D.A. Sims is a highly accomplished senior leader with 34 years of service as a U.S. Army officer, culminating in multiple senior-level positions at the highest echelons of the Department of Defense. He has led organizations ranging in size from small elite teams of 40 to large, complex enterprises of over 35,000 personnel, consistently delivering operational excellence, strategic innovation and mission success at scale.
As the director of the Joint Staff, he served as the principal advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leading global coordination across all military services and working directly with combatant commanders, interagency leaders and international partners. He played a leading role in the Department’s integration of artificial intelligence and digital tools, guiding policy development, operational applications and governance for AI-enabled decision-making and force design.
In previous roles, including director for operations (J-3) and commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley, he directed global joint operations, crisis response and large-scale organizational transformation. He oversaw and executed budgets ranging from $250 million to $1.6 billion, ensuring fiscal discipline while modernizing forces and improving readiness. At Fort Riley, he launched the Victory Wellness Program, a pioneering initiative to enhance the holistic well-being—mental, physical, emotional and spiritual—of soldiers, families and civilians across the installation.
A 1991 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he holds a Master of Arts from Webster University and was a National Defense Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2011 to 2012. He is widely respected for his strategic vision, operational expertise and people-first leadership and continues to advise on national defense, emerging technologies and executive-level decision-making.
He has been married to his wife for 34 years and they are the proud parents of a daughter who lives and works in New York City.
- Strategic leadership; operational planning and execution; political-military engagement; interagency and international engagement; crises management and executive decision making