Gen. Martin Dempsey

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the retired 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., for a fireside chat at 4 p.m. Friday (Oct. 10), as part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum.

The discussion, titled “Hope, Global Stability and the Role of the United States,” is part of the exploration of this year’s Notre Dame Forum theme, “Cultivating Hope.” It will take place in Rooms 215/216 of McKenna Hall and will also be livestreamed. The event is free and open to the public.

As the United States and the globe face a myriad of complex foreign policy, economic and security challenges, Dempsey will discuss the opportunities that exist to create a more just and peaceful world. Drawing on his experiences as the senior leader of the United States military and as an award-winning author and professor of leadership, he will offer insights on how the U.S. can foster hope and build trusting relationships while navigating the world’s most daunting challenges.

Dempsey served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2011 until his retirement in September 2015. Prior to that role, he served as the U.S. Army’s 37th chief of staff.

A 1974 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Dempsey was a career Army officer whose assignments took him around the world during times of both war and peace. His military career began as a company-grade armory officer serving in Europe, and then took an unusual turn when he spent two years at Duke University earning a master’s degree in English, and later three years at West Point as an assistant professor of English. He has been known to quote Yeats and Shakespeare in his speeches, and he said his five years in academia made him “a clearer thinker, a better communicator.”

Before becoming the Army chief of staff, he served as deputy commander and then acting commander of U.S. Central Command and led U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Dempsey’s many awards and decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Bronze Star with “V” device and Oak Leaf Cluster. In 2016, Dempsey was named an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The grandson of four Irish immigrants, he is also a member of the Irish America Hall of Fame.

In addition to a master’s degree in English, he holds master’s degrees in military art and national security studies.

Following 41 years of military service, he now teaches leadership at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and consults for the National Basketball Association on leader development and social responsibility. Since 2016, Dempsey has also served as the chairman of the board of directors of USA Basketball, the national governing body for all of the United States’ international basketball competitions, men’s and women’s, 5x5 and 3x3, from ages 16 through the Olympics.

Dempsey is the co-author, with Ori Brafman, of the bestselling leadership book “Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership” and author of “No Time For Spectators: The Lessons that Mattered Most from West Point to the West Wing.”

Dempsey received an honorary degree and served as principal commencement speaker at Notre Dame’s 2016 Commencement in recognition of his “steady leadership for our nation’s armed forces in times of war and through periods of dramatic change … known for his wisdom imparted with candor, and his deep appreciation for the men and women under his charge; he cherished those who gave the ultimate sacrifice by adhering to a simple three-word phrase, ‘Make it matter.’”

He and his high school sweetheart, Deanie, have been married for 49 years. They have three children — each of whom served in the Army — and nine grandchildren.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu