Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program
Leo McGonagle
Executive Director
Leo McGonagle recently transitioned from a career of service to the nation spending nearly 21 years as a leader in the US Army Corps of Engineers and achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He earned a commission as an Army officer through the ROTC where he was a Distinguished Military Graduate.
Leo's passion is developing leaders. Among his key leadership positions in the Army were as Department Chair and Professor of Military Science and Leadership of the Army ROTC Program at MIT, Executive Officer of a 600-soldier engineer construction battalion in Iraq, Commander of a 100-soldier mechanized engineer company in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and as Platoon Leader of a 30-soldier engineer platoon in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during the Persian Gulf War.
Leo spent six years of his military career on college campuses, directly involved in administering leadership development programs and in counseling, mentoring, and coaching emerging leader students. In his three-year assignment as Department Chair of the MIT Army ROTC program, he was responsible for leadership development of students from MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Salem State, Endicott, Gordon, and Wellesley College. He also served for three years as a commander /mentor at The United States Military Academy (West Point), facilitating and overseeing student academic, military, physical, moral-ethical, and leadership development.
Leo has led soldiers in combat during contingency operations including the Persian Gulf War in Iraq (Operation Desert Storm) and during Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as during peace enforcement operations in Bosnia-Herzegovnia. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal (three awards), the Meritorious Service Medal (five awards), the Army Commendation Medal (three awards), the Army Engineer Association de Fleury Medal for outstanding support to the Army Engineer Regiment, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals, and the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Liberation Medals. Leo is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and has earned the Army Aviator Badge and the Air Assault Badge. He is a parachutist and an Army Ranger.
Leo holds a Master of Science degree in leadership development and counseling from Long Island University and a bachelor's degree from Boston University.
