Muskegon – Decorated military officer John I. Faunce, LTC(R) will be visiting the Muskegon Maritime Academy(MMA) on May 12 to conduct teacher and student training with the aim of improving the school internally in areas of organization, leadership, and strategic planning. He will also work directly with the students engaging them in character development and academic improvement.

Faunce has over 20 years of diverse leadership and talent development experience. He served worldwide in a variety of missions including deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. His military service includes the Infantry, US Special Forces, and NATO Special Forces where he served as an Infantry Rifle Platoon Leader, Special Forces Detachment Commander, Military Academy Leader Development Officer, and NATO Special Operations Exercise Planner. Faunce served two years as Director of NATO exercises, evaluations, and assessments. He also served three years as a Leadership Development Officer at West Point. Faunce has U.S. Secret/Top Secret clearance and NATO Cosmic Top Secret clearance.

Muskegon Maritime Academy officials stated that like any new endeavor, the school has room for improvement and is always open to receiving help to carry out its mission. ” We never said our mission would be easy, but we did say we would be relentless and approach the challenges with determination and resolve. We are fortunate to have friends and supporters around this country that believe in what we are trying to accomplish. We have faced challenges trying to build our school, so when we needed help I reached out to a couple of West Point alums I met over a decade ago at The Academy and they both positively responded”, stated Franklin A. Fudail, MMA founder.

Fudail said John I. Faunce not only brings decades of planning and organizational knowledge and experience that MMA will benefit from, but he also has experience working at Columbia University Teachers College in New York. “He is an educator, He comes from a family of educators and he enthusiastically agreed to help our school. We need help, so I reached out to a group of America’s best minds and they responded”.

Faunce’s visit will be one of many West Point alum visits starting in March. “We have about 3-5 in-person visits over the next few months and about 3-5 online presentations scheduled with United States Military Academy graduates assisting our students and staff”, stated Fudail.

The school will be announcing the full list of in-person and online training and lectures scheduled between March and May.