Board of Trustees

Lieutenant Colonel
John R. Hales
USMC (Ret)

Secretary and Chief Operating Officer

"Today’s professional military education and leadership programs sponsored by the Marine Corps University Foundation will ensure life – long learning, success and individual growth."

Lieutenant Colonel John R. Hales, USMC (Ret), was commissioned through the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course after graduating from the State University of New York, College at Oswego in June 1971. His Marine Corps career, as an artillery officer, spanned more than twenty years and included assignments with each of the three active Marine Divisions, several tours as a student and two teaching tours – the United States Naval Academy and the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University. He also served as an assistant inspector-instructor with the 4th Marine Division, 14th Marines in Los Angeles, California and as a troop inspector and executive assistant with the Inspector General of the Marine Corps. He retired from active duty while serving with the Marine Corps University.

Colonel Hales joined the Marine Corps University Foundation on 1 November 2000, as the Chief Operating Officer. Colonel Hales came to the Foundation after eight years at The Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., where he was an Assistant Dean in the Undergraduate Student Services Office.

Colonel Hales holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education – English, and a Master of Science degree in Education from the University of Southern California. He is the son of a career Army officer and originally hails from North Tarrytown, New York – now known as Sleepy Hollow, New York. He is married to the former Wiktoria T. Zaborowski (Vicky) of Fulton, New York and they have two grown daughters. Kelly is the Director of Title I Programs for Guilford County Public Schools in Greensboro, North Carolina and Stephanie is a library page at the Porter Library in Stafford, Virginia. He and his family reside in Stafford, Virginia.