Greg Vogle
Professor of the Practice, Director of the Intelligence Studies Program
Gregory W. Vogle joined the faculty at the Bush School following a distinguished thirty-year career in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where his work was in the Directorate of Operations. Mr. Vogle’s responsibilities ranged from Chief of Station in South Asia, a position that included overseeing intelligence collection and covert action conducted by hundreds of personnel, to his last assignment as Deputy Director for Operations, where he reported directly to the Director of CIA and managed a several-billion-dollar budget. As Director of Special Activities Center, Mr. Vogle led a large complement of paramilitary officers in areas of conflict across the globe. In addition, he holds the distinction of being the first civilian to be selected as Deputy Commander to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
Michael W. Howell ’91
Associate Professor of the Practice, Intelligence Studies Program
Email Professor Howell
Michael W. Howell joined the faculty as an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of International Affairs in the fall of 2019. Howell graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies at the Naval War College, graduating with distinction. He also attended a Kellogg School of Management Executive Course at Northwestern University and completed a postgraduate class in terrorism studies through the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
In his twenty-three years as an FBI agent, Howell investigated domestic and international complex crimes and terrorism as well as led and supervised training for FBI agents and support and executive personnel. He was an Adjunct Instructor at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and served as the Coordinator of the FBI Academy’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (LEEDS) and International Law Enforcement Training (ILEA) for North Texas, where he worked with police chiefs and sheriffs from over 250 departments.
Howell’s international experience includes assignments as Assistant and Acting Legal Attaché in U.S. embassies, where he routinely provided expert advice in law enforcement and terrorism matters to U.S. ambassadors on host nation capabilities, criminal cases, and threats to U.S. interests. Howell also had multiple assignments to countries in the Middle East and Europe for operations and training related to terrorism, criminal cases, and intelligence matters.
Katherine T. Weary ’01
Assistant Professor of the Practice, Intelligence Studies Program
Email Professor Weary
The Bush School is pleased to announce that Katherine Thoroughman Weary has joined the Department of International Affairs as an Assistant Professor of the Practice, specializing in writing and analysis under the intelligence concentration. She started teaching as a part-time lecturer in the spring of 2017 and now teaches several classes, including Analytic Tradecraft, Advanced Analytic Tradecraft, Briefing Tradecraft, and an international affairs capstone student research project.
Weary has held several key positions at the Department of Defense’s National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As a Senior Intelligence Analyst at NSA, she produced intelligence products for senior government and military officials on a variety of sensitive targets in various offices. She also served as NSA’s Office of International Security Issues Intelligence Analyst Advisor, charged with training new analysts and succession planning. Separately, Weary was placed as an Integrated Analyst at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s National Intelligence Council on the Near East portfolio, where she directly supported IC participation in the National Security Council process. Prior to her time at Ft. Meade, she worked as a contractor in several offices at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including the Office of Intelligence Analysis.
Before joining the intelligence community, she served in the George W. Bush administration in the Secretary’s Office at the U.S. Department of Education. Her undergraduate work experience included time at the U.S. State Department’s Office of Policy and Global Issues and at the Office of President George H. W. Bush in Houston.
Weary completed a significant amount of coursework at NSA’s National Cryptologic School and the CIA’s Kent School on advanced analytics, structured analytic techniques, advanced approaches to critical thinking, writing for the President’s Daily Brief, and telecommunications technologies. She earned her master’s in security policy studies with concentrations in transnational security threats and national security policy from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University in 2005 and a Certificate in International Affairs from the Bush School in 2002. She received her BA in history from Texas A&M University in 2001, where she also minored in English and political science.
James M. Olson
Professor of the Practice Emeritus
Email Professor Olson
Professor James Olson received his law degree from the University of Iowa. He is a Professor of the Practice Emeritus at the Bush School, where he teaches courses on intelligence and counterintelligence. He served for over thirty years in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, mostly overseas in clandestine operations. In addition to several foreign assignments, he was Chief of Counterintelligence at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Olson has been awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the Donovan Award, and several Distinguished Service Citations. He is the recipient of awards from the Bush School and the Association of Former Students for excellence in teaching. Professor Olson is the author of Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying and To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence. Prior to his career in the CIA, he served in the U.S. Navy, where he attained the rank of lieutenant commander.