Wes Riddle, M.Ed., M.S.
Dean for Online Programs
Academic Affairs Office
Online Learning
Education
Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration (est. 2025)
Liberty University
M.S. in Strategic Intelligence (2018)
National Intelligence University
Graduate Certificate in Ethics and Leadership (2009)
Kennesaw State University
M.Ed. in College Student Affairs Administration (2005)
University of Georgia
B.A. in Communications (2003)
University of South Carolina-Aiken
Biography
Wes is the Dean for Online Programs at Waldorf University and an adjunct
professor with over 20 years of leadership development, teaching, and higher education
experience. He has been in an administrative faculty position with Waldorf University since 2014 and serves on various institutional committees. He started his career at the University of Georgia where he received his Master of Education degree and advised multiple student organizations before being asked to teach at Kennesaw State University (KSU) in 2005. He taught at KSU until 2011, almost exclusively in the Leadership Studies Program, before being deployed to Afghanistan with U.S. Special Operations Command in 2012. Upon his return, Wes joined Columbia Southern Education Group as a course developer and returned to teaching in an adjunct status with KSU’s Leadership Studies Program, transitioning to his position as Waldorf’s then-Director of Online Learning in 2014.
Concurrent with his civilian education background, Wes is a Military Intelligence officer in the Georgia Army National Guard. His military record includes time as a Human Intelligence Platoon Leader, Multifunction Team Leader, Company Executive Officer, Company Commander of a multi-intelligence tactical collection company, a Battalion Operations Officer of an expeditionary military intelligence battalion, an Instructor at the National Intelligence University, a brigade intelligence officer, and a battalion commander.
While deployed in 2012, he served as Task Force East Team Lead and Senior Intelligence Analyst for U.S. SOCOM in eastern Afghanistan. Wes recently completed a three-year active duty tour at the National Guard Bureau where he worked in the NG-J5 Strategy, Plans, Policy and International Affairs Division overseeing various international affairs engagements on behalf of the State Partnership Program.
Wes’s research interests focus on higher education policy and law, security cooperation, international organizations, conflict, and the application of international affairs theory. He is married to a veterinarian in the U.S. Army, and they have three young sons. In his spare time, Wes enjoys trail running, reading, riding bikes, and traveling.
