC instructor Don Bishop said. “However, we deliver the course in three different modalities. We offer a resident option at Fort Leavenworth (centrally-funded), a virtual offering, and limited mobile education teams, such as the course we just completed at Fort Knox.”
AMSC instructor and course facilitator Carleton Nash said OLC replaces the previous CES Intermediate Course by meshing some of the coursework together.
“The [CES] Intermediate Course just changed over to OLC,” said Nash. “It used to be GS-10 through 12, now it is 10 through 13.”Nash also mentioned a new course in the works that will be specifically tailored for GS-13 and 14 level civilians.
During Fort Knox’s OLC, students participated in discussions and activities that allowed topics to be linked to real, lived experience. Creativity and expression supplemented learning with table groups, using crayons, markers and butcher block paper to illustrate their learning.
“I witnessed students sharing their experiences and supporting their classmate’s growth,” Bishop said.“There was also some interesting artwork at times.”
Throughout the course, students complete a variety of assignments, including personality inventories, a group presentation analyzing student-selected leader biographies, daily journal entries, peer-to-peer counseling, and individual capstone presentations.
“It was not death by PowerPoint. … The course is a great refresher in some of the better ways to participate in a team effort,” said Patrick Rowe, an OLC graduate and strategic planner for 84th Training Command.
OLC also relies heavily on in-class discussions and active listening. These discussions allowed students to take an active role in providing leadership lessons from lived experience to their peers.
“I felt motivated each day of the course to give it my all, not just for me, but for everyone in our seminar,” Hines said.
Instructors expressed how students in the class may learn more from discussions with one another than from the course material itself.
With attendees of this most recent class working at Fort Knox, discussions focused on local issues and experiences from varied on-post organizations and commands.
“The Army needs innovation. It needs people to be able to adapt to the ever-changing environment. We need people to be able to start looking beyond just what they do, but more into how it connects to other sections,” Nash said. “[Students] end up hearing these conversations … and start to grasp a bigger sense of the larger picture. That's what the Army needs. We help to provide that.”
The success of the course extended beyond in-class participation, and support for OLC students was clear.
AMSC Department of Enterprise Leadership director Dr. Christina Love, Fort Knox Garrison Workforce Development specialist Shala Lemaster, as well as Fort Knox Garrison Commander Col. Dave Holstead and Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Licea addressed students on day one. Human Resources Command Chief of Staff Jim Bradford addressed students halfway through the course at a lunch-and-learn.
“Our graduation had more visitors than students!” Bishop said.“That was a tremendous show of support.”
Eligible civilians interested in participating in the next Organizational Leadership Course can find and apply to the course via CHRTAS [https://www.atrrs.army.mil/chrtas/](https://www.atrrs.army.mil/chrtas/).
VisitFort Knox Newsat[www.army.mil/knox](https://www.army.mil/knox)for all of Central Kentucky's latest military news and information.
| Date Taken: |
01.28.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
01.28.2026 10:14 |
| Story ID: |
556948 |
| Location: |
FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
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