Speaker Series

Colin Mullaney is the Director of Operations for the Hillsdale College Office of K-12 Education, where he integrates the work of the office to advance its mission and strategic goals while also serving as a coach and mentor to school leaders across Hillsdale Member Schools. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army in 1992 and retired in 2022 as a Colonel after 30 years of distinguished service, primarily in the Army Reserve. His military career included Ranger training, active-duty assignments in Korea and Fort Carson, and faculty service as an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Officer College, where he taught leadership, operational design and planning, critical and creative thinking, and ethics to field-grade officers preparing for senior leadership.

 

Mullaney has spent decades developing leaders in both military and educational settings. As a founding faculty member of Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy in 1995, he later became its school leader and ultimately Executive Director, guiding its transformation into The Vanguard School, a top-performing K–12 school that grew to nearly 1,600 students under his leadership. His contributions have been widely recognized, including being named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International, receiving the “Spirit of the Springs” award from the Mayor of Colorado Springs, and earning both the Charter School Leadership Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado League of Charter Schools. In addition to his B.S. in Biology from Notre Dame, he holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, an Executive Certificate in Leadership and Management from Notre Dame, completed the Center for Creative Leadership’s “Leadership at the Peak” program, and more recently earned a Master of Divinity from Notre Dame. He lives in Hillsdale, Michigan, with his wife and their three children.