SPA Fellows
Noel Williams
Fellow, USMC Strategy, Policy, and Force Development
Noel Williams is SPA’s Fellow for USMC Strategy, Policy, and Force Development. He retired from the Marine Corps in 2002 after 21 years of service, transitioning to the U.S. Marine Corps Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities as a Research Fellow with Potomac Institute. He joined SPA in 2004.
Noel Williams
Fellow, USMC Strategy, Policy, and Force Development
Noel Williams is SPA’s Fellow for USMC Strategy, Policy, and Force Development. He retired from the Marine Corps in 2002 after 21 years of service, transitioning to the U.S. Marine Corps Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities as a Research Fellow with Potomac Institute. He joined SPA in 2004.
Noel graduated from Virginia Military Institute with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He received a Master of Arts in National Security Studies from Georgetown University and a Master of Military Studies from the Marine Corps University. He is a graduate of Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting and numerous joint and allied courses.
Noel’s last tour in the Corps was as a Strategic Analyst at Headquarters Marine Corps’ Strategic Initiatives Group (SIG) focused on force transformation. While at SPA, he has worked in the areas of Risk Management, Strategic Analysis, Defense Roles and Missions, Quadrennial Defense Review/Defense Strategy Review (QDR/DSR), Organizational Strategies, Bio-surveillance, Interagency Coordination, Future Concepts and Technology, Strategic and Operational Planning, Emerging Threats and Technologies, Military Force Design, Command and Control, and Information Technology.
From 2005 to 2007, as a member of SPA’s National Security Affairs Group, Noel was the Acting Branch Chief Plans Policy and Outreach at the Department of Homeland Security, National Bio-surveillance Integration Center (NBIC). Following NBIC, Noel moved to Headquarters Marine Corps as Senior Strategy and Policy Analyst for the Strategy Review Integration Group (SRIG) and HQMC Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) where for the subsequent 15 years he performed a wide-range of analytic activities, such as the USMC Strategic Assessment, Commandant’s Planning Guidance, National Defense Strategy, Defense Planning Guidance, Program Objective Memorandum Strategic Capabilities Study, Integrated Program Assessment, Commandant of the Marine Corps transitions, Ground Combat Element Modernization Strategy, and Institutional Strategy.
