Nick Mann '26 spent 15 years as a licensed maritime officer and Army reservist before completing his master’s in maritime trade and supply chain management, a degree he pursued to broaden his expertise beyond military logistics into the wider maritime industry.
Nick Mann ’26 has spent his career keeping the Navy supplied, fueled and ready. To continue his growth in the maritime industry and as a lifelong learner, he's adding a graduate degree to the mix.
Mann, a program analyst with Military Sealift Command (MSC), is completing his Master of Science in Maritime Trade and Supply Chain Management online through ODU's School of Supply Chain, Logistics and Maritime Operations. He pursued the degree after spending years engineering the conditions that would make it possible. The Chesapeake resident will receive his master’s at ODU’s 2026 Spring Commencement.
After a career spent focused on the military side, ODU's program reintroduced him to commercial operations, supply chain theory and port logistics. He also credited ODU's location next to one of the busiest part on the East Coast for the caliber of faculty the program attracts.
“Very few universities offer something like this,” he said. “ODU decided to specialize based on the talent of its faculty and its geographic position to the port of Virginia. That makes a tremendous amount of sense.”
The master’s has given Mann the opportunity to meld a theoretical lens to the practical experience he received over the past 15 years in logistics.
“There's a tendency as you grow in your career to get more and more specialized,” Mann said. “This degree has been a way to step back and see the bigger picture of an industry I've been operating inside of for a long time.”
Mann grew up in Wisconsin near the Great Lakes, where commercial shipping was part of the landscape. When he started looking at federal service academies in high school, the United States Merchant Marine Academy caught his attention. He graduated in 2011 and went straight to sea.
Mann's first five years were spent as a licensed officer on MSC ships—tankers, dry cargo, ammunition ships, special mission vessels—sailing to the Middle East, around Asia, and Europe. MSC, which is based in the world’s largest naval base at Naval Station Norfolk, occupies a unique niche in the American military. Its ships are crewed largely by federal civilian employees rather than uniformed sailors. Mann thrived in that world, but by 2016, married with children, he was ready to return to land.
He transitioned to a shore-side training role within MSC, flying out to ships several times a year to deliver hands-on instruction in firefighting, damage control and security. It kept him in the maritime world, but he felt like he didn’t have room to grow in that position.
In 2021, he did something most reservists don't: he volunteered for active duty.
He was assigned to a unit at Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia, handling cargo loading and oversight, including explosive materials. The Army logistics familiarized him with shore-side operations, which gave him a new institutional context. The work also provided some stability after years of either living aboard ships or traveling constantly for training. He was home every night with a reliable internet connection, so he enrolled in ODU's online program and kept extending his active-duty commitment, one year at a time, for three-and-a-half years.
While Mann mobilized for active military service, he also carefully constructed a runway for his future.
When his orders ended in December 2024, he didn't return to his old training role. MSC recruited him into a program analyst position overseeing vessel readiness, which included scheduling maintenance periods, managing budget allocations, and ensuring ships are mission-capable before the Navy takes operational control at sea. His resume, by that point, displayed the diversity for which he strived: licensed officer, MSC trainer, Army logistics, and now a graduate degree in maritime trade.
“Every step has been about making sure I'm not stuck in one corner of this industry,” Mann said. “You just keep stacking all those little building blocks together. That's what opens up different opportunities.”
Interested in following Mann’s path? In ODU’s online program, you will gain practical skills to identify problems, analyze data and design solutions for more efficient port and supply chain management.
