Faculty
Director: Mr. Tim Barrick
Mr. Barrick served in the Marine Corps for 29 years, retiring as a colonel in spring 2021. He served in a wide range of billets including command of 1st Tank Battalion and the Marine Corps Tactics & Operations Group. He also served in key planning positions on the staffs of Marine Forces Japan, Marine Forces Europe & Africa, and deployed on three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served as a brigade advisor team lead working with Afghan security forces in 2011-12. In his last tour on active duty, he was the Wargaming Director for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, focused on analyzing future warfighting and the Marine Corps’ force design. He is also the lead designer for the Operational Wargame System and its Assassin’s Mace and Zapad game modules, which examine great power conflict at the tactical and operational levels of war. He is also a leading innovator for commercial wargaming tools in professional military education. He is a distinguished graduate of the Marine Corps War College and the Naval War College, and an honor graduate of the Amphibious Warfare School. He also served as the Director of Leaders & Ethics at the Marine Corps War College. In addition to his masters degrees from these PME schools, he also earned a master’s degree in Military Studies in Land Warfare from American Military University and is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a degree in Political Science.
Deputy Director: Mrs. Calleen Bottenberg
Mrs. Bottengberg's biography is in the works!
Modeling and Simulations Officer, Captain Timothy "Nate" Tidwell, USMC
Capt Tidwell began his Marine Corps career serving as a platoon commander at 3d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. After his second deployment to the Pacific, Capt Tidwell received orders to Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to pursue an MS in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulations (MOVES). Capt Tidwell's research at NPS focused on artifical intelligence for wargaming, specifically leveraging reinforcement learning and multi-model approaches to develop combat simulation agents. In addition to his MS in MOVES, Capt Tidwell holds a BS in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy.
If you would like to contact the Wargaming Directorate, please email MCUWargamingDirectorate@USMCU.edu.