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In August 2017, the College of Graduate and Continuing Studies (CGCS) welcomed Dr. David Ulbrich to take stewardship of the Master of Arts in History and Military History degree programs at Norwich. Dr. Ulbrich is a celebrated academic, author and historical consultant with over two decades’ worth of experience in the field. Prior to joining CGCS full-time, Dr. Ulbrich served as an adjunct instructor, course developer and capstone advisor for graduate students at Norwich dating back to 2007. Jim Ehrman—longtime Program Director for the Master of Arts in History and Military History degree programs—assumed a new full-time role within CGCS as Graduate Programs Chair.

Dr. Ulbrich earned his BA in history from the University of Dayton in 1993; his MA in history from Ball State University in 1996; and his doctorate in history from Temple University in 2007. Upon earning his doctorate, Dr. Ulbrich worked as a historical consultant and on-air segment host for the television documentary Echoes of War: Stories from the Big Red One, a lauded portrait of the 1^st Infantry Division. Dr. Ulbrich then served as a civilian historian at the U.S. Army Engineer School in Missouri from 2009 to 2013, before joining the faculty at Rogers State University in Oklahoma, where he taught undergraduate courses in military history until joining Norwich in 2017.

In addition to his contributions to academia, Dr. Ulbrich is an accomplished author of non-fiction. His first book, Preparing for Victory: Thomas Holcomb and the Making of the Marine Corps, 1936-1943 won the 2012 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Book Prize, awarded by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. This October, Dr. Ulbrich’s latest project hits the printing press—the updated second edition of Ways of War: American Military History from the Colonial Era to the Twenty-first Century, co-authored with Dr. Matthew Muehlbauer. Many of Ulbrich’s esteemed contemporaries have offered advance praise for Ways of War. Dr. John McManus of the Missouri University of Science and Technology lauds the updated text as “a truly cutting-edge survey of American military history. Packed with compelling narratives and crisp insights, this is not so much a traditional text book as a personal guided tour by two leading scholars through our military past. An excellent book and one that is certain to become a classic.”

Says Dr. Ulbrich, “I am looking forward to expanding the History and Military History programs in order to give Norwich graduates a greater appreciation for lessons from the past, as well as context for behaviors that may impact the future.”