Dr. Dale Land Joins MMA as Assistant Academic Dean

Dr. Dale Land Joins MMA as Assistant Academic Dean

Missouri Military Academy (MMA) has named Dr. Dale Land as the new assistant academic dean. Dr. Land brings extensive experience in administrative leadership and education to support scholarship and academic excellence within the Academy’s military education model. He joined the Academy in late July.

As MMA assistant academic dean, Dr. Land supports the academic dean in leadership of the Academy’s middle school and high school faculty to help teachers actively engage cadets in the classroom and develop and implement curriculum in creative, effective and efficient ways to best meet cadets’ needs.

“We pride ourselves on the rigor and quality of our curriculum, which is continuously evaluated, refined and progressed as part of our 360-degree education model,” Dr. Land says. “Every minute matters, and every cadet matters as we work to prepare cadets to excel in college, in careers and in life. We use every minute of every day to ensure our efforts are focused on your child — our cadets —and our next generation’s success. The cadets are the life of this academic division, and our singular purpose is their success.”

Dr. Land earned a Doctor of Education in administrative leadership from Carson-Newman University, an Education Specialist degree in administrative leadership from Carson-Newman University, a Master of Arts in teaching with honors from Austin Peay State University and a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice with a minor in business from Troy University.

He served as a classroom teacher, textbook evaluator, curriculum developer, academic coach and administrator in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School systems in Clarksville, Tennessee, from 2012 through the 2022 school year.

Dr. Land served in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years, before retiring in 2008. He attended one station unit training at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where he graduated as an infantryman. Over his 20-year career, he served as team leader, squad leader, platoon sergeant, drill sergeant and first sergeant, with his final assignment as the senior military instructor and battalion sergeant major for the University of Central Missouri’s ROTC program. His service locations included Fort Ord, California; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He deployed to Kosovo and Egypt as part of a peace keeping force, with combat tours in Panama (Operation Just Cause) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom).   

Dr. Land is a 1994 graduate of the Army’s Ranger school, a member of the Sergeant Audie Murphy Club from the 101st Airborne Division, a distinguished member of the 502nd Infantry Regiment and a nominee for Austin Peay State University’s Military Hall of Fame (2022). His military awards and decoration include the Air Assault Badge, Parachutist Badge, Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Combat Infantryman’s Badge (second award), Drill Sergeant Badge, Ranger Tab, Meritorious Unit Citation (502nd Infantry), Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (two oak leaf clusters), Army Commendation Medal (five oak leaf clusters), and Army Achievement Medal (nine oak leaf clusters).

He and his wife Teresa have been married for more than 30 years and have raised three children.

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