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Dennis “Denny” Lester joined the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) team in December 2018 and reports to the Provost and Academic Dean. He has served in a variety of leadership, management, technical, and instructional positions in government, industry, and academia. He started his professional career in the United States Air Force. During his military career, he was an instructor pilot, flight examiner, and commander. He led programs that developed leading-edge technologies supporting research, system development, training, testing, and experimentation.

After completing his Air Force career, Denny was employed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Scientific Research Corporation, Modern Technology Solutions, Inc., and Clemson University. In his most recent roles at Clemson, he was assigned as Associate Director for Science and Technology at the Watt Family Innovation Center, Research Professor, and Interim Director of Clemson Online. In these positions, he was responsible for managing research projects; overseeing building construction and operations; developing partnerships with industry; integrating new learning technologies into the Watt Center, and advancing distance learning programs. Additionally, as a faculty member at Clemson, he taught the capstone course in business strategy to graduating seniors in the College of Business. Prior to his assignment at Clemson, he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in team building, strategic management, and instructional use of computer simulation at the University of New Mexico.

At NPS, he serves as the Associate Provost for Graduate Education and Director of Graduate Education Advancement and teaches courses in strategic management and strategic marketing for the Graduate School of Defense Management.