Kristan J. Wheaton

Professor of Intelligence Studies, Mercyhurst College


Kris’s research interests include the use of games in teaching intelligence analysis and intelligence support to entrepreneurs.  His games are currently used by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to teach analysts how to recognize and overcome cognitive biases.  His research has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today and Public Radio International.

He is a retired Foreign Area Officer with the US Army who specializes in national security matters, competitive intelligence, analytic methods, intelligence communications, game-based learning and intelligence support to entrepreneurs.

He has served as a defense and legal attaché to various US embassies and missions in Europe.  He has also served in various intelligence or intelligence related billets including the S-2 to the 559th Artillery Group in Vicenza, Italy, Attaché to the Office of the Legal Counselor in The Hague; and Chief of European Analysis at the Directorate of Intelligence, EUCOM, in Stuttgart.

Kris is also the author of The Warning Solution: Intelligent Analysis In The Age Of Information Overload and How To Get A Job In Intelligence and co-author of Structured Analysis of Competing Hypotheses: Theory And Application and Wikis In Intelligence Analysis. He is the owner and founder of Sources and Methods Games.

He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina, an MA (Russian and East European Studies) from Florida State University and a BBA (Accounting) from the University Of Notre Dame.

He is the recipient of the CIA Seal Medallion and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and is a member of the South Carolina Bar.