Markus Fornelius, MEM ‘25, Prepares for His Next Mission

Markus Fornelius has built a career working in high-stakes environments. 

He began as a division officer at sea, balancing mission readiness, personnel and equipment inside nuclear propulsion plants aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and destroyers. This demanding work aboard vessels like the USS George Washington often required steady, hands-on leadership.

Those experiences eventually brought him ashore to Charleston, South Carolina, where he joined the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command (NNPTC) as an instructor. It was there that he began preparing the next generation of Naval officers to operate nuclear reactors on submarines and aircraft carriers.

But after years of service to the fleet, first at sea and now in the classroom, Fornelius started looking toward the future. He decided to begin searching for a way to formalize the management experience he had gained in practice and to prepare for life beyond the Navy.

Choosing the NC State Online Master of Engineering Management

For Fornelius, the decision to pursue the online Master of Engineering Management (MEM) degree wasn’t a leap of faith. It was a natural next step.

“Engineering management fits very well into my Navy experience,” he said. “As a division officer on a ship, I found myself constantly balancing personnel requirements to mission requirements to material requirements, especially when operating inside a nuclear power plant on an aircraft carrier.” A master’s degree, he felt, would give formal shape to what he’d already been living and implementing out at sea.

Fornelius enrolled in the NC State MEM program during his shore tour in Charleston. This timing made enrolling in the master’s program more realistic than it had been in the years prior. “It is much easier to accomplish compared to on the ship with the lighter workload on a shore tour, and it was also very flexible to work around my personal life as well,” he explained.

The online format was an obvious draw for someone stationed in Charleston, but it was a specific feature of the master’s program that made it the clear choice over others. NC State is one of the few universities that offers special incentives for graduates of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Power (NNPP) program, allowing eligible officers to validate previous coursework and complete the degree in 18 credits instead of the standard 30 credits.

The accelerated pathway allowed him to complete his master’s degree in just one year, before transitioning out of the Navy. “It put me in the best position possible for joining the civilian world,” he explained.

Experience in the Online MEM Program

Fornelius found that the NC State MEM program did exactly what he’d hoped. Not only did it position him competitively in a post-Navy world, but it also gave structure to ideas he had been applying intuitively for years. “It definitely met my goal of formalizing a lot of concepts that I had learned out in the fleet,” he said, “and gave some great tools and leadership concepts to digest as well.”

Rather than treating the program as purely academic, Fornelius began using his shore tour at NNPTC as a kind of sandbox. He immediately began applying what he learned to his work. 

Teaching future nuclear officers became a place to test and refine the management and leadership frameworks from his coursework before carrying them into the civilian world. 

“The program absolutely helped not only round out my leadership toolbox that I acquired out in the fleet, but helped sharpen the tools in it as well,” said Fornelius.

In addition to the program’s immediate practical impact, the accessibility and mentorship of the faculty stood out as another defining feature. One faculty member left a particularly strong impression on Fornelius.

Lecturer Kenneth Gregory, who taught EM 675, served as both instructor and sounding board for Fornelius’s capstone project. “He was the perfect sounding board for my capstone project,” said Fornelius. “He helped me cross the divide of how my military leadership and management experience would apply in the public sector, which checked off one of my major learning goals for getting the degree in the first place.”

Balancing Work, Life and the Online MEM Program

The NC State online Master of Engineering Management is designed specifically for professionals like Fornelius, who are already leading technical and engineering employees and organizations and need formal management training without stepping away from their careers.

Because many students enroll while working full time, the online master’s program is structured with flexibility in mind. Courses are delivered online with asynchronous components, allowing students to pace assignments around operational schedules, travel and life events. 

Instead of removing professionals from their roles, the program is intended to run parallel to them, giving students the opportunity to apply new frameworks immediately in the environments where they already lead.

That flexible structure proved essential during a particularly full semester for Fornelius. “I got married in the spring semester and was able to effectively work ahead enough to be in a good spot by the end of the semester,” he said.

He added that the program’s timeline fits naturally within a naval shore tour, which is still demanding but more manageable than sea duty, allowing NNPP officers to balance graduate study with their professional and personal responsibilities. 

“The MEM pipeline for NNPP officers definitely coordinates well with our shore tour timing,” he added, noting that the flexibility allowed him to balance academic, professional and personal demands at once.

Preparing for Life Beyond Naval Service

As Fornelius prepares to leave the Navy and enter the civilian workforce, he’s confident that the MEM degree has put him in the strongest possible position for that transition.

 “I was able to meet all of the education goals I set for myself to help prepare for my transition out of the Navy, plus some, in just a year,” he reflected. “It was an experience that I will always be glad that I completed.”

The online master’s program required consistent discipline to balance his coursework, professional obligations, and personal responsibilities, but he viewed the commitment as worthwhile. “A minor monetary and time cost can still have a major payoff; and NC State is the only one you can finish in a single year,” said Fornelius.

His advice for other nuclear officers, or any working professional weighing a graduate degree, is not to hesitate. “Knowledge is power! Especially for those nuclear officers who have graduated from NNPTC, it’s an easy choice,” explained Fornelius. “I would highly recommend people in a similar situation to take the step and invest in your future.”

Fornelius attended both the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering graduation ceremony and the larger in-person commencement ceremony at NC State.

After a year of hard work, a wedding and a full-time job shaping the next class of naval nuclear officers, he has one more phrase he is happy to add to his vocabulary: Go Wolfpack!

Interested in advancing your career with the online Master of Engineering Management degree from NC State Online? Visit our programs page for a full list of degree and certificate programs.