Law Enforcement to Counterintelligence: Aryhel Freeman's Journey

On this episode of the WGU Alumni Podcast, we sit down with WGU alum Aryhel Freeman, a multidisciplinary security and intelligence professional whose career has spanned law enforcement, counterintelligence, insider threat, and security leadership. Aryhel shares how his path from the football field to the intelligence community shaped his approach to leadership, risk assessment, and helping organizations identify problems before they become crises. 

Throughout the conversation, Aryhel offers practical insights on what separates high-performing leaders from the rest, the importance of balancing people and mission, and how education can create momentum in competitive career fields. He also reflects on earning his degree from WGU while working full-time and raising a family, why he describes the experience as "common sense," and how lifelong learning continues to fuel his growth as a leader. It's an inspiring conversation about service, leadership, and the power of investing in yourself. To learn more about the WGU Alumni experience, including events, benefits, and ways to stay connected, visit wgu.edu/alumni.

Transcript

Welcome And Why WGU Matters

0:06

Hey everybody, welcome to the WGU Alumni Podcast. My name is Jeff Burton. I'm the senior manager of alumni engagement here at WGU, and it is my great honor to talk with graduates who are doing incredible things. And today is no exception. I'm super excited to introduce you to Ariel Freeman, who is doing amazing things. Now, Ariel, by way of introduction, is a multidisciplinary security and intelligence professional whose experience spans the following counterintelligence, insider threat, personal and physical security, and law enforcement. Now, Ariel has led large security and law enforcement agencies across both the public and private sectors. He's held executive and administrative leadership roles throughout his career in the intelligence community. And it is a sincere honor to welcome Ariel to the podcast. Hi, Erl. Welcome. How are you doing, sir? Are you doing okay? I'm doing great. How are you? Outstanding, man. It's good to see you. It's good to see you. We've had the chance to connect uh a couple times over the past couple years in the nation's capital uh and at various uh locations. And I've gotten to know you over the years and your background and your personal story, and I am super excited for you to share that uh with our audience today. Yeah, thank you for giving me an opportunity. Absolutely. So, Ariel, you from your bio, you've done a ton of things, but I got to ask you, have you ever been on a podcast before? Uh this will be my first one. Okay. Well, you've got a great setup for those watching on YouTube. And uh anyway, just the thing that I've been most impressed with you, Ariel, is your energy and your commitment to WGU. You really are an advocate of WGU. Uh, and I just want to say thank you for that. And uh why has WGU been so meaningful to you? Why why are you such a strong advocate? WGU has given me, you know, uh opportunity one to connect with great people like yourself, uh, but it's what WGU represents. I think it represents the the common American. You know, when you talk about affordability, uh, you know, people have to work, blue-collar Americans have to work, uh, working adults, they're working and they're trying to advance themselves. And I think WGU gives, you know, those individuals an opportunity to gain a quality education while um, you know, taking care of themselves and them their families. Well, that's fantastic. Well, again, thank you for all that you do. Um, from your bio, there's a lot of different things.

Falling Into Security And Intelligence

2:45

There's a lot of questions that I have for you. You you've done a lot. So maybe we start here first, and that is what drew you into the security and intelligence work in the first place? Now, Jeff, I'll say that's a loaded question. And the reason I say that is nothing really drew me to it. I, you know, I kind of found it by mistake, I'll say, right? Uh long story short, my career started as a failed Division I quarterback. And that led to me work, you know, I worked in a local police department. I was a fireman, uh, best job in the world. Got to be a police officer and a fireman at the same time. And I later went to the state patrol, uh, South Carolina Highway Patrol. And uh, you know, the start market crash in 2008. And I was trying, I was trying to, I was scraping, man, for money. And I moved to the DC area, started doing contract security work. Uh, and that exposed me to a different environment because I ultimately got an opportunity to be a project manager at the executive office of the president. Uh, and that was my kind of first glimpse into um federal security, though I was a contractor. Uh and then I wanted to get back into law enforcement. And uh opportunity came to work at uh NGA, the National Gear Spatial Intelligence Agency. Uh, and just you know, for your listeners, for you, uh NGA has the third largest federal government facility in the country. And to take that protection profile of a global workforce uh needed law enforcement presence. And so I looked at DC police, I looked at the Pentagon, and NGA gave me an offer to uh come work for the organization. It was early on. Uh, they were trying to establish their uh police department, but that was my first gateway into uh the intelligence community. Interesting. Well, thank you for sharing all that interesting background and uh maybe a follow-up question to that.

What Counterintelligence Actually Does

4:55

Um counterintelligence is is fascinating on so many levels. Uh, but for those of us that aren't terribly familiar, other than what we maybe see in the movies or what we read about, like what does the day-to-day life look like uh as a counterintelligence uh agent? So, what we do as a in my operation is you know, we talk about a multidisciplinary team and we work as a hub. So think of us in the as a nucleus, the brains, a centralized uh information hub. Um information flows in from different components to us. So uh, for example, let's say you work in personnel security. Uh now, Jeff, you're gonna look at personnel security through uh authoritative lens, uh, but you're gonna be narrow focused. You're only gonna be focusing on things dealing in personnel security. And they're gonna be looking at uh maybe for all waste and abuse because that's in a different lane. That's in the officer of the expected general's lane. They take care of that. And you're not gonna be looking at performance issues because that's in the human resources lane, right? You're gonna be looking at personnel security issues. Uh what makes us unique as a centralized uh uh call it analysis, a central centralized analysis operation. We receive all those pieces of information. So uh, you know, Jeff had uh multiple security infractions, and also he went overseas without telling anybody. That comes to us, and we're able to not only look at the personnel uh security aspect, we look at fraud, waste, and abuse, we look at behaviors, uh uh performance behaviors, we look at uh other you know historical things. And uh this in a for context for you, we call it the critical path. It's called the critical path to violence by Eric Shaw, Dr. Eric Shaw. Uh the critical path for violence, but we also use it in our analysis. So this will consist of predispositions. So we'll look and say, Jeff, let's see if Jeff has any predispositions to uh anything. Does he have family history? Was he, you know, is it any abuse in the past? Are there anything that may uh make him a higher uh say threat to himself, right? Uh call into question. Uh and we look at the predisposition. Then we'll look at stressors. What was their stress? Is Jeff going through a divorce? Does he have financial issues going on? So we look at some of those factors. And then the behavior. The question of behavior is the thing that comes into us, right? But he went overseas without telling anybody. And if you're clear, if you take foreign travel, you have to tell uh the government. And so we look at all this, the whole person, and we do an analysis of this person. It's unbiased, it's in the gray. Uh, we're not uh there to say if you're a bad person or not. We state the facts of it as they are. And our my team of analysts uh you know put together a product that goes out to those uh multidisciplinary team stakeholders. And so we do this daily, and uh we have other methods of uh being able to assess risks within within the organization. Um and yeah, that's pretty much what we do every day. Uh first, thank you for the background and the context. I think that's important. And secondly, um, as I stated earlier, super fascinating work and uh that that you and your colleagues, your peers do on a day-to-day basis that I think mo most Americans, again, probably have no idea, right?

Learning Leadership From The Grind

8:33

Uh I mean Ariel, I want to ask you a couple questions now about leadership. Uh I know you've got a background in leadership, and and I'm excited just to kind of hear some of your thoughts in in this regard. So um kind of lay a foundation there. What was the first leadership role that you had, and what did you learn about leading under pressure? It's gonna sound cheesy, actually. Uh I I was a starring quarterback in high school for four years. And not cheesy at all. Yeah, it and because people won't look at that as like leadership. It's like you played sports, but my quarterback coach, uh coach Tony Slayton, uh, he actually coached myself and Cam Newton and other players that went on to do uh things in the NFL and play high-level collegiate football. Um he had a standard for me. I had to be the first one in the gym, I had to be the last one out. Uh I had to lead by example essentially. I had to be the first in sprints. Um you know, I had to check on others, I had to be empathetic. Uh he and he forced my hand as a as a high school student to do that. Um so much so, and this wasn't all of all his prompting, but like even for the special needs students, you know, every morning at school I will walk them to class. And it was it's it's the little things like that. He would always tell me, uh, Ariel, you have to be everybody's all American. We're working out. It would tell me, he said, look, every other quarterback in the country right now is out having a good time. They're playing video games, and look where you are. And it didn't dawn on me at the at that moment, like you know, what he was doing. But I, you know, essentially became a blue chip super prep all American Elite 11 quarterback going to play Division I football. And a lot of people can't say that. Now, now I'll penn it there. That's kind of my earliest uh leadership um in high school. Now, fast forward, you know, when I was working at the Department of Justice as a contractor, yeah, I became uh sergeant and lieutenant pretty quick um in that contract environment. It's very structured. Working at the Department of Justice headquarters, uh getting to see the attorney general and their their executive protection uh team and all the other big wigs. You know, one of the big things working in that environment and in that experience as an early early leader, you're still trying to find yourself. I didn't know what my leadership style was. I I didn't know uh I didn't have theories and principles to support me and how I I dealt with people. All I knew at that point was to lean back on what I was told as a high schooler was to, all right, you know, be sharp, you know, look the part, you know, act with integrity, uh, treat people how you want to be treated, um care for people, you know, uh that's all I had to go off of. And that that followed me because in the private sector is a little different, right? The bottom line is the bottom line. And then when you're dealing in uh you know security work, you know, you're dealing with people that are working, you know, at the time we were forced overtime. You're working seven days a week mandatory, and you might get a day off here and there, and that kills morale. But treating people good, no, letting them know that you're there with them, that you're willing to get muddy with them. If they're there seven days, you're there with them. Uh, that went a long way. And I and I faced a very difficult decision a little bit uh later, uh, kind of in the same arena when I was a PM. They wanted to cut uh cost because they didn't have the numbers and they were running high on overtime. And morale was just shot on his contract. And I was uh you know, they wanted me to reduce everybody's hours to like 35 hours. I said, I'm not doing that. These people have families and you know they have to put meat on the table. But what I got from the team, and we'll we'll talk about it a little later too, but getting a sense of what they needed, you know, for me as a leader, because the previous uh PM um just wasn't connected to them and they didn't feel that connection. So they weren't willing to show up with her or uh for the for the PM. And so once I got to know that team, the team, and let them know I was there with them, they gave me everything they had. And I told them what I was on a, you know, what I was being called to the carpet for, and they were willing to help me get uh to where we needed to as a as a as a uh Ariel. So many great things. Uh the connection that you had with your team in a lot of ways stems back to what you were taught in high school uh by a coach who who saw your potential and saw your value, and and uh really cool to think that uh you know a lot of who you are today started at at such a young age. That's that's awesome. So um

High Performers Balance People And Mission

13:45

a few more questions I want to jump in. Staying in this same space aerial, I wanted to ask you a question about leadership and the difference between average leaders and high performance leaders. So, what would you say separates those two leaders in the national security environment? So those that are just average compared to those that are excelling at all levels? Let's talk about high performers first. You know, high performing leaders in a national security space are one uh mission-driven. And a lot of people like to talk about mission versus people, people versus mission. But I think high performers in the national security arena has they have a harmony between the two. Uh, one is not more important than the other. And so they know how to balance people. If you see good leaders in a national security space, you hear them talk, um, you see them engage with people, they see they're personable. Uh that's that's one. So people at the forefront front still, while mission is also uh they're competitive. They understand that in order to drive home a national security mission, that we're not only in competition uh with ourselves uh to be able to produce and innovate here in the homeland, we're also competing against our our adversaries from a you know from a technical standpoint, from a prevention of uh uh leakage of unauthorized information, uh to protect the warfighter, etc. So there's a sense of urgency uh through competition that high performers have. And then, you know, third, you know, outside of you know the people mission uh and competition, I would say that being able to tether people to the mission is extremely important by way of culture. Right? If if cult if if you cannot establish a culture in a three-letter organization or a Fortune 500 organization, your people you know would just be swimming with no guide. They'll just be out. And so it's key, the high performers are able to tether their people to the actual mission itself. That's great. And you've learned that over decades now of experience. Um Have you ever considered writing a book, Ariel? I I have. I I have. I uh as I'm just listening to you, I I literally could listen to you for hours just with your experiences, the stories that you have. And so anyway, we'll write a book and then come back on the podcast and give over about it.

Choosing WGU To Stay Competitive

16:31

Well, I I wanted to shift um and to ask you a little bit about your WGU experience, if we can shift there for just a moment. You were already operating at a high level professionally. So why did you pursue a degree through WGU? So going back to competition, uh the intelligence community is I'm not gonna say hyper competitive, but it's hyper competitive. You got some of the best of the best in the world working in the that the US has to offer in the intelligence community. And if you want to advance in the intelligence community, the Department of War, uh, you have to be driven. And though I was operating in a in a in a highly uh visible, uh high performing team, high-performing organization, one of my mentors told me, she said, look, if you want to advance, you got to do a few things. You have to get breadth and depth of experience. She said, leaders don't necessarily need to know everything about what what they're leading. They just need to have a 30,000-foot understanding of it and be able to make the right strategic decisions at the right time. It's more important to have smart people around you than to be the smartest one in the room because um if you're the smartest one in the room, you don't need the people around you. Right? So uh I took that, that was one, but two, she said you need to have an advanced degree. She said you will not get get promoted amongst the who's who if you don't have a an advanced degree. And that stuck with me. But the problem was most traditional organizations or institutions uh you know time bound. Right? I have seven kids, Jeff. I I I you know it's time matters. And I just couldn't find the right fit for me at the time because I'm like, well, um I have kids at home, they're young, and we have things going on, uh the mission is it it requires a lot. I cannot sit down for eight weeks, you know, just to crunch out work or five weeks to get work done without the flexibility. And one of my uh one of my uh friends and co-workers, she she went to WGU, our chief of staff, and she was raving about WGU. She was like, yes, they have a mentorship program, and you know, because one of the things I I needed was accountability. I was like, I need somebody to stay on me to be able to get this done and see it through. And she talked about WGU, she raved about it, and I said, Oh, look, I need the information because this is gonna check the box on one thing I need, right? An advanced degree to be able to remain competitive in a highly competitive environment. And, you know, I call WGU and kind of the rest was history uh because it fit what I needed at the time, it made sense. Uh, if I if I know this, I can put a lot of work into it right now and be done with it, you know, instead of eight weeks, maybe four weeks, right? Yeah, but there as the mission happens and it's like, well, life is happening. I may actually need nine weeks to get this done. It doesn't make me a bad student. Life is happening, and I need to be able to make adjustments on the fly. And no other institution was providing that option. WGU, WGU was. That that's so great to hear. I'm I'm glad that it fit your your schedule, your busy schedule. And I want to ask a question on that. How did you juggle that all? You were working full-time, correct, in a very um high stress, demanding job. You have uh a large family that you just indicated, uh, and the thought of going back to school, uh, how did you juggle it

Studying With A Demanding Job

20:27

all? Well, 95 South traffic in uh DC areas is hideous. And so you can find yourself sitting in traffic for uh, you know, an hour at a time. But, you know, what you do is you know, you listen to your textbook on the drive home, right? You jot you dictate your notes, your thoughts, you organize them later. It doesn't have to be perfect in the beginning. Get the information out. And so uh the commute, though horrible, offered me some opportunities to be able to learn on the fly, you know, getting through the text, uh, reading the textbooks, writing down notes. And then as far as family, uh, you know, I have my space, right? I have a space I can come to. And so when things settled down, I'm I was able to put a little bit more time into actually executing the actual work itself. And so it's a it's a team approach, right? My wife is part of my team, my kids are part of the team, and so they know dad is trying to get after it. Uh, they offered that opportunity and support for me to step away, knowing that the job is demanding, life is demanding, but dad is trying to execute something here. And so uh WG allowed that flexibility though, to do things as fast as I needed to or slow as I needed to. Uh other institutions don't offer that. So awesome. I'm glad it worked out well. And uh, as you said, the rest is history and and you're thriving in your career. Uh, I wanted to ask a little bit about um really the the application of your degree because you were working full time. Um, how did earning that degree show? Sharpen or expand your leadership perspective?

Turning Leadership Theory Into Practice

22:04

In academia, we we can talk about uh leadership principles, theories, practices, case studies about leadership, right? Uh you can read the Harvard Business Review and you can get some notes from that. But really, it's the obtaining that information at the right time to be able to make it uh applicable. Uh WGU offered a framework that I had life, knowledge, and skills to be able to butt up against it. So it just, I wasn't just learning something just for the sake of knowing it and learning it. I was taking what I was learning, leadership theories and practice, authentic leadership, uh laissez-faire leadership versus servant leadership, taking these principles, looking at where I was in my career, looking at my team, and saying, you know what, I can apply this principle to lead in my team. Maybe I can be uh, you know, maybe I'll apply some servant leadership here. Maybe I need to uh uh situational leadership maybe calls for here. You know, like when we build a team, we're taking these different leadership theories and principles now and providing training. One of the things I did at GA was uh we helped develop, and I say we um I spearheaded an initiative to be able to cut down on training, leadership training. We used to have about three training courses spanning over eight days. Taking these leadership principles learnt at uh WGU, putting together a team of contractors and uh civilian um employees and saying, okay, here's what the training should look like. Let's make it five days because we want to make sure we can operationalize leadership in this in this vast environment and give some of the leaders their time back. And so I was able to take some of these leaderships and practices that I learned uh from WGU and apply them directly to how we uh did things at NGA.

Being An “Enhancer” By Asking Why

24:08

Now, you've described yourself as someone who can enhance an organization's security ecosystem. Uh what does that exactly mean? Can you elaborate on that? When I look at myself, I've been in many environments, right? You know, local law enforcement, state, uh, federal, uh, you know, special operations and canine, et cetera. You know, I could talk about my resume, but the the the totality of my my experience enables me to go in environments and ask the right questions. And so I typically, when I go into a team environment or a new team or take over a new team, I'm not looking at the protocols that we have in place, right? Obviously, we have uh policy and uh and and government-wide policies that give us our boundaries. But most of the most of the time in intelligence and security, we're bounded by those and we don't we don't see where the gray is, we don't see where the gray areas are, we don't ask why we're doing a particular process the way we are, we don't look for efficiencies. The reason I say I'm an enhancer because most of the team, the last few teams I've been on, I've been able to find a way to create efficiencies just by asking why are we doing it. If nobody can give me a directive that while we're doing it is in place and we can save more time by doing it a different way, I implement those actions. Right. And so the enhancement comes by just asking one the uncomfortable question, why are we doing it the way we're doing it? Are we doing it just for the sake of doing it? Or are you just so status quo? Going back to average leader, I didn't talk about average leaders, but average leaders will be okay with the way things are. Good leaders, they're gonna say, all right, where can we have better improvement? If you see Tiger Woods or, you know, Tom Brady throw a football, you can say, well, Tiger Woods, you know, doesn't slice, doesn't draw, he isn't perfect every time, but he still practices. He's still questioning what he can improve. He's still trying to find ways. Tom Brady, when he's throwing the football, you watch his mechanics, most of the time flawless, but he still has he still practices. He's still he's still asking the question where he can find enhancement. And so enhancement, the way I look at it, is being able to, if we're doing things right, what are what else are we doing wrong? Everything is not that perfect all the time. And I think when we get to a perfect state where things are just happening for us and it's going, and we're everything is we're on the hamster wheel, the processes are working, nobody ever steps a look, takes a step back and says, okay, is it still working? Can we be more efficient? And so, like any elite athlete, we're always looking for just that even if it's the smallest advantage. You think about race car drivers, anything that can shave a millisecond off, anything, they're looking for it. And so, and that's why I look at myself as an enhancer because I'll come into the organization and say, okay, great, we'll look at things, how they're being done, and then we start asking the question. Okay, this is cool, man. Like things are working good. How can we improve it? If you were king for a day, Jeff, how would you make things better here? That's a good question. Yeah. I like that you're asking questions. I like that you're introducing the critical thinking there uh to your team. That's that's fantastic.

Mentorship That Moves Careers Forward

27:43

On the topic of leadership, uh, you you mentioned earlier you had a mentor, and uh and I wanted to spend just a second here on the thought that in intelligence and security, that mentorship I think is often so informal, but it's also very, very critical. So um outside of your program enter here at WGU, I'm asking, who mentored you early? Uh and outside of your football coach, who mentored you? A senior intelligence official uh at NGA who's still one of my close friends now. Uh early in my career when I was at first started at NGA, um she ran like the budget. And so I was go beg for money for the K9 unit uh for our K9 team. And uh, but I think in these engagements uh with me, she seen something early because I had no inclination of coming into the building per se to uh work as an intelligence officer. And but she seen something in in me, and it was uh that what she seen in me actually catapulted me forward in my career because she's the one that said, Hey, you need an advanced degree, you need to have breadth and depth of experience. You should try to work here. Go talk to this person. She gave me just these snip bits of information and how-to that allowed me to not only advance in my career, but advance as a uh a person. And so uh we still we still talk, actually, we have a standing call on Saturdays and we still talk. Yeah, yeah. And you know, you know, I've been fortunate because not only does uh she mentor me, but it's a reverse mentorship where she will often call me and say, Okay, I have this scenario going on, like what would you do? How would you handle it? Um and that's been gratifying because uh, you know, for her to sit so high up in the organization and the intelligence community to be able to be able to provide some insights to her and still receive insights has been uh great. And it's one of the reasons that I I think I've advanced uh so far in my career. That's so cool that you've kept in contact with her, that you have that standing call, that she continues to mentor you. And then, like you said, you're in a reverse mentoring relationship. Uh outside of that relationship, how are you mentoring uh the next generation of leaders? Well, I have a son that's serving in the Navy on the USS Roosevelt. I have a daughter, uh uh two in college, and um I have two, one about to graduate high school and a uh rising uh junior. So uh then I have a five and six year old. So when I and I say that first because I take care of my home first. And so I am a mentor, a dad, a coach to my kids uh first. And they because they come to me. They I got young adults now that are asking, you know, how to set up their LinkedIn account. They're you know, asking about job internships within uh the government. They're they're looking for these opportunities uh to be able to step into the the workforce. And uh as a consequence, I'm able to provide to them uh mentorship, not just fatherhood, but mentorship to be able to get, you know, you know, uh push their career forward. Now, outside of that, I have many people in different sectors, and I say many, um, but uh quite a few people I have standing calls with. And uh some are in the military, some are are business owners, uh, and we talk about advancement, growth, and um, you know, how to get to the next level, kind of, you know, and so I talked to a lot of people, um, I say about five standing mentees uh that I talked to. Yes. Uh and I I like to play golf, and I had a conversation with a guy uh a couple of days ago, and he's coming out of the military, and um he asked me about WGU because he knew I was in the commercial. And so I said, I'm gonna get you uh linked up with our military's affairs, and because he's trying to transition out. And so that's another point of uh at least mentorship or coaching uh for me because he was very engaged about WGU and uh hopefully I can help him as well as he uh figures his journey out at the military. That's really cool. Well, you're you're an inspiration to a lot of people, your family. Uh I know I can say that for myself, for those in this WGU community and and and the five or six that you're that you have uh a um mentor relationship with currently.

The Olympics Commercial And “Common Sense”

32:31

Um you you mentioned something uh just a second ago, and that was that you were in a commercial. So um again, thank you for being the the face uh literally of WGU. Uh tell me a little bit about that experience, and I understand um it it aired quite a bit during the Olympics, right? And you were getting texts and you were getting messages from folks uh that you were on the that you were on the big screen. So tell me a little bit about that. Uh the experience for the um for the commercial was great, man. Uh they flew me out to headquarters in Utah, and um I was able to meet with a great team, some of your uh peers um at headquarters, and they took care of us. It was basically a conversation though. We had a great conversation about my experience and um, you know, the uh the consequence of that that conversation was a commercial. Um you know, people were seeing random people in the neighborhood were going to pizza local pizza shops or delis and they're like taking screenshots and sending it to me. Um but the experience itself is I I really was great, but I really hope people can, you know, in that you know, snip snippet of my story, be able to get the sense of passion that I have for WGU because it really allowed me to uh advance in my career uh and and show some of the competencies that I do have uh in in this highly competitive work environment that we're we're currently in. Uh but the team could took care of me when I flew out to uh Salt Lake City. I got to meet uh a lot of the other team members, a lot of people in other different uh different regions uh who are uh shooting commercials for their region and hearing some of their stories was very interesting, man. That's really cool. Well, it was great to see you out here, and uh your commercial uh is fantastic. So I'm curious when you're telling somebody about WGU, and I know in our conversations you've referred a lot, you're always sharing that with people. What's one word that you would use to describe your WGU experience uh to others? If we use a hype and I hype and I say common sense, uh yeah, and I and I say common sense because education shouldn't it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg. Yeah. You want an education for return on investment. You know, gain the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities to be able to be competitive in the workplace without having to worry about going into debt. And too many Americans go to college, uh, they spend four years to walk away, uh, to not work one, not working the field that they want, and two be in uh a lot of debt. I think WGU, uh, like I said earlier, uh took a common sense approach to education. Let's not make it overly complicated. Let's not um charge the bank, throw the bet the per throw the purse at the uh student just to get an education. WGU provides accredited, um, high-quality education with great staff, great mentors, uh, a great infrastructure, and uh a large alumni body uh that most institutions don't have. And to me, this is common sense. This is how education was supposed to be. And I think the founders of WGU got it right. I think that's the essence of where they were coming from. Let's not make this thing complicated. Let's get people the skills they need at an affordable price, and let's not waste their time while doing it. And I think that's why WGU uh uh took a common sense approach to education. Well said. Well

AI, Doctoral Goals, And Rapid Fire

36:15

said, sir. Errol, it's been so fun to talk to you. Uh I I want to kind of just look um forward now uh briefly. Uh tell me what's kind of coming up in in your life, uh both professionally and personally. What what's what's on your radar? So professionally, we're just trying to advance the program. Obviously, um AI is a big thing. And so we're trying to find a way to intelligently integrate uh artificial intelligence into what we're doing. Um a lot of changes going on across the Department of War generally generally. And so um we just want to make sure we're prepared and prepared and we're agile uh for any changes that's coming along. But while we're folks focusing on my team, we just want to make sure we're prepared for the advances in technology. That's great. How about personally? So personally, um I am gonna submit my chapter one for my dissertation, hopefully uh this week. So uh hopefully I am finished my doctorate this year in 2026, hopefully around June. Uh, and then you know that's that's my biggest goal. I want to stay hyper focused on that. Uh I've been playing around with some coding and uh hopefully we can uh create something that can uh send us into retirement. But outside of being more intelligent about uh artificial intelligence, learning, uh and filling those skills gaps, uh finishing school personally is uh is a is a big thing, big one for me. That's great. Well, congratulations on the success and and good luck with uh with yet another another large project, uh something that I know I'm sure takes a lot of your time. Well, Ariel, uh I want to um shift over and do a little bit of a rapid fire round, uh, what we're calling from the nest. So you're ready for a quick fire round? Uh just answer, quick answer, first thing that comes to your mind. Sound okay? Okay. All right. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Night owl. Uh what's a leadership word that you live by? Authentic. One habit that keeps you operating at a high level? Reading. Uh, biggest misconception about security professionals. Uh they're coming after you. Uh, book or resource you recommend to leaders? 48 Laws of Power, Robert Green. What's your favorite restaurant in the nation's capital? Team's. And what makes you proud to be a WGU alum? The people. Right on. All right, you're off the hot seat. Nice, nicely done. Um, this this has been a great interview. Uh again, uh so great to catch up with you. So great to have you share a little bit more in depth about your story and about the work that you're

Final Advice And Staying Connected

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doing. Uh, as we wrap today's interview, I'd love to give you the final word. Uh so what's on your mind? What what else do you want to share with our our listeners, uh, those both in the alumni community, um, those uh current students, and also those that might be considering WGU? Well, for those considering WGU, do it. Um, you know, don't procrastinate, uh, don't get decision paralysis. WGU does offer a return on investment, and you have a large alumni council um uh group um that will support you once you graduate. And uh for people in general look, uh be kind, you know, treat people how you want to be treated, and leaders um lead with the intention of making people better. Your role doesn't define you, uh the people define you in that role. So I'll leave you with that. I love that. Well, thank you for the time. We know you're a busy man, lots uh uh on your plate, but we appreciate again you being such an advocate for WGU and for sharing your story today. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. All right. Take it easy. Yeah, thank you. You as well. Hey Errol, thank you for your leadership, your service, and your continued advocacy of WGU. And thanks to our listeners of the WGU Alumni Podcast. If today's episode challenged you to level up your leadership, share it with someone who needs the reminder that growth doesn't stop when you reach a title, it starts there. And as always, visit wgu.edu slash alumni to learn more ways to stay engaged, to learn about the resources, benefits, and stay connected to the greatest alumni community on the planet. Thanks, Ariel. Thanks everybody, and stay safe.