Johnathan Proctor
Citizen
public servant
polymath
creative
Stoic Polymath Studios is my online presence and creative outlet. it has been an idea and aspiration for several months, and in 2025 I finally decided to make it happen, starting an effort to express myself more through writing, showcase my academic and artistic work, and inspire and inform others
Citizen
I am a father and husband living in the greater Washington, DC area. While my family is originally from Michigan, I grew up primarily in the south and consider Franklin County, VA to be my hometown. That’s where I spent my formative years in middle and high school, and it is where I’d return home to during college and throughout my United States Air Force (USAF) career.
Through my time in the USAF and subsequent civilian career, I have had the amazing opportunity to live all across the United States. It seemed like every assignment would take me one more time zone west I as went from Louisiana to Texas, Idaho, Nevada, and finally Alaska before separating from the USAF. Since then, I have lived in Virginia and Nebraska. I love forests and mountains, and my absolute favorite places have been those with ready access to one or both.
public servant
So far, the entirety of my career has been as a civil servant. I started out by being commissioned in the USAF as a 2nd Lieutenant through the Duke University ROTC program and served on active duty for just over seven years. Upon separating from the Air Force, I became a DoD civilian and have continued to serve in the national security field in a variety of positions across several agencies, locations, and missions. I’ve experiencing every level of national defense from the most tactical level (389th Fighter Squadron, Mountain Home AFB) to the most strategic (Joint Chiefs of Staff).
Even at the strategic level of government, my focus is on the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and our committed allies. I support the warfighter. Even when developing policies, conducting research, or supporting the highest levels of decision making, my definitive objective is to provide national-level leaders with the decision and operational advantage that ultimately serves those in uniform with whom I once served at the tactical level.
As for the future, I have learned enough from my past to understand there’s no limit to where I might end up doing in the coming years. Where do I see myself in five year? I have some ideas, but the only thing I can say with true confidence is that, wherever it is physically and professionally, I’ll be working to make a difference and apply my strengths in the service of others.
Polymath
I consider myself to fit the academic description of a polymath, or what others have referred to as a Renaissance Soul. This was somewhat apparent even in high school, where I went to the Roanoke Valley Governor’s School for Science and Technology, but also received scholarships and recognition in liberal arts pursuits. I was both a varsity wrestler and lead actor in both plays and musicals. In college I started out heavily in math and the physical sciences, but then transitioned to a degree in comparative area studies.
My career and personal life have continued this trend. No matter where my career or interests take me, I am passionate about developing a deep knowledge about the subject, pursuing excellence, and making connections to other disciplines and experiences. This led me to attend the United States Air Force Weapons School, becoming an expert in air tactics and operations. It led me to branch out to quantitative social science in graduate school, where I focused on game theory and mathematical modeling of conflict. Most recently, it led me to a two-year research fellowship at the National Intelligence University to conduct a grounded theory study of warning, switching from perhaps the most quantitative of approaches to the most qualitative. Even in my hobbies and creative pursuits, such as tabletop gaming and miniatures painting, I am drawn to the underlying theories and always work to achieve excellence through intense study and competition.
My particular manifestation of polymathy does have one core trend throughout all of my pursuits, scholarship. I am an academic at heart, and I am at my absolute best when I am in a more academic environment; learning, researching, writing, and teaching. Starting in approximately 2020, I have come to fully understand and embrace this element of myself and am actively working to build a core brand/reputation as a researcher and scholar. I love teaching, but I also love theory development to create ideas that help solve wicked problems, and I am working to focus more on formal research, writing, and publication in the coming years.
creative
Through a long process of self-reflection, trying to figure out who I am rather than who I was supposed to be, I came to realize that creativity is one of my core values. I have most often expressed this by working to create ideas, theories, frameworks, and solutions to extremely complicated issues. More recently, it has also manifested as a passion in painting miniatures and an interest in game design. A significant underlying motivation for creating this site and writing more is to help motivate and develop both my artistic and academic creativity.