About me
Brigadier General Shane Reeves is the 15th Dean of the Academic Board at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he leads the Academy’s academic enterprise and serves as its chief academic officer. He oversees more than 800 faculty and staA across 13 departments, manages a budget of approximately $80 million, and guides a curriculum spanning 35 majors and 14 minors. A respected leader, educator, and legal scholar, he has built a career defined by service, innovation, and a deep commitment to developing leaders of character.
A 1996 graduate of West Point, he began his Army career as an Armor Officer in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, leading soldiers at the platoon and troop levels. Selected for the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program, he earned his J.D. from the College of William & Mary - graduating in the top ten percent of his class and serving on Law Review - before completing an LL.M. in Military Law at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. As a Judge Advocate, he served as Chief of Legal Assistance at Fort Riley, Brigade Judge Advocate in Iraq with the 1st Armored Division, Senior Trial Counsel with the 1st Infantry Division, and Deputy Legal Advisor at Joint Special Operations Command. His combat and legal service were recognized with awards including the Bronze Star.
He has spent more than a decade shaping legal and strategic thinking at West Point. As Head of the Department of Law he founded the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare, now a global hub for scholarship on the law of armed conflict, and co-founded Articles of War, an influential platform for national security practitioners and scholars. He also taught constitutional, military, international, and operational law; mentored students and faculty; and directed core academic programs.
As Dean, he led the Academy through its most significant academic transformation in more than thirty years, modernizing programs to strengthen interdisciplinary learning and intellectual agility. He established the West Point Press, the Academy’s first publishing arm in its 223-year history and raised a $16 million endowment to support scholarly work. He also founded the West Point Werx Innovation Hub and laid the groundwork for a large-scale Technology Integration Complex. These efforts drove substantial growth in externally funded research and strengthened West Point’s partnerships across the Department of Defense, industry, and academia. The Hub now provides a focal point for applied scholarship and experimentation, enabling cadets and faculty to engage directly with real-world problems facing the Army and the nation. Altogether, his leadership has helped secure more than $135 million in donor support and fueled major facility upgrades exceeding $1 billion.
A prolific writer with more than 50 publications, his scholarship has appeared in the Harvard National Security Journal, Harvard International Review, Texas Law Review, Marquette Law Review, and other leading journals. His commentary has been featured in Foreign Policy, Lawfare, Just Security, and War on the Rocks. He served as Managing Editor of the Oxford University Press Lieber Studies series and has edited foundational texts on U.S. military operations and the law.
A sought-after speaker and moderator, he has presented to the Federal Judges Association, Columbia Law School, UC Berkeley, the World Governments Summit in Dubai, AUSA, SXSW, and audiences around the world. Through his podcast, Inside West Point: Ideas That Impact, he has hosted conversations with leaders including Chief Justice John Roberts, Elon Musk, NATO Secretary General Rutte, H.R. McMaster, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, and others.
He is admitted to practice before the Virginia State Bar, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has earned honors including the Order of St. George (Bronze Medallion) and NATO’s Serge Lazareff Prize.
He is deeply connected to the West Point community where he coached youth sports for more than a decade, supports local church and civic programs, and mentors cadets and young officers. He and his wife, Kimberly, have three children and have proudly called West Point home for fifteen years. Upon retirement, Brigadier General Reeves will serve as the 29th President of the University of Wyoming.
