Educate, Inspire, Engage, & Elevate

Admiral Cedric Pringle is the guest on this episode. Admiral Pringle serves as the 25th President of the National Naval Officers Association (NNOA). NNOA is an organization dedicated to supporting the Sea Services in recruiting, professional development, and retention of a diverse officer corps that reflects the demographics of our nation. Cedric talks about the amazing work that NNOA is doing with bringing STEM to school children and we discuss how impactful it would be if more positive role models would get involved in bringing STEM to middle schools and high schools around the country to provide more opportunities for people to see diverse paths to use these fields in their lives.

Cedric shares some amazing insights from his prestigious Naval career and although he prided himself on being by the the book, he liked to remind people that when the book was wrong there is a recourse to change the book. Cedric gave us some good examples of creating a space where you could make mistakes and take risks to grow as individuals, but he also hinted at some steps that helped build the trust of the team if you listen closely. He reminds us that excellence is a journey. Admiral Pringle models a great example of an appropriate way to resist a challenge from someone senior to us in a personal story in his humanitarian work in Haiti. Each story Cedric shares is done so to help build us all up the same way he has built many of his sailors and marines over the years! 

Cedric Pringle is a retired rear admiral following a 34-and-a-half-year career in the U.S. Navy. His service culminated as the 31st commandant of National War College at National Defense University. During his distinguished career, he led joint, combined, multinational, and interagency organizations, both at sea and ashore, across all aspects of defense, including full spectrum operations, strategic planning, crisis management, and congressional affairs. 

Admiral Pringle earned a BS in Economics from the University of South Carolina, an MS in Financial Management from the Naval Postgraduate School, and an MA in National Security Strategy from the Naval War College. He also completed executive courses in Strategic Thinking at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, Leading Innovation at the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Leadership University for Humanity course with Korn Ferry. 

Resources:

National Naval Officers Associations - Navy, Marines, & Coast Guard 

https://nnoa.org/

Center for Oceanographic Research in the South Pacific - University of Concepcion, Chile 

http://www.copas.cl/eng/