Speakers

2026 Commencement Speaker

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling

Fairleigh Dickinson University is proud to announce that Lieutenant General (retired) Mark Hertling will serve as the Commencement speaker for this year’s ceremony.

Lieutenant General (retired) Mark Hertling served for 38 years in the US Army as a tanker and cavalryman, commanding at every level from tank platoon to Field Army. He finished his Army career as the Commanding General of US Army Europe in 2012, where he led more than 60,000 soldiers and partnered with the Armies of 51 nations. He served over three years in combat, including Commanding the US Army’s 1st Armored Division (1AD) and Task Force Iron in Northern Iraq for 15 months during the 2007 surge. 

Hertling retired from the military in 2013 and was recruited to be a senior vice president at AdventHealth, the nation’s largest nonprofit healthcare system. His first book, Growing Physician Leaders, provides leadership lessons for those in the healthcare industry. He has taught the leadership course he designed at multiple healthcare systems, and there are now over 1,200 physician, nurse and administrator graduates. He was appointed by President Obama as one of 25 members to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sport and Nutrition and served on that council from 2013–2017. In 2021, he was appointed by President Biden as one of 11 commissioners on the American Battle Monument Commission. He still serves as an adviser to the nonprofit organizations “Mission: Readiness” in California, and “Operation Gratitude” in Washington, D.C. He served from 2014–2019 as an adjunct scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute, and he currently is a member of the Dean’s Alliance at the School of Public Health of Indiana University. He has also served as a national security analyst for CNN and MSNBC.

Hertling received a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy in 1975, and he holds three master’s degrees: a master’s of kinesiology from Indiana University’s School of Public Health, a master’s in military arts and sciences from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies, and a master’s in international relations and security studies from the National Defense University in Washington, DC. In 2019, he received a Doctor of Business Administration from the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College, defending research addressing physician leadership in the healthcare industry. 

Hertling currently serves as a Professor of Practice at Crummer, and he teaches myriad courses on leadership to MBA students. He also lectures extensively at various institutions and organizations on the topic of leadership, national security, the military, and healthcare. His most recent book, If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal, released in March 2026, is on the Amazon bestseller list.

During the ceremony, Hertling will deliver the commencement address and will be conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and hooded in Fairleigh Dickinson’s burgundy and blue colors.