Diana M. Holland

Diana M. Holland (née Leach) is an American military officer.A major general in the United States Army, she commands the Mississippi Valley Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. She is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. From January 2016 to June 2017, served as commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy, the first woman to hold the position.

When she was six years old, Holland, the Santa Barbara, California native and daughter of a United States Marine, was inspired to join the military by her grandfather’s military service.

She attended the United States Military Academy from 1986–1990. While at West Point, she played lacrosse and was co-captain her senior year. Following graduation, she was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Upon commission, Holland served in Germany as a vertical construction platoon leader in the 79th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy), and as a company executive officer and battalion assistant operations officer in the 94th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy). Upon returning to the United States, Holland was assigned to the 30th Engineer Battalion (Topographic), 20th Engineer Brigade, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and served as the battalion logistics officer and then as the commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company.

Following company command, Holland earned a Master of Arts degree at Duke University en route to a teaching assignment at the United States Military Academy, where she served as a faculty member in the history department from 1999 until 2002. She then attended the Army Command and General Staff College and the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) where she earned a Master of Military Arts and Sciences degree.

In July 2004, she was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division and deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving as a division plans officer and then as the operations officer in the 92nd Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy). Returning from Iraq, she then served as a plans officer in the Operations Directorate, United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

Holland then returned to command the 92nd Engineer Battalion (Black Diamonds) from July 2008 to June 2011, which included deploying with "Task Force Diamond" to eastern Afghanistan from May 2010 to April 2011. After relinquishing command, she became a United States Army War College Fellow at Georgetown University.

In 2012, Holland assumed command of the 130th Engineer Brigade at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The following year, she deployed with the Brigade Headquarters to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan where the unit served as the Theater Engineer Brigade, Joint Task Force Sapper. The Brigade redeployed to Schofield Barracks in June 2014, where Holland relinquished command in July. In the first half of 2015, she served as executive officer to the Director of the Army Staff at the Pentagon.

In late July 2015, Holland was assigned as the Deputy Commanding General for Support, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, New York, where she deployed again to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Operation Resolute Support. Upon assignment there, she became the first woman to serve as a general officer at Fort Drum, and the first woman to serve as a deputy commanding general in one of the Army's light infantry divisions.

On 15 December 2015, she was announced as the 76th commandant of the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy, the first woman to serve in that position.

In July 2017, Holland assumed command of the South Atlantic Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.In this position, she oversees Army engineering activities in the Southeastern United States, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. In the first six months in this assignment, she oversaw the Corps of Engineers’ support to Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The following year, she oversaw disaster response in the North Carolina and South Carolina following Hurricane Florence, and in Florida and Georgia following Hurricane Michael.

On July 11, 2019, General Holland was promoted to the grade of Major General. Her husband pinned on the new rank. Her transfer from the South Atlantic Division to the Mississippi Valley Division was announced at the end of April 2020.

Major General Holland’s awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Combat Action Badge, the Senior Parachutist Badge, the German Parachutist Badge, and the Silver Order of the de Fleury Medal.

In June, 2018, Brigadier General Holland was recognized by Atlanta Magazine as a “Woman Making a Mark.”

General Holland is married to James Holland, Jr.