Todd Tinius
BAM Student
Lifelong learner and memoirist-in-progress.
Army Veteran and public servant.
Devoted to telling stories that matter and designing experiences that serve.
Mini-Bio
Todd is a retired U.S. Army officer and former West Point instructor. He is employed as a Customer Experience Strategist for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Experience Office. With over three decades of leadership and facilitation experience, Todd’s post-military career has been marked by significant contributions to Veteran support and services. Todd’s academic pursuits reflect his commitment to lifelong learning, with a master’s in philosophy and extensive graduate studies across diverse fields. An advocate for human-centered design, he is passionate about making a meaningful impact through his work. Todd balances his professional endeavors with family life in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley and graduate studies in the Biography and Memoir program at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, where he’s penning his military memoirs. He loves to write but wants to push himself to continually improve. His interests span from family, travel, literature to nature, with a particular fondness for reading and introspection. Todd aims for his life story to reflect the enduring spirit of the U.S. Army’s recruitment motto that resonated with him in the early 1980s when he enlisted: “Be All You Can Be.”
Contact
Education
- Indiana University Southeast – BA, Political Science.
Indiana University – MA, Philosophy.
CUNY Graduate Center – MALS Student (no degree). - CUNY Graduate Center – MA, Biography and Memoir —in progress.
Publications
Forthcoming -maybe.
Projects
- My life —sense of self, character development, other-regarding, writerly self.
Who Am I? Often, the person we know least is ourselves. This is the paradox of proximity—we’re so close to our own thoughts and experiences that it’s hard to see ourselves clearly. We wear masks for others and, over time, forget we’re even wearing them, blurring the line between role and reality. Add to that the fact that we are constantly changing—who we were yesterday may not be who we are today—making self-understanding a moving target. And sometimes, we avoid self-reflection altogether, protecting ourselves from uncomfortable truths we may not be ready to face.Therefore, I am undergoing an archaeological self-assessment of my life—carefully excavating memories, moments, and meanings long buried. Through writing my memoirs, I’m not just recounting events; I’m sifting through the layers of who I’ve been, who I pretended to be, and who I’m still becoming.
Academic Interests
Biography and Memoir; military memoir; Genealogy; Literature; Philosophy; History; monasticism; Western Esotericism; folklore, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; history of electricity; Faust legend; Stoicism; Johannes Trithemius (Johann Heidenberg); Wordsworth’s The Prelude
