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Draft Remarks for the Distinguished Alumni Brunch

Distinguished Alumni Award: Dr. James F. Holden-Rhodes

Dr. James F. Holden-Rhodes is the recipient of the MCLA 2010 Distinguished Alumni

Award.

Jim graduated from MCLA with a Bachelor of Science in history and education in 1965.

He received a Master in Public Administration from in 1974 from the University of New Mexico

and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Political Science in 1992. He completed a post-doctorate at Los

Alamos National Laboratory. Jim is a retired military intelligence officer of the United States

Marine Corps.

His professional career as a military intelligence officer is extensive, having served as an

officer with the Marine Corps from 1961 to 1992. After retiring from the military, Jim pursued

his doctorate at the University of New Mexico and became a professor of military intelligence.

Jim taught at the University of New Mexico in their intelligence studies program,

offering one of the nation’s few university courses in intelligence. There he oversaw the

University’s Open Source Intelligence labs funded by the Department of Defense where students

monitored Internet traffic in nine Middle Eastern nations. He has taught at New Mexico

Highlands University and New Mexico State University, where he established the program for a

master’s degree in history with a concentration in intelligence studies, one of the first degree

programs in intelligence in the United States.

The International Association for Intelligence Education selected Jim as the Outstanding

Teacher for 2009. Jim, a technical consultant to the Universal Technologies Corporation/Air

Force Research Laboratory, works as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Intelligence Studies at

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Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Albuquerque Center. He will be heading the effort to

establish a master’s of science program in intelligence studies at Embry-Riddle.

Jim is the author of Sharing the Secrets: Open Source Intelligence and the War on Drugs.

The International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts presented him with an

award for the work making the greatest contribution to advancing the state of the art in Law

Enforcement Intelligence Analysis in 1995.

Dr. James F. Holden-Rhodes, in recognition of your achievements and on behalf of the

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts community, I am pleased to present you with MCLA’s

2010 Distinguished Alumni Award.