Binghamton University said Alexander S. Vindman will receive a SUNY honorary doctorate in May. The award presentation will happen during the university’s commencement.
Vindman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and former director of European affairs for the U.S. National Security Council, will receive the Doctor of Laws during the College of Community and Public Affairs ceremony at 12:30 p.m. May 10.
A retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, Vindman is a former director for European affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vindman and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1979. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Binghamton University, where he was in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army’s Infantry Branch in 1999. Later, he earned a master’s degree in Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian studies from Harvard University and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he is now a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute.
During his military service, Vindman completed tours in South Korea, Germany and Iraq. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds sustained from a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004. He also received nearly two dozen commendations and decorations for his meritorious and valorous service.
Vindman became a foreign area officer with expertise in Russia and Eastern Europe. Fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, he served in U.S. embassies in Kyiv and Moscow and was a Eurasian specialist in Washington, D.C. In 2018, Vindman was appointed director for European affairs at the National Security Council, where he developed and oversaw policies managing national security issues at all levels.
He became prominent in October 2019 when he was subpoenaed and testified at former President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice, stemming from a phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July 2019.
Vindman retired from the military in 2020 and is now head of the national security think tank, the Institute for Informed American Leadership. He is also an executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, a senior advisor to VoteVets and a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation. Additionally, he wrote the New York Times bestselling memoir, “Here, Right Matters: An American Story,” and leads the Here Right Matters Foundation.
Vindman frequently shares his expertise on national media outlets and remains engaged with decision-makers in Washington and Kyiv.