Mr. Bill Atkinson serves as Director, Officer and Enlisted Personnel Management/Special Assistant for Senior Officer Matters.  He is responsible for implementing and administering Department of Defense policies on officer and enlisted military personnel for the Total Force.  He also serves as the focal point and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness for all general and flag officer matters.  His directorate is a component of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy.

Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Atkinson served as the Director, Senior Officer Policy/Special Assistant for Senior Officer Matters in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, from 2014 to 2019; Deputy Director for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Corporate Senior Executive Management Office, from 2011 to 2014; and as Deputy Chief, General Officer Management Office, Office of the Chief of Staff, Army, from 2004 to 2011.

The son of a career Army officer, Mr. Atkinson graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in 1981.  Over the course of his 23-year Army career, he served in troop assignments with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and with the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado; and served as a staff officer in the Pentagon, in the Army’s Artificial Intelligence Center and in the Army’s General Officer Management Office.

In addition to his Bachelor of Science degree (with a concentration in Civil Engineering) from the U.S. Military Academy, Mr. Atkinson holds a Master of Science degree in Robotics from Rice University.  He is married to the former Beverly Perry and they have two children [Nikki (married to Ian McCarthy, who is a Chaplain (Lieutenant) in the U.S. Navy) and Justin (a former Captain in the U.S. Army)], three grandsons (Samuel, James, and Asher), and a granddaughter (Lydia).