General Mark A. Milley, the retired 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is joining the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs as a Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor and Visiting Lecturer.

The appointment, which begins this month and runs through June 2025, is a homecoming for Milley, who earned his bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton.

At SPIA, Milley will serve as a guest lecturer, meet with students, engage with alumni and faculty, and provide input on the School’s Security Studies Ph.D. program. He will also participate in select events at the SPIA in D.C. venue in Washington.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mark back to Princeton, and to SPIA specifically,” said Amaney Jamal, the School’s dean. “His many years of outstanding, dedicated service to his country will be of enormous value to our students, and his experience in the national’s capital as well as abroad in conflict zones will benefit the School as a whole.”

Milley was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs and confirmed by the Senate in 2019. He continued to serve through the presidential transition until stepping down in September 2023.

Prior to his tenure as Joint Chiefs Chair, Milley served as chief of staff of the Army. He had held command and staff positions in six Army divisions and a Special Forces Group after earning his commission in 1980 through Princeton's Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.

Milley, who played ice hockey for four years at Princeton, has returned to the University several times, including last May to meet with and speak to 14 members of the Class of 2023 who became commissioned officers in the U.S. armed forces. In 2016, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award, the University’s highest honor for undergraduate alumni. Additionally, he was the 2023 recipient of the Princeton Varsity Club Citizen Athlete Award.

In addition to his Princeton degree, Milley holds master’s degrees from Columbia University and the Naval War College, and he attended the MIT Center for International Studies Seminar XXI National Security Studies Program.