About
Mike Galloucis was born and raised in the metro Boston area. After completing the Army ROTC program at Northeastern University in June 1980, he was commissioned an Army 2nd Lieutenant on the top deck of the USS Constitution in Boston.
He served 30 years on active duty (1980-2010) as an Army officer during the Cold War and later the Global War on Terrorism, was assigned for a total of more than 8 years overseas in Germany, the Republic of Korea and Iraq and was promoted five times up to the rank of colonel (O6).
Mike was on duty and working inside the Pentagon in the Army Operations Center (AOC) on September 11, 2001 when the building was attacked by foreign terrorists flying a hijacked commercial jet. During his Army career, Mike was selected by senior officers to lead Army units at many levels of increasing scope and responsibility, including Platoon Leader, Company Commander, Battalion Commander and as the Commander of a Brigade Task Force consisting of nearly 5,000 American Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors in Iraq for 15 months before and during the historic surge of U.S. military units in the spring of 2007 during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) under the overall leadership of General David H. Petraeus. His Brigade provided direct support to a U.S. Corps headquarters, three U.S. Army Divisions and two U.S. Marine Corps Regimental Combat Teams.
In addition to his active duty experience serving in different leadership positions, Mike served in many senior staff positions while in the Army, including as Chief, Print Media Branch in the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs; Media Advisor and Media Spokesman for the four-star general serving as the 33rd Army Chief of Staff; Senior Speechwriter for the 35th Army Chief of Staff; and on the Department of Defense Staff as the initial Deputy Director and Chief of Staff of the Defense Media Activity, which at the time had over 1,500 military and civilian personnel assigned, was dispersed in 8 states and 15 countries and had an annual budget of $265 million.
After the Army, Mike was appointed and served more than a decade as member of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service (SES) with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs initially at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and later in Georgia and Florida. His VA assignments included Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Strategic Communication and later acting Assistant Secretary of VA’s Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in Washington D.C., which had field offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and New York City. Mike also provided executive oversight of and was responsible for the VA’s Office of National Veterans Sports Programs.
When he retired from the VA in May 2022, Mike had served our country in the military and as a federal civil servant for a total of nearly 41 years. He currently is the Director of Strategic Communication for the Gates Global Policy Center, founded and chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. Mike also serves as a board member of the Boston-based nonprofit organization the New England Center and Home for Veterans (NECHV).
Mike has a Master’s of Science degree in National Security Strategy and completed several resident strategic leadership and communication programs, including the Civility Leadership Institute; an Academy Fellowship at the Heritage Foundation; Senior Executive Program at the Kenan Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill; Department of Defense Executive Leadership Development Program; Vanguard Senior Leadership Program; National War College; U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; a graduate-level fellowship in Public Affairs and Diplomacy at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University; and an Advanced Seminar in Media Studies at Harvard. His articles have been published in The Washington Post, Washington Times, Patriot Ledger, Military Review, Army magazine, Assembly magazine, Today’s Officer, Military Police and several other publications. He has appeared and/or been interviewed on ABC News, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN, National Public Radio (NPR) and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio.
Mike’s expertise covers a myriad of areas, including change management, community engagement and relations, corporate communication, crisis communication, digital/social media engagement, executive communication, improving customer experience (CX), improving employee experience (EX), leadership, leading a virtual team, media relations, publications, public speaking, speechwriting, stakeholder engagement, team building, translating a strategic vision into results, understanding military culture, working with the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA), etc.
His special recognition includes VA’s Distinguished Career Award, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Legion of Merit, selection as an “Outstanding Young Man in America” in 1991 and induction into the U.S. Army Military Police Corps Hall of Fame in September 2020.
He has been married to the former Therese L. Boozer, a board-certified dentist, for 36 years. They have an adult daughter and son, a two-year-old grandson and a black lab/pit bull mix rescue dog. Mike is a passionate Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox fan.