LCDR Grace Kennedy, MSC, USN
Assistant Professor, Leadership, Ethics and Law
- Phone: (410) 293-6587
- E-mail: gkennedy@usna.edu
- Department of Leadership, Ethics, Law Luce Hall (Mail Stop 7-B) 112 Cooper Road Annapolis, MD 21402
Lieutenant Commander Grace A. Kennedy, a native of Norton, Massachusetts, graduated summa cum laude from Assumption College in 2010 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology, Sociology, and Music, which included a year of study at Oxford University. Prior to her military service, she managed a residential facility for adults with developmental disabilities and served as a research assistant at Boston Children’s Hospital. During this time, she also supported coursework at the Harvard Extension School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Lieutenant Commander Kennedy received her direct commission into the United States Navy Medical Service Corps in 2020 through the clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. She earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University in 2021. Throughout her doctoral training, she spearheaded multiple process improvement projects that directly increased patient access to timely evidenced-based mental health care.
In October 2021, she reported to Naval Hospital Guam, serving as Division Officer for Guam’s sole Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program and as the inaugural Expanded Operational Stress Control (E-OSC) Senior Consultant for Navy Region Marianas. Last, she served as Co-Chair and mental health subject matter expert for a specialized Naval Medical Forces Pacific care team, overseeing the healthcare of 300 service members.
In August 2024, Lieutenant Commander Kennedy reported to II Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) Information Group as Department Head for the Operational Stress Control and Readiness (OSCAR) Clinic. As the sole embedded clinical psychologist supporting approximately 10,000 service members, she advised 12 commanding officers across II MEF on psychological readiness and duty dispositioning. During this tour, she led a quality improvement initiative evaluating embedded care pathways and established II MEF’s first embedded social work fellowship rotation. She earned her Fleet Marine Force Warfare Officer designation in 2025.
Lieutenant Commander Kennedy joined the U.S. Naval Academy faculty in July 2026 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and conducts research. She is board-certified in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and licensed by the Virginia Board of Psychology. She has authored or co-authored 20 peer- reviewed publications. Her personal decorations include the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (two awards) and the Joint Service Achievement Medal.
