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2022 Commencement Citations

Laura Anibal Potter ’89

COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES, MAY 22, 2022 

Laura Anibal Potter ’89
Doctor of Military Science

Citation written and presented by
Kevin Krupski, Lieutenant Colonel, Infantry &
Professor of Military Science

Conferring of the degree by John E. Jones III, President

Laura Potter, your career is distinguished by the college motto that “Freedom is made safe through character and learning.”

You earned a commission into the Army upon graduation from Dickinson and completion of your ROTC studies. In line with the values Dickinson holds dear, you have truly been a global citizen, serving in Georgia, Uruguay, Kuwait, Belgium, Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan and the list goes on. 

You have similarly defined your career by an enduring commitment to service and civic duty. You deployed as a military observer for the United Nations, commanded a company and later a military intelligence battalion. You commanded the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe’s Military Intelligence Group and Afghanistan’s Theater Intelligence Group; you were the United States Army Europe’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, and United States European Command’s J-2Director; you were the Commanding General and Commandant of the United States Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca.

You have epitomized what it means to be a warrior-scholar, leaving Dickinson fluent in Russian and Spanish, earning master’s degrees from Georgetown and the Naval War College, and completing the Army’s Command and General Staff College and the Joint and Combined Warfighting School.

A few years ago, you reflected that “One of the greatest benefits I gained from my Dickinson experience was critical thinking,” and to “learn how to draw our own conclusions and stand by them with conviction.” You have led a career defined by this thinking and an unwavering commitment to the soldiers under your command.

Now, you are the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence of the United States Army.

President Jones, for her unparalleled success in the profession of arms, for her engaged leadership to the republic and our society, and for her constant trailblazing as Dickinson’s first female ROTC graduate to attain the rank of a general officer, I am proud to present Lieutenant General Laura Potter as a candidate for a Doctor of Military Science honorary degree.