faculty

Nate Self
(USMA 1998)

Expertise
Leadership development, mentoring experience & knowledge transfer, innovation, decision making, resilience

Experience
Nate is a former U.S. Army officer and founder of The Praevius Group, a contracting company with the U.S. Government. Nate graduated from West Point and served on active duty in Germany, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

While serving with an elite special operations task force in Afghanistan, Nate was called upon to lead a rescue mission into an Al Qaeda strongpoint to recover a missing-in-action Navy SEAL. The ensuing combat action resulted in a 15-hour firefight on a mountain peak, which has come to be known as “The Battle of Takur Ghar” or “Roberts Ridge.”

Nate is currently consulting in the medical sector, science & technology sector, and construction industry. He has previously supported the Center for the Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on knowledge transfer and mobile communications platforms. Nate also led the development of an experience-based leadership simulation for the Army and the development of a military trivia mobile app for USAA. Nate spends a portion of his time speaking on the topics of veteran transition and post-traumatic growth. Nate lives in Central Texas with his wife and four children.

Scholarly Work/Publications/Awards
Nate’s first book was a memoir of his time in the Army, “Two Wars,” and he co-authored a compilation of junior officer combat stories entitled “A Platoon Leader’s Tour.” He has written articles for Army Magazine, the Journal of Management Education, the Journal for Asynchronous Learning Networks, and several books. He is currently writing a book on the topic of mentoring. Nate was a West Point Honor Graduate and was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart resulting from combat actions in Afghanistan.

Education
BS, Engineering Management, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY

Organizations
Director, Camp Eagle Adventure Camps
Member (former), Texas Veterans Commission Communications Advisory Committee
Trustee (former), Salado Independent School District, Salado, TX