Our Founders

Chris Howell co-founded Warrior-Scholar Project with two of his Yale classmates, Nick Rugoff and Jesse Reising. Chris spent a year at the University of Sydney before transferring to Yale through the Eli Whitney Students Program — an admissions program for non-traditional students with unique or extraordinary backgrounds. He graduated in 2014. Prior to college, Chris spent almost nine years serving in the Australian Army, predominately in special operations with the 2nd Commando Regiment. He served in Afghanistan in 2006 with the Special Operations Task Group and subsequently in the Tactical Assault Group (East), Australia’s domestic counterterrorism and hostage rescue capability.

Chris wanted to attend university but had performed poorly in high school. So, he and his brother, David, then a top student at the University of Sydney, worked together to improve his academic reading and writing skills. Warrior-Scholar Project was designed as a formalized version of Chris’ experience successfully transitioning from the military to university. Chris served as the executive director of Warrior-Scholar Project from its inception until September 2015. He now works in the International Humanitarian Law and International Justice space.