2014 US Black Engineer & Information Technology | HOMELAND SECURITY - VOL. 38, NO. 4

The 10th Annual Homeland Security, Government and Defense Issue

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Maj. Gen. Stayce D. Harris Commander, 22nd Air Force Air Force Reserve Command

Gen. Darren W. McDew

Commander, Air Mobility Command Scott Air Force Base, Illinois

A Career in the Military

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with Retired Vice Adm. Anthony Winns

How the Military Can Help You Pay for School

Corporate Leaders Who Started in the Military

Gen. Larry O. Spencer Vice Chief of Staff U.S. Air Force

Gen. Mark A. Welsh III Chief of Staff U.S. Air Force

USBE&IT Homeland Security, Government and Defense Edition 2013 2012 USBE&IT Homeland Security, Government and Defense Edition 2014 www.blackengineer.com www.blackengineer.com

er e r Ca ities M STE ortun ts p Op for Ve

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NOW THE MOST READ BLACK TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE REACHING OVER 100,000 READERS IN THE UNITED STATES, UK, AND SOUTH AFRICA

CONTEN US BLACK ENGINEER & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

BRINGING TECHNOLOGY HOME TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF Saluting the Ninth Annual Stars and Stripes Edition

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Top Blacks in the Military

General Dennis L. Via

Commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command

General Lloyd J. Austin Commander of U.S. Central Command

General Vincent K. Brooks Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific

Senior Executives Leading Transformation of Government

2012 USBE&IT Homeland Security, Government and Defense Edition 2013 www.blackengineer.com

USBE Top Blacksin Military2013-COVER.indd 1

HOMELAND SECURITY, GOVERNMENT AND DEFENSE

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General Raymond T. Odierno Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army

r ree Ca tlook u O ction Se 12/31/13 7:08 AM

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Top Blacks in the Military and Senior Executive Service.................................... 23 USBE&IT magazine’s Homeland Security, Government and Defense issue returns with the 2014 list of top Blacks in the military and federal Senior Executive Service.

Military Innovation............................................. 17 Military innovations lead the way to the technology revolution.

Veterans Opportunity Fund................................. 62 Designed with veteran-owned businesses in mind.

TS Vo l u m e 3 8 N u m b e r 4 PROFILES IN INNOVATION

One on One..............................6

Air Force Gen. Larry O. Spencer recently spoke with US Black Engineer magazine.

BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESS

Career Voices........................10

Over his entire military career, Anthony L. Winns held 17 leadership positions, from ensign to lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, lieutenant commander, commander, captain, rear admiral lower half, rear admiral upper half, and vice admiral.

EDUCATION

Education.............................. 13

Vice Adm. (retired) Melvin G. Williams Jr., now associate provost for military and veterans affairs at George Washington University, is responsible for supporting more than 1,300 GW student military members.

CAREER OUTLOOK................67 Veterans Transition Initiative 2015 Stars and Stripes Mentoring Program Veteran Educational Assistance

PUBLISHER’S PAGE

T

ime hasn’t stood still since USBE&IT began its end-of -year celebration of commitment to honor, duty and country. To mark the 10th anniversary of the Homeland Security, Government and Defense issue, USBE&IT looked over a time period we saw “capsuled” in the edition’s pages and picked out a few symbolic highlights.

A headline in the 2005 “People and Events” was about the Deep Impact mission that successfully reached out and touched a comet. Felicia Saunders, a ground systems telemetry engineer who worked on the project, told USBE&IT no one had ever looked inside a comet before. Mankind’s first direct interaction with a comet. But it wasn’t just comets, asteroids or meteors that were dynamic a decade ago. Up front, we noted an ingenuity promising to transform the way we watched television, by turning any Internet-connected PC into a personal TV. Without a doubt, technology has brought us much farther along. In the world of work, Aerotek, an organization servicing majority of the Fortune 100, launched a new supplier diversity program to help turn small, minority-owned businesses into mainstream providers and build into the future. Similarly, in the federal space, Larry Wilkerson, a Black Engineer of the Year liaison, also had an eye on the future.

A 1982 A&T alumnus, he had responsibility for a $2.5 billion program in 2005 and was lead recruiter in the avionics department, promoting diversity and partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as minorityowned businesses. Diversity was equally an important part of the FBI’s strategy as they reached out to recruit agents and analysts with degrees in information technology, and engineering. Looking back over his 20-year career, a director of administrative services told USBE&IT that the FBI offered an “opportunity to make a tremendous difference in people’s lives.”

A fitting description for the uniformed men and women featured in USBE&IT’s list of Black military leaders that appeared in the 2005 issue. Over a decade, military leaders on the cover of USBE&IT’s Homeland Security, Government and Defense issue have become a wall of fame. They include Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, retired commanding general of the Mississippi Valley Division of Army Corps of Engineers, the world’s largest public engineering firm; Vice Adm. Melvin G. Williams a retired deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command; Rear Adm. Stephen Rochon, a former director of the Executive Residence and chief usher of the White House; Vice Adm. Anthony Winns, retired Naval Inspector General; and Lt Gen. Willie Williams, a former director of Marine Corps staff, to name a few. Without a doubt, USBE’s cover story’s event — the annual Stars and Stripes — is now a BEYA institution. And it all began when a group of dedicated service members started a mission to promote awareness of the talents and sacrifices of our brave men and women in uniform. The rest, as they say, is history…

Tyrone D. Taborn Publisher and Editorial Director

USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 3

ďƒœSave the Date EXECUTIVE OFFICE

Tyrone D. Taborn | Publisher and Editorial Director

Jean Hamilton | President and CFO EDITORIAL

Rayondon Kennedy

Lango Deen

Michael Fletcher

Gale Horton Gay

M.V. Greene

Frank McCoy

Garland L. Thompson

Roger Witherspoon

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Assistant Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Editor Contributing Editor

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Sherley Petit-Homme | Art Director

Bryan Clapper | Graphic Designer CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

Eric Price | Vice President, Recruitment and Training

Ty Taborn | Corporate Development

Imani Carter | Corporate Communications Specialist

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Gwendolyn Bethea | Vice President, Corporate Development

Sandi Harris | Senior Account Manager

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US Black Engineer & Information Technology (ISSN 1088-3444) is a publication devoted to engineering, science, and technology and to promoting opportunities in those fields for Black Americans. The editors invite submissions directed toward the goals of US Black Engineer & Information Technology. In particular, we wish to present ideas and current events concerning science and technology, and personality profiles of successful Blacks in these fields and related business pursuits. Fully developed articles may be sent for consideration, but queries are encouraged. US Black Engineer & Information Technology invites letters to the editor about any topics important to our readership. Articles and letters should be sent to: US Black Engineer & Information Technology, Editorial Department, 729 E Pratt St., Suite 504, Baltimore, MD 21202. No manuscript will be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. US Black Engineer & Information Technology cannot be responsible for unsolicited art or editorial material. This publication is bulk-mailed to 150 colleges and universities nationwide. Subscriptions are $26/year. Please write to US Black Engineer & Information Technology, Subscriptions, 729 E. Pratt St., Suite 504, Baltimore, MD 21202. Copyright (c) 2014 by Career Communications Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

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One on One

by Michael A. Fletcher mfletcher@ccgmag.com

GEN. LARRY SPENCER’S AIR FORCE CAREER IS AS UNLIKELY AS IT IS REMARKABLE

G

en. Larry O. Spencer’s Air Force career is as unlikely as it is remarkable. As a high school student living outside Washington, D.C., his thing was football. He was a standout guard and linebacker who attracted interest from colleges, including Howard University. But he never locked down a scholarship, and after high school found himself playing semi-pro football. The money was non-existent, and one day when walking through a local mall he “stumbled into the Air Force recruiter’s office. And when I stumbled out of there, I was in the Air Force.”

The next day, he took his first plane ride — to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. At the time, no one — least of all Spencer — suspected that he would end up being a four-star general and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, helping to oversee the training and equipping 690,000 Air Force personnel.

“I just took one job at a time and my goal was to be the absolute best at what I was doing and I let the rest take care of itself,” he said.

Spencer holds a Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Southern Illinois University and earned a commission as an officer in 1980. He went on to earn two Master’s degrees: from Webster University in St. Louis and from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University in Washington.

Spencer has held many key jobs through his path-breaking career. He commanded a squadron, group and wing, and was Vice Commander of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center.

He was also the first Air Force officer to serve as Assistant Chief of Staff in the White House Military Office. He also has served as the Comptroller and Director of Mission Support at a major command, and has held various jobs with the Air Staff and Secretary of the Air Force.

6 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

Gen. Larry O. Spencer, vice chief of staff, U.S. Air Force

www.blackengineer.com

In his current job, he has focused on building diversity in the Air Force, particularly its officer corps. He also has worked to address the series of sexual assault and harassment complaints that have confronted the Air Force. Gen. Spencer recently spoke with US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine. The conversation follows here: USBE&IT: What is the biggest diversity challenge you face in your job?

Gen. Spencer: There are several.

The military is unique from the private sector because for our leadership structure we can’t go out and hire a general officer. It takes 25 years to grow one. So if our leadership is not very diverse, it is a difficult thing to try to correct that in the short term because we can’t just hire someone off the street. Within the military, the Air Force has an additional unique challenge because most senior Air Force positions are filled by pilots and for whatever reason — and we have done a lot of study on this — most minorities and women that come in the Air Force do not come in as pilots. So you almost have this built-in challenge: a combination of we can’t just go hire a diverse leadership structure, we have to grow them over time. And to grow them over time we have to get more minorities and women into the flying and operational career fields. I grew up in Southeast Washington D.C., then moved to Seat Pleasant, Maryland. I didn’t know any pilots growing up; I didn’t have any role models that were officers in any branch of the military. The first time that I ever stepped on an airplane was when I joined the Air Force and they flew me down to basic training. And nobody in my family flew much and, clearly, there were no pilots in my family. So there was nothing that would put being a pilot on my radar scope whatsoever. As opposed to when I talk to other pilots, particularly white www.blackengineer.com

males in the Air Force, their stories are fairly similar. They say as young kids they dreamed about flying. They looked up and saw airplanes flying around. They were fascinated by flight and aviation. So one of our challenges is, how do we get young minorities and women to get interested in flying earlier on in their lives?

some of the technologies that we are involved in. These were local teachers not in the military and many of them came up to me afterwards saying, “Is there a way we can come work with the Air Force?” So, I think the more we get out and get exposed to young minorities and women I think things will change.

USBE&IT: Is there anything in particular about the culture of the Air Force that hinders your mission?

Gen. Spencer: I do not think so.

For example, recently, with the help of a young pilot I know here in the Pentagon, we went out and got 76 officers who are not pilots — minorities, most of whom are African Americans — and talked to them about going to pilot training and we got 100 percent of them to sign up to do it. That’s pretty good; but now we are waiting to see if they follow through. Then we have to track and see how they do in pilot training. But this whole thing about role models and actually seeing someone who looks like you perform that task, just talking with them and getting them fired up and showing them the possibilities, it was amazing to see the interest that was generated. As often as I can, I go speak at local high schools in town. I mentor several high school students here in town and it is amazing to me when I walk in wearing an Air Force uniform folks are sort of — first of all they are not even sure what service I am in — but they recognize I am a four-star and they are stunned to see an African-American of that rank. I am not out there recruiting them. I am really out there talking to them about leadership, mentorship. But at some point the conversation swings to, “Hey, what do you do?” And they are pretty fascinated about what we do in the Air Force. The capabilities we have; the technology that we use. I spoke recently over at Howard University to some teachers who had just finished a STEM program, and talked to them about

USBE&IT: Given what you just said, do you expect that the experience the Air Force looks for in its top leaders will change as technologies other than flying manned aircraft become more central to its mission?

Gen. Spencer: Absolutely. If you think about the leaders in the Air Force today who came in the force 25 years ago, most of the senior leaders today are fighter pilots. There is certainly nothing wrong with fighter pilots, but that was the emphasis back then. Five to 10 years from now things will be quite different because the Air Force is changing. The focus now is on things like intelligence. Things like space. Things like unmanned aerial vehicles. Those are skills and platforms that are in such demand right now from both inside and outside the military. Everybody wants an unmanned platform providing them full-motion video of what is happening around the corner or two or three kilometers away. The Air Force is changing and that is one of the reasons why I predict the future leadership of the Air Force will be much more diverse because our goal to fly, fight and win is taking on a much broader platform of capabilities.

USBE&IT: How do you do attracting minorities to the Air Force Academy?

Gen. Spencer: We put a lot of emphasis on minority recruiting and woman recruiting over the past four or five years. So we are doing pretty well.

There have been meetings with groups like the Congressional Black Caucus USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 7

PROFILES IN INNOVATION

One on One Cont’d trying to get them to offer more appointments to minorities in the Academy. We have really reached out to women to try to get more women to join the Academy.

So I feel pretty good about the way those numbers are going.

USBE&IT: How much are those efforts hurt by the bad publicity that comes with some of these sexual assault and sexual harassment scandals that have cropped up?

Gen. Spencer: Let me start by saying sexual assault is something we take very, very seriously. When I took this job we had sexual assault response as part of our human resources function. When I got here we pulled that out and they work directly for me now. We had four or five people in office; now we have over 30, including several experts from industry and folks who really understand the issues involved. That is something I work on almost every day. I say that upfront to say I do think we have made a lot of progress. From the time we started putting a lot of emphasis on sexual assault prevention/response, we have folks — colleges, people in industry — coming to us asking us what we are doing.

I don’t want to lead you to believe we are declaring victory, because we have a long way to go. But we have done a lot of work on putting trust in our system so that if someone is sexually assaulted they feel comfortable coming forward to report it. We put a lot of emphasis on victim care, victim trauma, to make sure that if this happens, our folks are taken care of. And if someone is found guilty of such a crime, commanders take swift and appropriate action. We now have a big push on prevention. It is not an easy thing because society is riddled with this problem. This is not just a military problem; it is also a societal problem.

USBE&IT: What attracted you to the Air Force?

Gen. Spencer: I had a lot of football scholarship offers coming out of high 8 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

“The Air Force gave me a lot of opportunities.

I entered the Air Force with not one semester of college. And when I leave the Air Force, I will have a minimum of two master’s degrees.” school, and I remember in particular, the Howard University coach calling my house every day. What was interesting for me personally is that I was the oldest child in the family. My mother had not graduated high school and my father graduated high school and was an Army NCO. To make a long story short, I had no help on what college was and how to get into college. All I wanted to do was play football. Back then, D.C. had a semi-pro league and I played in that league. Quite frankly, one day I was in the mall and I am not exaggerating, I literally sought of staggered into the Air Force recruiter’s office and when I staggered out of there I was in the Air Force. It was not anything planned. I sort of liked the Air Force when I heard the recruiters who came to my high school.

But back then in the 1970s, it was all anti-establishment and all that so the military was not a popular thing. Even though my father was in the military and I kind of liked it, I really hadn’t planned to join. It was literally an accident that I did join. I am glad it happened.

USBBE&IT: Why did you decide to stick with it as a career?

Gen. Spencer: A lot of things played into that. First, the Air Force gave me a lot of opportunities. I entered the Air Force with not one semester of college. And when I leave the Air Force, I will have a minimum of two Master’s degrees so the Air Force allowed me to further my education. It allowed me to

travel. It allowed me to learn, and most important, it allowed me to lead. That is something I think I am good at. It allowed me to lead Airmen. It allowed me to be a part of an organization that is a lot bigger than I am. It is like playing on a Super Bowl team every year. The Air Force is the best air force on the planet.

So when I get up in the morning I am on a Super Bowl team. We make decent money, but we are not getting rich in the Air Force so it’s certainly not the pay check. But the reason I stay is I enjoy what our mission is. I enjoy what our airmen do and I enjoy leading our airmen.

USBE&IT: At what point did it occur to you that being a four-star general was a possibility?

Gen. Spencer: I don’t think it ever did, honestly and sometimes I still pinch myself in disbelief! When I pinned on my fourth star, I was waiting for the ceremony and the Chief of Staff asked, “you are about to be a four-star. How does it feel?” I hadn’t thought about it but I said, “I don’t know how it feels to be a three-star yet.” I know a lot of people plot-out there career for success and surmise, “if I do these things, if I get these assignments, if I hit these gates, if I get this degree, if I get this training, it’ll get me a promotion.” But I never did that. My very first boss I had when I was a second lieutenant gave me some advice.

He said, “Bloom where you are planted and the rest will take care of itself.” As it turns out, that was sage advice. www.blackengineer.com

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PROFILES IN INNOVATION

Career Voices

by Lango Deen ldeen@ccgmag.com

At right, Vice Adm. Anthony L. Winns (retired), president, Middle East-Africa region, Lockheed Martin Corporation, receiving the 2007 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Career Achievement in Government

THE MARK OF A GOOD LEADER

I

t’s the 1970s, American GIs in Vietnam were on drawdown, and a young man in Jacksonville, Florida, was about to head off to college. His high school graduating class had four faculty sponsors. One of them, his guidance counselor, just happened to know a district judge whose daughter was at the school.

“Because my guidance counselor knew I was interested in law, she arranged to have the judge come to the school to talk about a law career,” 10 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

recalled Anthony Winns, who is now president of the Middle East and Africa region for Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Young Winns talked to the judge about law, what it meant and what went into becoming a successful lawyer. Similarly, the school’s naval program leader, also one of the class sponsors, invited Winns, the senior class president, to a Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps presentation about the U.S. Naval Academy. Winns said up to that point he didn’t know the Naval Academy existed.

“I heard from the presentation that it was a great school, very strong academically,” he said. “My mother could not afford to pay for college and receiving a nomination to any of the academies (Navy, West Point or Air Force) was indeed a scholarship. In fact, you got paid a small amount each month.”

Although Winns had scholarships to other four-year institutions, he felt he would get a more well-rounded education at the academy, on his way to becoming a lawyer. He was co-valedictorian of his www.blackengineer.com

high school and a prep academic AllAmerican basketball player, but Annapolis was different, he said. “The Naval Academy prepares you mentally, morally and physically.”

In addition to academics, he had to learn about the Navy and military organizations with requirements to memorize facts and quickly recall them at any given notice when asked by an upperclassman.

A part of it is called “rates.” You are required to memorize how many days until Christmas leave, second-class ring dance, first-class or senior graduation, the menu for the next two meals — and you can’t just say milk.

“You have to say white milk or chocolate milk, and is it water with ice?

Is it vanilla ice cream vs. strawberry ice cream for dessert? Is it steak with onions?”

But it wasn’t just memorizing a lot of information. It tests one’s ability to respond under pressure.

“Once you succeed at all of the demands of your first year, you say to yourself, ‘Okay, I’ve handled everything that they threw at me. Now I can do just about anything!’” Winns exclaimed.

ENLISTED SAILOR

During his second summer following completion of Plebe year, he went to sea as an enlisted sailor on a Navy ship.

This was a requirement for all midshipmen.

“You wear dungarees and a blue shirt, and you learn that when you’re giving orders, you must always put yourself in the shoes of the person on the receiving end of that order.”

By the end of his second year, the Naval Academy eliminated direct entry to graduate school programs — one for law school, the other for medical school — and required all graduates to go directly into a war-fighting community, either surface warfare, aviation warfare, submarine warfare, or the United States Marine Corps.

“After sophomore year, during the summer you visit the different warfare communities to see what it’s like. You go www.blackengineer.com

to Pensacola and fly an airplane. You go to Newport, Rhode Island, and go out on a surface ship. You go to New London, Connecticut, and go out on a submarine for a few days. You go to Quantico, Virginia, and go out in the field with the Marines, so you’re out overnight for a few days in the field, performing missions with the Marines,” he explained.

A NAVAL AVIATOR IS BORN

Winns went to Pensacola, got the opportunity to fly, and fell in love with Naval aviation. By then, his second year of college was over.

“You can quit after two years. You can leave the Naval Academy or any service academy, and not owe anything.

But once you start the third year, you are

officer in charge of the 24th Company, for midshipmen in all classes – seniors, juniors, sophomores, as well as freshmen.

“I learned that in order to be respected by your peers and people that you are placed above in a leadership role, you must first learn to follow. Once you learn to follow, take orders, and shoulder the responsibility – at all levels — then you can lead.”

Winns said the Naval Academy does a good job of teaching people how to lead because in your first year, as a plebe, the lowest level at the academy, you are given many tasks, a lot of responsibility — more to do than time permits, so you learn to prioritize.

By then, he was 20 years old and his mother’s apprehensions over his college

“In order to be respected by your peers and people you are placed above in a leadership role, you must first learn to follow. Once you learn to follow, take orders, and shoulder responsibility — at all levels — then you can lead.”

obligated to pay back to the military (by serving as an enlisted sailor) what they have given you for those prior years, so that’s a big decision point for many people.”

Once Winns made the decision he was going to stay, he gave it his best shot, plunging for the first time into leadership during his junior year.

“In my case, that was the first year women were allowed to attend, and we had three in our company. The company officer called me into his office and told me he was placing the three ladies in my element so I would be responsible for their professional training.”

As a senior, he was commanding

choice were fading.

“If I had gone to a college with a purely academic program, that would’ve pleased her more because she was a schoolteacher, and in the African-American community in the early ‘70s, the Navy was not the favorite service.”

Winns was the only AfricanAmerican officer in his first squadron for nearly three years. In fact, he was the only African-American officer across all seven squadrons on the naval air station in Hawaii for over two years.

“I didn’t see that as an issue,” he said. “You maintain the camaraderie and that’s part of getting along with people and different personalities, because ultiUSBE&IT I WINTER 2014 11

PROFILES IN INNOVATION

Career Voices cont’d mately, you have to get along with people in order to be successful.”

MARK OF A GOOD LEADER

Over his entire career, Winns held 17 leadership positions, from ensign to lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, lieutenant commander, commander, captain, rear admiral lower half, rear admiral upper half, and vice admiral.

As a lieutenant in charge of the aircraft division in his first squadron, he had about 110 people working for him. He was only 24 years old.

Winns’ first commanding officer position was at a patrol squadron, with 12 planes and a little over 400 people.

“You have aircraft — milliondollar planes that you’re responsible for, and for completing the mission directed to you by the commander in chief, the president of the United States. That’s a tremendous amount of responsibility and authority as a commanding officer of a squadron.”

As squadron commanding officer, a highly sought-after position, you’re selected by an aviation command screening board that meets once a year to select the best aviators as commanding officers.

Successful commanding officers are then selected to the rank of captain.

Next, you compete for command at the captain level by having your record of performance reviewed by another screening board. Winns said these “command screen” boards are different from promotion boards.

“Promotion boards are statutory and promote you – or select you for promotion to the next rank, I should say, to various ranks,— but command screening boards select you to be a commanding officer of a ship, aircraft squadron, submarine or other type of unit in our Navy.”

As a Naval aviator at the rank of captain, Winns commanded a ship, and on the ship, he had even greater responsi12 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

bilities than he had in the squadron.

“I was responsible for 1,200 sailors, men and women, 1,800 Marines, and 32 naval aircraft, so that was the next level of responsibility.”

In May 2000, Winns became the first officer in his Naval Academy class to be selected for flag rank. As a flag officer he

Favorite book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Favorite place: “Hawaii, my first duty station as an ensign in the Navy. And when I became an admiral, my first duty station as a one star. We have been — my wife and I — have been back three times since I left as an admiral. “ Favorite movies: “The Ten Commandments, Caddyshack, because I love funny movies, and Animal House.”

commanded Patrol and Reconnaissance Force, Pacific and Task Force 32, was the deputy for Air Warfare Requirements and served as vice director and acting director for operations, J-3, Joint Staff.

Winns assumed duties as the Naval Inspector General in November 2007.

He was responsible for ethical standards and for inspecting and ensuring rules and regulations were adhered to by the entire United States Navy. Winns traveled to U.S. naval installations throughout the world and was responsible for any and all matters of importance to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations. He retired in June 2011 after 32 years of naval service.

What mistakes should people avoid in military life?

When you report for your first assignment, don’t believe for one second that your college education qualifies you as an expert in military operations, he cautioned. Those who do well are the junior officers who get to their first duty station and listen to experienced chiefs, the backbone of the Navy, and have them help you along the way.

The second mistake to avoid, Winns said, is being afraid to take risks for fear of failure.

Winns advised that people shouldn’t be afraid to admit it when they make a mistake. “You’re not going to succeed at everything you do, but you should be cognizant of your mistakes, admit that you’re wrong, then pick up the pieces and move on. Some people have a hard time with this approach.”

He also said the military is not for everyone.

“If someone yells at you and asks you to tell them the rates — how many days until Christmas leave; until first-class graduation, second-class ring dance or something like that, and you can’t spit out the answer under those conditions, how are you going to respond when you’re in front of an enemy that has a gun to your head? People who are able to withstand the pressure and meet the requirements at a place like the service academy go on to be great leaders and are equipped with the skills to be able to weather the storm.”

How does he define leadership?

“Imagine that you’re in charge of 20 people. Before you get there, they were performing at a certain level. When you come on the scene, based on your motivation, dedication, encouragement, inspiring words and actions, everything that you bring to bear, you enable them to perform at a much higher level. That is the mark of a good leader,” Winns said.

www.blackengineer.com

EDUCATION Information is our most powerful resource, whether we receive it via the printed page, a computer screen, or from a dedicated teacher. In this section, we look at the trends and developments that are expanding STEM education.

Combining Military and Education Can Pay F or students and veterans, opportunities to gain an education abound in the U.S. military.

Like any organization seeking to attract new people, the service branches also covet the best of the best. But don’t go into a recruiter’s office solely seeking a free ride to pay for college. Those wishing to combine military service with education must be eager to make a commitment to serve the country during and after college.

“The military provides young people with the opportunity to serve and defend our nation while also providing its members with character development, training and leadership opportunities,” says Vice Adm. (retired) Melvin G. Williams Jr. “The military has several opportunities for young people to participate in college educational programs. This is particularly good for those who, like me growing up, may not be able to afford college,” Williams said, whose naval career spanned 32 years.

Today, Williams is associate provost for military and veterans affairs at the George Washington (GW) University in Washington, D.C. Since April 2013, Williams has been responsible for supporting more than 1,300 GW student military members, about 4 percent of the total GW undergrad/graduate population.

Williams works closely with GW senior leadership, students, alumni and others to bring vision, strategic and operational leadership to the GW Military and Veterans Affairs VALOR (Veterans Accelerate Learning Opportunities and Rewards) initiatives and also oversees the GW Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program.

The GW VALOR program focuses on three core values — learning, service and excellence — and includes undergraduate and graduate online programs globally. GW VALOR students comprise approximately 50 percent service veterans, 35 percent active-duty military and about 15 percent military family members. The average age for VALOR undergraduate students is 25 years old and for graduate students, 35 years old, representing all 10 of the university’s colleges and schools.

Williams said a myriad of career fields are available to select from in the military, notably STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), whether leading, driving and maintaining ships, submarines and aircraft or mission support fields that include cyber and computer related fields, healthcare and logistics, he added.

“My advice to students is for them to first follow their passion. Second, select a career that aligns with their passion.

Third, obtain an education which prepares them for the career,” Williams said.

Williams knows personally the benefits of combining eduwww.blackengineer.com

by M.V. Greene mgreene@ccgmag.com

Vice Adm. (retired) Melvin G. Williams Jr.,associate provost for military and veterans affairs at the George Washington University

cation with military service. He enlisted in the Navy and eventually attended and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. He served with the Navy from 1978 to 2010, his final assignment as vice admiral and commander of the U.S. Second Fleet.

“There are several additional options to participate in college education while one serves in the military. A young person could join the ROTC program at a college or university, or, after joining the military, a member could attend college during off-duty time financially supported by the military via tuition assistance,” Williams said.

The military’s tuition assistance program, for instance, provides a military member with up to $250 per credit for education, but also has favorable opportunities associated with the member’s focus on graduation and solid academic performance, according to Williams.

USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 13

EDUCATION

Williams chronicled his time in the Navy – and that of his father, Melvin G. Williams, Sr. – in their book, “Navigating the Seven Seas: Leadership Lessons of the First African American Father and Son to Serve at the Top in the U.S. Navy,” which was published in February 2011 by the Naval Institute Press. Williams’ father served from 1951 to 1978 on submarines, aircraft carriers and surface ships, with his final assignment as command master chief.

The book highlighted their personal guiding principles for service, what they called the “Seven Cs” — character, competence, courage, commitment, caring, communicating, community, which he says are key attributes toward becoming an effective leader.

“It’s an experience that you can’t get anywhere else, and your leadership skills will be challenged every day,” Williams said.

ARMY ROTC

At Georgia State University in Atlanta, the Army operates its Panther Battalion ROTC program. In the Army, ROTC operates at 274 colleges and universities nationally, commissioning some 5,500 officers.

In addition to Georgia State, the Panther Battalion has ROTC cadets in other schools in the Atlanta area, including Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Mercer University’s Georgia Baptist College of Nursing and Clayton State School of Nursing.

The battalion’s 110 cadets participate in a multitude of academic disciplines, have a visible presence on student government as well as in extracurricular activities and student organizations, said Lt. Col. Josh Brooks, who heads the battalion and is a professor of military science at George State. The Panther Battalion has been a part of the Georgia State community since 1951, commissioning officers into every branch of the military.

Brooks, an aviation officer who has served in the Army for 20 years, said the Panther Battalion is seeking Army ROTC candidates of the highest caliber who possess a service orientation, leadership potential and good grades and test scores.

The Army says that the majority of its officers serving today came through the Army ROTC program. Army ROTC was formally organized in 1916, attracting more than 500,000 men and women.

Some prominent graduates over the years throughout the Army ROTC program have included the likes of Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Samuel Alito, Supreme Court Justice; Sam Walton, Walmart Stores founder; Earl Graves, chairman and publisher, Black Enterprise magazine; and Lenny Wilkens, Hall of Fame pro basketball player and coach.

“We take college students who desire service in the military and demonstrate initial leadership skills. We put them in a leader development program that parallels their achievement of a bachelor’s degree,” Brooks said of the mission of the Panther Battalion.

Army ROTC students who receive an Army ROTC scholarship or enter the Army ROTC advanced course must agree to complete a mandatory period of Army service. They can serve 14 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets address questions to the panel during a senior leader professional mentor forum at Howard University’s Camton Auditorium in Washington, Nov. 6, 2014. ROTC cadets from Howard University, Bowie State University, Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Georgetown University and George Mason University participated along with several Army general officers and various Army personnel.

full time in the Army for three years or four years for scholarship winners. Some cadets may choose to serve part-time in the U.S. Army Reserve or Army National Guard while pursuing a civilian career.

Brooks said Army ROTC amounts to a desire on the part of the prospective cadet to serve. That message must come through from the student loud and clear before consideration of a scholarship to pay for college.

“It starts with some sort of service orientation. Then, after we discuss that desire for service and leadership, then come the benefits and the money,” he said.

The Panther Battalion cadet also is challenged in a number of other ways in exchange for scholarship dollars for college.

They must be full-time baccalaureate students and complete their degree, taking one ROTC-centric course each semester, such as those focusing on an introduction to the Army or leader development, in addition to required courses for their major, Brooks said. Once or twice a semester, they attend field training exercises, and must undergo regular physical fitness training.

In addition, cadets are involved in color guard events, clubs and service projects.

For students seeking a STEM education, the Army will welcome those disciplines with open arms, according to Brooks.

The Army ROTC seeks to have 40 percent of its cadets involved in STEM education, he said.

While cadets can select any major of their choice, the Army is placing increased emphasis on STEM,” Brooks said. “Technology is disrupting everything, and we need smarter, sharper people to keep up with the emerging challenges of the future.”

The battalion also has a strong component for aspiring nurses in undergraduate nursing degree programs.

Brooks said Army ROTC is a two-way street for both the cadet and the Army.

“We ask, are they interested in something bigger than themselves. If they are, that’s where we start making our money because those are the people we can introduce to the Army and the Army’s values,” Brooks said. www.blackengineer.com

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Army researchers evaluate a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Warrior Web prototype at the Soldier Performance and Equipment Advanced Research facility, at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., Oct. 2, 2014.

MILITARY INNOVATION Military innovations lead the way to the technology revolution

I

t is common knowledge that during wartime, technology advances at a race-track pace. Warfighters’ needs quickly outpace the products and capabilities available in the civilian economy, and wartime budgets make sure that innovations, once dreamed up by scientists, engineers and soldiers in the field, are swiftly brought to fruition.

What is not so commonly acknowledged is that innovation by professionals working for military agencies and especially R&D contractors working on military-led projects produce many of the inventions, medical science breakthroughs, and other technology developments that so frequently cause dramatic shifts in the ways Americans live, work and do business.

Today, with scary headlines about the spread of Ebola, a virus disease for which there is no preventive vaccine and no effective treatment besides intensive hospital care, it is important to remember that military medical research often comes up with answers that resound in the civilian environment. In one good example, there already is in place a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative to provide new impetus to the drive to develop www.blackengineer.com

by Garland L. Thompson gthompson@ccgmag.com

models of disease spread that can actually predict the spread of infectious diseases.

CHIKV SPURS RESEARCH ON FORECASTING

The project, launched in August 2014, before the appearance of Ebola in the United States, began working to predict the spread of another virus, Chikungunya (CHIKV), spread by mosquitoes. The CHIKV virus, which causes a debilitating illness — fever, joint and muscle pain, nausea, fatigue and rash — has been expanding throughout the Americas and the Caribbean as infected individuals travel between countries, and like Ebola, there is no effective treatment.

DARPA launched a challenge for multi-disciplinary teams, including specialists not only from public health and infectious disease research, but also mathematicians, meteorologists, entomologists, and specialists in bioinformatics and computer science. According to a DARPA news release announcing the challenge, program manager Col. Matthew Hepburn said that, “Forecasts would be extremely helpful to public health officials in containing infectious diseases, USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 17

but it is really difficult. The science of forecasting is a work in progress. It’s akin to trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing and a vague sketch of what the finished image should look like. Identifying and acquiring the right data points and figuring out how to link them requires interdisciplinary coordination.”

“The CHIKV Challenge is exciting on many levels,” Col. Hepburn said. “For one, Chikungunya is already here in the Americas, so teams are going to have to work at the speed of an epidemic to build their models. But equally exciting, we believe this effort could lead to the creation of tools that work even faster than the speed of an epidemic, giving us the opportunity to act effectively before an infectious disease actually arrives and spreads.”

And with even more dangerous diseases such as Ebola arriving on American shores, the development of such tools is even more urgent.

BUILDING AN ‘ARTIFICIAL SPLEEN’

Still another DARPA program seeks to develop an “artificial spleen” technology to increase the survival odds for patients suffering from sepsis, a life-threatening immune system over-reaction that afflicts 18 million people a year worldwide.

As DARPA’s press release explains, sepsis poses a significant threat to warfighters who suffer combat injuries that weaken their defenses against infection. “Antibiotics can kill sepsis-inducing microbes, but their overuse is contributing to the threat of drug-resistant microbes and they don’t neutralize the toxins that some pathogens leave behind. Commercial dialysis equipment can remove toxins from the blood but is not built for use in theater.”

So the Defense Department’s advanced R&D agency put together a “dialysis-like therapeutics program” seeking to develop integrated, portable and ruggedized technology that would enable widespread deployment of dialysis treatment to fight sepsis. A recently tested prototype, reported in Nature magazine, successfully demonstrated “one of the first technologies for pathogen removal via blood filtration,” DARPA’s release said. “With a design inspired by the human spleen, the shoebox-sized prototype removes many of the microbes and toxins that can trigger sepsis.”

the Warrior Web program’s goal is to develop a lightweight, conformal under-suit that is functionally “transparent” to the user, similar to a diver’s wetsuit.

The current Wyss Institute suit is made of soft, “functional” textiles woven into a piece of smart clothing that the release said is “pulled on like a pair of pants and intended to be worn under a soldier’s regular gear. Through a biologically inspired design, the suit mimics the action of the leg muscles and tendons when a person walks, and provides small but carefully timed assistance at the joints of the leg without restricting the wearer’s movement.” Readers can watch a demonstration video at http://vimeo.com/100446428.

QUANTUM INNOVATIONS IN INFO SCIENCE, TO AFFECT MANY FIELDS

The advent of the World Wide Web made it possible to connect many computers, in a diverse ecology of centers, activities, corporations and institutions, and what resulted is a flood of data. First to recognize this were librarians, opening up masses of books, reports, technical papers, even letters for wide distribution via the data “packets” of Internet intercommunication, to audiences and individual users everywhere.

That presented a problem as well as an opportunity: How

The Internet itself grew out of an initiative by DARPA’s predecessor, and the ARPANET that grew up to connect research institutions and defense contractors during the 1980s was rapidly excelled and replaced by the civilianled- and driven Internet we know today.

LIGHTWEIGHT ‘EXOSUIT’ MOVES FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO REALITY

Working under a Pentagon-funded contract, Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is developing a “lightweight, soft exosuit” for DARPA’s Warrior Web program, aimed, according to a press statement, at creating technologies that mitigate musculoskeletal injuries among warfighters while improving performance. The Wyss team is seeking to integrate component technologies developed in separate programs into a prototype suit that offers expanded capabilities.

Noting that the gear carried by today’s dismounted soldier can exceed 100 pounds, increasing the risk of injury when the warfighter is running, bending, squatting, jumping, and crawling in a tactical environment, the release said 18 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

could it be possible to analyze this vast mountain of data — indeed, a mountain range — when no single computer and no single computer program, even the ones running on the supercomputers at centers such as the National Research Laboratories at Berkeley and Livermore, could effectively parse the huge data streams now available?

That problem grows more urgent as meteorologists, climatologists and others struggle to develop more exact understandings of weather science in the era of El Niño and global warming. Ditto for medical science. In the disease propagation example discussed above, the military researchers and civilian contractors facing the DARPA “CHIKV Challenge” have to resolve, integrate and systematize a myriad of “data points” from multiple, seemingly unrelated disciplines to recognize patterns that can help them predict from analysis of such things as • Transmission paths • Availability of travel opportunities and frequency of travel • Intensity of infectious spread • Possibilities and probabilities of treatment www.blackengineer.com

• • • • •

Quantity and availability of healthcare resources Effects and effectiveness of quarantines, Effects of economic activity and access Local and national government policy decisions, and A host of other issues Computer scientists call this “Big Data,” and the rush is on to build systems that can analyze it in realtime or nearrealtime, to support the development of health-care policies and weather science, as above, but also in many other fields.

In energy, producer companies that used to be called “wildcatters” are struggling to understand the complex geology of the shale and “tight sand” source rock from which petroleum and natural gas can be released, to support the energy independence that has been a Holy Grail since the OPEC oil boycotts and energy crises of the 1970s.

The amount of data flowing up the well-bores is immense, now that modern tools have been developed to exactingly characterize the formations containing hydrocarbon energy resources: Producers must make sense of all the data from “logging while drilling” and “measurement while drilling” devices, from the computer tomography of three-dimensional seismic imaging activities and the “micro-seismic” imagery recovered during the hydraulic fracturing techniques used to complete wells, and from measurements of pressure gradients, the porosity, density and hydrocarbon content of core samples brought up from the well bore and other data points.

Big Data gain.

Add to this the increasingly complex flow of people and materials across the oceans, in the airways, and in-ground transport that must be analyzed by economists, Wall Street bankers and brokers, and government agencies seeking to use Big Data analysis to plan economic and business policies, to understand how all that movement of people and goods affects human relationships in modern society. Computer scientists require systems that are ever bigger, faster, and more capable to handle these massive data streams with programs requiring millions of lines of computer code that must be processed in jig time if the data ultimately produced is to be useful.

At DARPA, the race is on to develop computers based on devices operating at the atomic level, the so-called quantum computers projected to have the speed, efficiency and security protections far beyond the capabilities of classical information technology systems. “Unimaginable” compared to today’s systems, as DARPA’s “50 Years of Bridging the Gap” report says.

The historic African-American scientist Samuel Elmer Imes first demonstrated, in his master’s thesis at the turn of the 20th century, that quantum physics effect could be traced in the molecular structure of matter, and today, DARPA’s computer wizards are building on that knowledge to develop such devices as “double quantum dot devices,” electrostatic metal gates residing on the surface of a two-dimensional electron gas in gallium arsenide, such that manipulation of voltages on the metallic gates allows the formation of singleelectron spin “qubits,” which then can be made to interact by changing the potential on “plunder gates,” permitting their state changes to be detected by a “quantum point contact.”

Everybody got that?

In English, what all that means is that, because of military-led research and innovation, computer systems that www.blackengineer.com

can process data fields unimaginably complex today will in the near future be built and widely used, to the benefit of many fields of human endeavor.

The Internet itself grew out of an initiative by DARPA’s predecessor, and the ARPANET that grew up to connect research institutions and defense contractors during the 1980s was rapidly excelled and replaced by the civilian-led- and driven Internet we know today.

It is not well remembered, however, that even this civilian-driven Internet needed major help from the military to grow. And thanks to Air Force Lt. Gen. Albert J. Edmonds, during the late 20th century working at and later leading the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), it did get that help.

Gen. Edmonds, tasked with harmonizing command, control, and communications systems of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, as well as leading development of high-speed communications links between federal, state and local emergency preparedness and disaster-response agencies, ordered vast build-outs of optical fiber and satellite data communications systems, prompting a growth spurt that laid the groundwork for the Information Highway that is ubiquitous today.

Jet power, from military arms to civilian mainstay Today, people from every corner of the globe take transatlantic jet travel as a given, but it cannot be forgotten that British military scientists -- and German ones, working for the Nazi Third Reich -- developed the first workable turbojet engines. The Messerschmitt 262 fighter interceptor took to the skies too late to prevent the Third Reich’s defeat in World War II, but the principles it and its British Gloster counterpart demonstrated made the use of turbojets practical for highspeed air transport after the global conflict was settled.

Linwood Wright, another less-remembered AfricanAmerican pioneer, made jet travel even more practical when he and his research partner at the National Advisory Commission on Aviation, NASA’s fore-runner, came up with a reliable turbo-fan refinement of the turbojet, utilizing energy once wasted out the tailpipe to turn a big fan sitting in front of the engine’s compressor and produce massive thrust from the airstream bypassing the combustion chambers. And voilà!

What used to be an expensive proposition, jet travel, became affordable to the consumer population.

The list of inventions pouring out of military R&D labs and military procurement programs is too long to fairly cover here. Here’s another example example. The room air conditioner, developed by First Work War veteran Frederick M. Jones to make life bearable in military field hospitals in desert areas during the Second World War, became a household staple during the post-war era. That device was itself a refinement of an earlier world-changing Jones innovation, the invention of portable refrigeration. Jones’ invention made it possible -- indeed, ordinary business today -- for growers to ship meat, fresh fruit and vegetables to markets across the country and across the world, to arrive unspoiled at their distant destinations. Kiwis, anyone?

Duct tape. Plexiglas plastic, invented before the war but brought to mass production by the wartime aerospace industry. Radar, developed to locate and track air attack threats and surfaced submarines at sea, helped perfect VHF television, the wonder communications system of the 1950s.

USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 19

8th Annual Homeland Security, Government and Defense Edition

Saluting the Ninth Annual Stars and Stripes Edition

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20 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

Commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command

ays hw r Pat Cybe obs to rity J u Sec

General Lloyd J. Austin Commander of U.S. Central Command

General Vincent K. Brooks Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific

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10 YEARS OF

HOMELAND SECURITY, GOVERNMENT AND DEFENSE I

f journalism is the first draft of history, then magazine covers are the first impression.

Hannah Orenstein wrote those famous words last summer when her publication set out to compile a list of some the most iconic magazine covers since the 1960s.

This year, US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine has compiled a collection of some of USBE&IT’s endof-year covers over the last decade. Specifically, the Homeland Security, Government and Defense-themed magazine covers.

In December 2004, the first Homeland Security, Government and Defense edition launched with the images of four retired generals on the cover, framed by a colossal Statue of Liberty.

All four Army and Air Force generals are founding fathers of the BEYA Stars and Stripes program.

No doubt about it, Gen. Johnnie E. Wilson, Lt. Gen. Albert E. Edmonds, Gen. Lester L. Lyles and Lt. Gen. Joe N. Ballard made history 10 years ago.

The following December featured the now-retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear. As commander of the Mississippi Valley Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, he controlled territory encompassing 370,000 miles stretching from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. That issue also had a list of all the top Blacks in the U.S. military for the first time. www.blackengineer.com

December 2006 launched with Melvin G. Williams Jr. on the cover. A retired vice admiral of the U.S. Navy, he was a nuclear submarine commander. As a fleet commander, he was in charge of 130 ships and 90,000 sailors and Marines.

Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward became the first commander of United States Africa Command on October 1, 2007 and served until March 9, 2011. The Army general was on the cover for December 2007.

A year later, the edition featured Rear Adm. Stephen W. Rochon, the former director of the Executive Residence and White House chief usher. Adm. Rochon served his last day on active duty with the Coast Guard on March 9, 2007, and began his service at the White House on March 12.

In 2009, Gen. Larry O. Spencer was director, force structure, resources and assessment, Joint Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He graced the cover with retired Lockheed Martin Corporation officer Linda Gooden. That was the fifth annual Homeland Security, Government and Defense edition.

USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 21

The following year, 2007 Black Engineer of the Year Career Achievement in Government award winner, Vice Adm. Anthony L. Winns made the cover of USBE&IT’s Homeland Security, Government and Defense issue in 2010. He assumed duties as the naval inspector general in November 2007.

By that time, the services had taken notice. Each year since, it’s become a tradition for the most senior uniformed officer of the service to appear alongside the top Black general of the year.

In 2011, U.S. Marine commandant leadership advisor and Marine Corps staff director Lt. Gen. Willie J. Williams stood shoulder to shoulder with the 35th commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos. The same year, Williams became the director of the Marine Corps staff at Marine Corps Headquarters, making him third in the chain of command for the entire Marine Corps, behind only the commandant and the assistant commandant.

Similarly, the following December saw all hands on deck with Coast Guard commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp paying tribute to Vice Adm. Manson K. Brown, deputy commandant for mission support. A 1978 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Brown spent 36 years serving the nation and was responsible for guiding 17,000 military and civilian mission support professionals in service of Coast Guard forces deployed worldwide.

22 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

Did you know?

From 1776 until September 2012, a total of 40 million people have served in the United States Armed Forces.

Nine years on, the 2013 end of year cover had the most generals from any United States military service since US Black Engineer magazine launched its Homeland Security, Government and Defense edition with four retired generals.

The ninth annual edition featured Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, chief of staff of the U.S. Army, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific and Gen. Dennis L. Via, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

As of December 31, 2013, 1,369,532 people were on active duty in the armed forces, with an additional 850,880 people in the seven reserve components.

www.blackengineer.com

U.S. ARMY and assumed command of U.S. Central Command on March 22, 2013. Gen. Austin’s awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal (with Six Oak Leaf Clusters), Expert Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, and the Ranger Tab. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy, a Master’s in Education from Auburn University and a Master’s in Business Management from Webster University.

West Point. He was also the first African American to be selected for this position in West Point’s history. He earned a Bachelor of Science at West Point, and also holds a Master of Military Arts and Science, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the New England School of Law. He is an alumni of the exclusive National Security Fellows Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

GEN. VINCENT K. BROOKS

GEN. DENNIS VIA

GEN. LLOYD J. AUSTIN III

Commander, Headquarters United States Central Command

Gen. Lloyd Austin is commander of United States Central Command. He is responsible for all U.S. military operations in the central region of the world, which spans 20 nations from Egypt, east to Pakistan and north to Kazakhstan. Working closely with national and international partners, U.S. Central Command responds to crises, and promotes security and stability in the region. Prior to this assignment, Gen. Austin was the vice chief of staff of the Army. He has served in a variety of command and staff positions throughout his 40-year career.

His early assignments included duty with the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army; and 2nd Battalion, 508th Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Later in his career, Gen. Austin returned to Fort Bragg to serve as commander of the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division; and later as commander, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. Following duty at Fort Bragg, he was assigned to the Pentagon where he served as chief, Joint Operations Division, J-3 on the Joint Staff.

Gen. Austin also served as commanding general of 10th Mountain Division (Light), Fort Drum, New York, with duty as commander of the Combined Joint Task Force- 180, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan. He then served as chief of staff, U.S. Central Command followed by assignment with the XVIII Airborne Corps where he commanded Multinational Corps-Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom. Gen. Austin commanded United States Forces-Iraq from September 2010 through the completion of Operation New Dawn in December 2011 www.blackengineer.com

Commanding General, U.S. Army Pacific

Gen. Vincent Brooks has responsibility for United States Army forces and activities in the Indo-Asia Pacific region assigned to the United States Pacific Command.

During his 34 years as a commissioned officer, Gen. Brooks has commanded two companies in Germany; a battalion near the demilitarized zone in Korea; a brigade forward-deployed to Kosovo; two divisions, including one forward-deployed to Iraq; and two theater armies — one covering the Middle East and central Asia, and the other the Indo-Asia Pacific. In addition to his command assignments, General Brooks has served as a staff officer and principal advisor to senior leaders in the Department of the Army, and as strategy and policy advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the secretary of defense. Gen. Brooks is one of 13 four-star generals in the United States Army on active duty, and the eighth African American to attain four-star rank in Army history. Gen. Brooks is part of the only African-American family to have three generals over two generations. His father and brother are retired Army generals. Brooks is a 1980 graduate of the United States Military Academy, where he was selected to serve as cadet brigade commander, or first captain of the U.S. Corps of Cadets — the top position for a cadet at

Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command Redstone Arsenal, Alabama

Gen. Dennis Via is a native of Martinsville, Virginia. He was commissioned in 1980 after graduating as a distinguished military graduate from Virginia State University. In his current position since 2012, he has held responsibility for providing materiel readiness — technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment — to the Army across the spectrum of joint military operations. This includes weapons, vehicles, aircraft, communications, clothing, food, and equipment.

Previous assignments include deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command; director for Command, Control, Communications and Computer (C4) Systems, J6, The Joint Staff; commanding general, Army Communications-Electronics Command; commanding general, 5th Signal Command; deputy chief of staff, G-6, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany; and principal director for operations/commander, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Global Operations /deputy commander, Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, DISA/ United States Strategic Command. Decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 23

Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

Gen. Via holds the distinction of being the first signal corps officer in U.S. Army history to be promoted to four-star general.

He earned a Bachelor of Science, Virginia State University, and a Master of Arts from Boston University.

LT. GEN. THOMAS BOSTICK

Chief of Engineers/Commanding General United States Army Corps of Engineers

Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1978.

Prior, Lt. Gen. Bostick served as the commanding general of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and subsequently deputy chief of staff, G-1, United States Army, Washington, D.C. Other key assignments have included director of military programs, Corps of Engineers, with duty as commander, Gulf Region Division, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; assistant division commander, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; deputy director of operations, National Military Command Center, The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.; and commander, Engineer Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Germany, and Operation Joint Forge, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lt. Gen. Bostick also served as a White House Fellow with duty at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy.

Decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy; Master of Science (civil engineering) at Stanford University; and a Master of Science (mechanical engineering), also at Stanford University.

LT. GEN. ROBERT S. FERRELL Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 United States Army

As Army CIO, Lt. Gen. Robert Ferrell reports directly to the Secretary of the Army, setting strategic direction and objectives for the Army network and supervises command, control, communications, and computers, and 24 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

information technology (C4IT).

He oversees $10 billion IT investments, manages IT architecture, establishes and enforces IT policies, and directs the delivery of operational C4IT capabilities to support warfighters and business users. As the G-6, he advises the Army chief of staff on communications, signal operations, information security, force structure and equipping. Prior to his current assignment, Lt. Gen. Ferrell was the commanding general, United States Army Communications and Electronics Command and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Lt. Gen. Ferrell, a native of Anniston, Alabama, enlisted in the Army and attained the rank of sergeant before enrolling at Hampton University. Upon graduation in 1983, he was commissioned into the Signal Corps. Lt. Gen. Ferrell’s assignments have included units in the United States, Korea and Europe, and he has deployed to Bosnia and Iraq. He has commanded at every level, from platoon to Army major subordinate command, and served in key staff positions in the Army and the office of the Secretary of Defense.

Decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Hampton University; a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University, and a Master of Science in Strategy from the Army War College.

LT. GEN. MICHAEL WILLIAMSON

Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Director of Acquisition Career Management

Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson became the principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, and director of acquisition career management in April 2014. He leads military and civilian professionals in the development, acquisition, fielding, and sustainment of the world’s best equipment, services,

technologies and capabilities to meet current and future Army needs. Prior to this assignment, he served as the deputy commanding general, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. He has also served as the assistant military deputy and as the assistant deputy for acquisition and systems management.

Other key assignments include service as the joint program executive officer for the Joint Tactical Radio Systems, deputy program executive officer for integration, project manager for network systems integration, Future Combat Systems, Brigade Combat Team; commander of the Software Engineering Center; and military assistant to the Secretary of the Army. He has also served as a Congressional Fellow on Capitol Hill. A graduate of Husson College with a Bachelor of Science in business administration, he also earned a Master of Science in materiel acquisition management from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Ph.D. in business administration from Madison University.

MAJ. GEN. MARCIA ANDERSON Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Wisconsin

Maj. Gen. Marcia Anderson has served over 35 years.

She is the first African-American female officer to earn the rank of major general in the U.S. Army or Army Reserve and received her second star in 2011. She most recently served as deputy chief of the Army Reserve and was responsible for programs and policy development affecting 205,000 soldiers and 13,000 civilian employees.

Prior to that position, she served as the deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, which supports over 1 million active, reserve and retired soldiers. She has commanded at all levels through general officer. Maj. Gen. Anderson received a commission as an officer in the U.S. Army through the Reserve Officers Training Corps. After graduating from Creighton University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, she later earned a Juris Doctorate from the Rutgers University School of Law in 1984. Maj. Gen. Anderson has a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College. An active citizensoldier, she is employed by the United www.blackengineer.com

States Courts, where she serves as clerk of the bankruptcy court, Western District of Wisconsin.

MAJ. GEN. GWEN BINGHAM

Commanding General, U.S. Army Tankautomotive and Armaments Command Life Cycle Management Command

Maj. Gen. Gwen Bingham assumed command of Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Life Cycle Management Command on June 25, 2014. Previously, she served as commanding general, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico from September 2012 to June 2014. Four years earlier, in November 2010, she became the 51st quartermaster general and commandant of the Army Quartermaster School. Prior, she has served as commander, U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Lee, Virginia and chief of staff, Combined Arms Support Command (Sustainment Center of Excellence), followed by service as special assistant to the commanding general, 1st Theater Sustainment Command, Operation Iraqi Freedom/ New Dawn, Kuwait, and Operation Enduring Freedom. Her other assignments include The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.; United Nations Command/United States Forces Korea, Korea; and commander, 266th Quartermaster Battalion, Fort Lee. Assignments also include Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Lewis, Washington and Germany.

She graduated as a distinguished military graduate from the University of Alabama in 1981 and received a commission in the Quartermaster Corps as a second lieutenant. Decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

She earned a Bachelor of Science from University of Alabama; Master of Arts from Central Michigan University; and Master of Science from the National Defense University.

MAJ. GEN. AUGUSTUS COLLINS The Adjutant General, Mississippi

Maj. Gen. Augustus Collins is the adjutant general of Mississippi and serves as the commanding general of both the Mississippi Army and Air National Guard. He is responsible for providing the state of Mississippi and the United www.blackengineer.com

States of America with a ready force of 12,275 citizen soldiers, airmen and civilian personnel, equipped and trained to respond to any contingency, natural or manmade. Gen. Collins directs the Mississippi Military Department and oversees development and coordination of policies, plans, and programs of the Mississippi National Guard in concert with the governor and legislature of the state. Gen. Collins began his career when he enlisted in the Mississippi Army National Guard’s Company B, 1st Battalion, 198th Armor Regiment in 1977. He was commissioned in 1980 upon completion of State Officer Candidate School. He has served in various command and staff positions in units at every level to include company, battalion, regiment, brigade, and the adjutant general’s primary staff in both a traditional and active Guard Reserve status. Gen. Collins served on active duty in Operation Desert Shield/Storm and as well as commanding the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team during combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2006. He also served as director, Mobilization Forces, United States Army Forces Command from February 2006 to October 2007. Gen. Collins was appointed Adjutant General of Mississippi by Gov. Phil Bryant on January 11, 2012.

MAJ. GEN. BRUCE CRAWFORD

Commanding General, U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command and Senior Commander of Aberdeen Proving Ground

Maj. Gen. Bruce Crawford was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps through ROTC from South Carolina State University in 1986. He is responsible for developing, integrating and sustaining logistics and readiness of command, control, communications, computers, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and mission command capabilities for joint, interagency and multi-national forces. Previous assignments include J6, director of C4/Cyber and chief information officer, U.S. Euro-

pean Command; commanding general, 5th Signal Command, United States Army Europe and Seventh Army; director of the Army Chief of Staff Coordination Group, Office of the Army Chief of Staff; commander, 516th Signal Brigade, Fort Shafter, Hawaii; and commander, 82nd Signal Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina., and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq.

Decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal; the Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering at South Carolina State University, and a Master of Science from Central Michigan University and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

MAJ. GEN. MICHAEL GARRETT Chief of Staff, United States Central Command MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

Maj. Gen. Michael Garrett currently serves as chief of staff of United States Central Command. Prior, he commanded U.S. Army Alaska and served as deputy commander of United States Alaskan Command, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

He also commanded 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) at Fort Richardson, which deployed to Iraq. He completed an operations tour, which deployed to Afghanistan, as chief of current operations, Combined Joint Task Force 180, and did three tours on Fort Bragg to include his most recent assignment as deputy chief of staff for United States Forces-Iraq, Operation New Dawn. Other key assignments include deputy commanding general, United States Army Recruiting Command, regimental tactical officer and later director, Department of Military Instruction, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.

Decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (two Oak Leaf Clusters) and the Bronze Star Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster. His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, Army Command and General Staff College and the Senior Service College Fellowship. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Xavier University.

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MAJ. GEN. SANFORD HOLMAN Commander, 200th Military Police Command Fort Meade, Maryland

Maj. Gen. Sanford Holman leads more than 15,000 soldiers and has command and control of the majority of Army Reserve military police units. These units are engaged around the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Korea.

Holman graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and was commissioned in the infantry in 1978. In 1992, he left active duty to pursue a civilian career. He also began his Army Reserve service in the 80th Division Institutional Training.

He served as military police brigade commander; battalion, commander; the Combat Service Support Brigade executive officer; military police brigade operations officer; and inspector general.

He returned to active duty in 2007 and deployed as deputy commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa of the U.S. Africa Command. His most recent assignment was as vice commander of the Joint Warfighting Center and deputy joint-force trainer at the Joint Forces Command. He earned a master’s degree in operations research from the Florida Institute of Technology and another in national security strategy from the National Defense University.

MAJ. GEN. CHARLES HOOPER Senior United States Defense Representative/Defense Attaché U.S. Embassy Cairo, Egypt

Maj. Gen. Charles Hooper has been the senior U.S. defense representative and defense attaché in the U.S. Embassy, Cairo, Egypt, since July 2014. Prior to his current assignment, he was director of strategy, plans, and programs, J5, United States Africa Command at Kelly Barracks, Germany; deputy director for strategic planning and policy, J-5, United States Pacific Command, Camp Smith, Hawaii, and U.S. Defense Attaché, United States Embassy, Beijing, China.

Other assignments include foreign area 26 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

officer chairman at the Naval Postgraduate School; chief, Army International Affairs Division, Strategy, Plans, and Policy Directorate, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, Army Staff; and senior country director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, Office of the Secretary of Defense. Maj. Gen. Hooper was awarded the Don K. Price Award for Academic Excellence and Public Service at Harvard University, and selected to give the graduate student address at the 1989 Harvard University commencement exercise. Decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit. Major General Hooper is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He earned a Bachelor of Science at the U.S. Military Academy; a Master of Public Administration, also at Harvard University; and a Master of Science-Strategic Studies from U.S. Army War College MAJ. GEN. LAWARREN PATTERSON

Commanding General U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon

Maj. Gen. LaWarren Patterson took command of the Signal Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon in July 2012. Prior to becoming the chief of signal, Maj. Gen. Patterson commanded the 7th Signal Command. He relinquished command as he was frocked to major general in a change of command ceremony held in the summer of 2012. In a separate event before the ceremony, he was presented with the Distinguished Service Medal for his service as 7th Signal’s commanding general during the past two years. As commander of 7th Signal Command, he directed operations and defense of the Army’s Land-War Net in the western hemisphere. Seventh Signal provides unity of command for network operations in the Army North and Army South operations, consolidating loosely affiliated networks into a single network enterprise.

Patterson graduated from Norfolk State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in mass communications, and received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps in 1982. He holds a master’s degree in general administration from Central Michigan University, and another in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

MAJ. GEN. AUNDRE PIGGEE

Director of Logistics & Engineering, J-4 United States Central Command

A native of Arkansas and Distinguished Military Graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Maj. Gen. Aundre Piggee was commissioned through ROTC as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps in 1981. Prior to his current assignment, Maj. Gen. Piggee served as the commanding general, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, United States Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany. Previously, he served as the executive officer to the vice chief of staff of the Army, followed by assignment as the deputy assistant chief of staff, C-4/assistant chief of staff, J-4 to United Nations Command/ Combined Forces Command/ United States Forces Korea. Other assignments include commander, 15th Sustainment Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; assistant chief of staff, G-4, 1st Cavalry Division; and commander, 15th Forward Support Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood and Operation Joint Forge, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Decorations include Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Science and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; a Master of Science from Florida Institute of Technology; and a Master of Science-Strategic Studies, U.S. Army War College MAJ. GEN. BARRYE PRICE

Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 United States Army Forces Command

Commissioned in 1985, Maj. Gen. Barrye Price is a Distinguished Military Graduate of the University of Houston’s College of Business Administration.

In his current position, Maj. Gen. Price provides leadership and oversight of human resource policies and programs, unit readiness, as well as staff superviwww.blackengineer.com

sion of the Ready and Resilient Campaign, Sexual Assault and Prevention Program (SHARP), Equal Opportunity (EO), Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), and civilian human resources.

The general’s previous assignments include director, Human Resources Policy Directorate, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, The Pentagon; deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Cadet Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky; director J-1, U.S. Forces-Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; commander, Eastern Sector, U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, and assistant deputy chief of staff, G-1, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Other key assignments include White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Washington, D.C.; executive officer and military assistant to the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Washington, D.C.; and commander, 4th Personnel Services Battalion, Fort Carson, Colorado. Maj. Gen. Price served on the president and first lady’s task force on “Raising Responsible and Resourceful Teenagers” and on President Clinton’s “Mississippi Delta Task Force” which sought to revitalize the 207-county, seven-state region that comprises the Mississippi River floodplain. Decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Houston; a Master of Arts in history from Texas A&M University; Master of Science in national security strategy at National War College; and a Doctorate of Philosophy in history from Texas A&M University.

MAJ. GEN. A.C. ROPER, JR.

Commanding General, 80th Training Command, Richmond, Virginia

Maj. Gen. A.C. Roper commands the 80th Training Command in Richmond, Virginia.

He previously commanded the 415th Chemical Brigade in Greenville, South Carolina, and was deployed during the Gulf War and during Operation Enduring Freedom, where he served as a spokesman for combat operations in southern Afghanistan. He has been www.blackengineer.com

awarded the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal and the General Douglas McArthur Leadership Award. He is the recipient of numerous community awards. In his civilian capacity, he is the Chief of the Birmingham Police Department. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Troy University, a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Alabama and a master’s in strategic studies from the Army War College. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the FBI National Executive Institute.

MAJ. GEN. ERROL SCHWARTZ

Commanding General, District of Columbia National Guard

Maj. Gen. Errol Schwartz has served as the commanding general, District of Columbia National Guard since 2008. He is responsible for operational readiness and command and control of the District of Columbia Army and Air National Guard units with an authorized strength of 2,700 citizen soldiers, airmen and civilian personnel. His military career started when he enlisted in the District of Columbia Army National Guard in 1976.

He was commissioned in June 1979 and appointed a platoon leader in the 104th Maintenance Company. He served in many leadership positions as a staff officer and commander. Some of his previous assignments include battalion commander, 372nd Military Police Battalion, deputy director of Information Management, director of logistics, commander, 74th Troop Command and deputy commanding general, District of Columbia National Guard. Maj. Gen. Schwartz also serves in the federal Senior Executive Service. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of the District of Columbia, a master’s degree in business management from Central Michigan University and a master’s in national security strategy from the National Defense University.

MAJ. GEN. STEPHEN TWITTY

Commanding General, 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss, Texas

A native of Chesnee, South Carolina, Maj. Gen. Stephen Twitty is a 1985 Distinguished Military Graduate of

South Carolina State University, where he received his commission through the ROTC program. He took up his current assignment in August 2014. Previous assignments include deputy chief of staff of operations, Plans and Training, United States Army Forces Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; deputy chief of staff, Strategic Communications Headquarters, International Security Assistance Force, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan; deputy commanding general (Operations), 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss; chief of staff, Third Army/United States Army Central, Fort McPherson, Georgia, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Kuwait; executive officer to the deputy commander, United States Northern Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; commander, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; commander, 3rd Battalion (Mechanized), 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq. Major General Twitty has also served in Belgium, Germany, Hungary (Operation Joint Endeavor), and Saudi Arabia (Desert Storm/Desert Shield). He holds degrees in criminal law, administration, and national security.

Decorations include the Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Science from South Carolina State University; a Master of Science from Central Michigan University; and a Master of Science from the National War College.

MAJ. GEN. NADJA Y. WEST

Deputy Chief of Staff for Support United States Army Medical Command, F

Maj. Gen. Nadja West was commissioned through the United States Military Academy, West Point. Prior to her current assignment, Maj. Gen. West served as the deputy chief of staff for support, U. S. Army Medical Command, Falls Church, Virginia; commanding general, Europe USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 27

Regional Medical Command/Command Surgeon United States Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany; and she was commander, Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Other key assignments include director of operations, J-3, Joint Task Force-National Capital Region Medical, Maryland; commander, U. S. Army, Medical Department Activity, Fort Eustis, Virginia; and chief, Department of Medicine and Dermatology Service, 18th Medical Command, 121st General Hospital, Eighth United States Army, Korea. Decorations include the Legion of Merit and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy; an M.D. in general medicine from George Washington University; and a Master of Science from National Defense University.

MAJ. GEN. DARRYL WILLIAMS

Deputy Commanding General (Support), 2nd Infantry Division Eighth United States Army, Republic of Korea

Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams earned his commission through the United States Military Academy, as a second lieutenant in the Army Field Artillery Officer Corps. Prior to his current assignment, he served as deputy director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, Washington, DC. Other assignments include service as assistant surgeon general for Warrior Care and Transition, and commanding general, Warrior Transition Command.

He also served as effects coordinator, 1st Armored Division, United States Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; and commander, Division Artillery, 1st Armored Division, United States Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany.

Decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Science at the U.S. Military Academy; Master of Military Art and Science at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; and a Master of Arts, Naval War College.

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MAJ. GEN. CEDRIC WINS

Director, Capabilities Developments, Army Capabilities Integration Center U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command

Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins was commissioned as a field artillery officer in 1985 upon graduation from the Virginia Military Institute.

He has served as director, capabilities developments, Army Capabilities Integration Center, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command since May 2013.

Prior to his current assignment, Maj. Gen. Wins served as deputy commander, police, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Training Mission-Afghanistan/ Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, from April 2012 to April 2013. His previous assignments have included deputy director, Program Analysis and Evaluation, G-8, Washington, D.C., director, strategic planning, J-8, United States Special Operations Command and senior exercise planner/ analyst, Operational Plans and Joint Force Development, J-7, The Joint Staff.

Maj. Gen. Wins’ decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. Maj. Gen. Wins holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Virginia Military Institute, a Master of Science in management with a concentration in quantitative analysis from the Florida Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science in national security and strategic studies from the National War College.

MAJ. GEN. LARRY WYCHE

Commanding General, U. S. Army Combined Arms Support Command and the Sustainment Center of Excellence

Maj. Gen. Larry Wyche was commissioned as a Quartermaster officer in 1982.

Prior to his current assignment in June 2012, Maj. Gen. Wyche was the deputy chief of staff for operations, (G-3/5), U.S. Army Materiel Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; and deputy chief of staff for logistics and

operations, Army Materiel Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Other key assignments include commanding general, Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command; director, strategy and integration, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, Army Staff; commander, 10th Sustainment Brigade/ commander, Joint Logistics Command, Combined Joint Task Force 76, Bagram Airfield, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan. Decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration at Texas A&M University; a Master of Science from Florida Institute of Technology; and a Master of Science at National Defense University.

MAJ. GEN. DARRELL K. WILLIAMS Commanding General, 1st Sustainment Command (Theater)

Maj. Gen. Darrell K. Williams assumed command of 1st Sustainment Command (Theater) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in January 2014.

He also serves as deputy commanding general – sustainment (DCG-S) for U.S. Army Central (USARCENT), Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Maj. Gen. Williams is a native of West Palm Beach, Florida. He is a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Hampton Institute ROTC Program and was commissioned into the Army Quartermaster Corps in 1983. Maj. Gen. Williams is a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) and a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degrees in military arts and sciences, national security and strategic studies, and business management (logistics). His prior assignments include: deputy chief of staff, U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC), Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; commander, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Land and Maritime in Columbus, Ohio; director of logistics, engineering and security assistance, J-4, Headquarters, United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), Hawaii; executive officer to the Army deputy chief of staff, HQDA G-4; Brigade Commander, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, Fort Stewart, Georgia. www.blackengineer.com

MAJ. GEN. LESLIE C. SMITH

Commanding General, United States Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, Fort Leonard Wood

Maj. Gen. Leslie Smith’s previous assignments were fourth commander, U.S. Army 20th Support Command (CBRNE – Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High-yield Explosives); 1-230th Field Artillery Battalion; 3-52nd Air Defense Artillery Battalion Chemical Staff Officer; division and DIVARTY staff officer and company commander, 82nd Artillery Battalion; 3-52nd Air Defense Artillery Battalion chemical staff officer; chemical branch PERSCOM; 23rd Chemical Battalion and Joint Staff, J-5 as the S-3 and XO. Gen. Smith commanded and was deployed with 83rd Chemical Battalion in support of Operation New Dawn, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Served on the Army Staff in the G-8 Deputy Division Chief and Chief, NBC Branch for Full Dimensional Protection Division. Commanded 3rd Chemical Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, and served as G-3, 20th Support Command (CBRNE) and 25th Chief, Chemical and Commandant, United States Army CBRN School. He commissioned through Georgia Southern University. He has a Master of Science degree in administration and Master of Science degree in national security strategy. His military education includes the Chemical Officer Basic and Advanced courses, Airborne School, Jumpmaster School, Command and General Staff College and National War College.

MAJ. GEN. PHILLIP M. CHURN Commanding General 200th Military Police Command

Maj. Gen. Churn is a native of Washington, D.C. He was commissioned and graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in May 1983. He is responsible for mission command of four military police brigades, and three CID battalions, and over 13,000 citizen-soldiers and civilians in 44 states; www.blackengineer.com

providing life-saving and life-sustaining capabilities to the nation and supporting the full range of military operations. Maj. Gen. Churn has commanded from battery to division level: deputy commanding general 200th Military Police Command, commanding general 333rd Military Police Brigade, brigade commander, 3rd Brigade, 104th Training Division; battalion commander; 336th MP Battalion and 391st MP Battalion; and HQs and Service Battery, 3rd Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment (MLRS), XVIII ABN Corps. His operational assignments include; three deployments for OEF and Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

Maj. Gen. Churn is a graduate from CAPSTONE, Senior Service College, Advanced Joint Professional Military Education, Command and General Staff College, the DoD Professional Comptrollers Course, the Combined Arms Service Staff School, and the Field Artillery Officers Basic and Advance Courses. He has a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Army War College and a Bachelor of Science in economics from Mount Saint Mary’s College.

MAJ. GEN. DANA J.H. PITTARD

Deputy Commanding General – Operations, U.S. Army Central Coalition Forces Land Component Command

Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard is currently deputy commanding general of operations for 3rd Army/ U.S. Army Central. He assumed this position on July 14, 2013. His previous assignments include service as commanding general of 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss, Texas; deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7 U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command; commanding general, National Training Center and Fort Irwin; and commanding general of the Iraqi Assistance Group. He also commanded the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. He has also served as military aide to the president of the United States. His previous staff assignments include chief of plans and exercises for 2nd Armored Division and S-3 (Operations) for both 1st Battalion, 67th Armor and 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, all at Fort Hood, Texas. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant from the United States Military Academy in 1981, with a Bachelor of Science in History. He later earned a Master’s from

the School for Advanced Military Studies at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Maj. Gen. Pittard attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a Senior Service College Fellow.

MAJ. GEN. RENALDO RIVERA The Adjutant General, Virgin Islands

Maj. Gen. Renaldo Rivera is the adjutant general, Virgin Islands. He also serves as a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. MG Rivera’s responsibilities include the training, resourcing, mobilization and demobilization of units of the Virgin Islands National Guard in support of federal mobilization and national contingencies. He is also responsible for ensuring support is provided to civil authorities of the Virgin Islands in natural or man-made disasters, civil disturbances and other territorial contingencies.

MG Rivera was direct commissioned in April 1980. Prior to receiving his commission, he served as an enlisted member of the United States Army and completed a tour of duty in Vietnam. MG Rivera previously served in the Virgin Islands National Guard as deputy chief of staff for logistics and deputy chief of staff for operations and plans. He was appointed by the governor to command the Virgin Island National Guard in 2007. He graduated from Youngstown State University in 1979 with a Bachelor Science in law enforcement administration and the United States Army War College in 1996.

BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL DILLARD

Commanding General, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command

Brig. Gen. Michael Dillard is the commanding general of the 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command in Fort Hood, Texas.

His prior assignments include deputy commander, 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command; brigade commander, 97th Training Brigade (Intermediate Level Education), 80th Training Command (Total Army School System); brigade commander, 2nd Brigade (PD), 104th Training Division (Leader Training); group commander, 2nd Battle

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Command Training Group. He also served as a battalion commander, 687th Quartermaster Battalion, Kuwait Combined Forces Land Coalition Component, Camp Virginia, Kuwait and as company commander for Charlie Company, 3/318th Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade, 80th Training Division, during Operation Desert Storm in Fort Story, Virginia. BG Dillard entered the Army in 1981 as a private. He received his commission in 1983 from the University of Richmond in Field Artillery. He earned his Masters of Business Administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.

BRIG. GEN. WAYNE BLACK

Assistant Adjutant General – Army, Indiana National Guard

Brig. Gen. Wayne Black is assistant adjutant general for the Army in the Indiana National Guard. He serves as a principal advisor to the adjutant general and is responsible for assisting in formulating, developing and coordinating programs, policies and plans affecting the Indiana Army National Guard and its more than 14,500 citizen soldiers, airmen and civilian personnel. Brig. Gen. Black began his military career in 1984, receiving an ROTC commission from The Citadel. He has served in command and staff positions from battery to division and state level. His assignments include South Korea; Fort Lewis, Washington; Germany; and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

His deployments include Desert Shield/ Desert Storm, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

Brig. Gen. Black attended the Field Artillery Officer’s Basic and Advanced Courses, Combined Arms Services Staff School, Operations Research/Systems Analysis Course, Command and General Staff Officer’s Course, and the US Army War College. His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Ranger Tab, Parachutist Badge and a list of other awards. Gen. Black has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Citadel, a Master of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University, and a Master’s in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army 30 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

War College. In his civilian career, Gen. Black is a manufacturing supervisor for RR Donnelley.

BRIG. GEN. GARY BRITO

Director, Force 2025 and Beyond U.S. Army Capabilities and Integration Center Training and Doctrine Command

Brig. Gen. Gary Brito assumed duties as the director, Force 2025 and Beyond, U.S. Army Capabilities and Integration Center, Training and Doctrine Command, on June 30, 2014. He most recently served as the Corps Operations Officer (G3) for III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas. In that capacity, he deployed and served as the deputy director, Afghanistan National Security Forces Development, ISAF Joint Command in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has commanded at the company through brigade levels and has held numerous staff and operational assignments. Brig. Gen. Brito deployed twice to Iraq; first with the 4th Infantry Division and later as a battalion commander with the 3rd Infantry Division. He was commissioned in 1986 through Army ROTC at Pennsylvania State University and entered active duty in 1987.

Brig. Gen. Brito completed senior service college through the Joint Advanced Warfighting School earning a Master of Science in Joint Strategy and Campaign Planning.

BRIG. GEN. PATRICK BURDEN Deputy Program Executive Officer Ammunition and Senior Commander Picatinny Arsenal

Brig. Gen. Patrick Burden is deputy program executive officer ammunition and the senior commander of Picatinny Arsenal.

He was commissioned into the Field Artillery from Alabama A&M University in 1987 and deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operations Desert Shield/Storm January 1991 with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment.

Brig. Gen. Burden entered the Army Acquisition Corps in 1994 and served in various positions from project officer, assistant project manager, assistant product

manager, product manager, deputy for systems acquisition, program analyst as well as program manager across two different program executive offices. Additionally, he served as a program analyst for the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.

He most recently served as the project manager for the General Fund Enterprise Business System. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Alabama A&M University and a Master of Science in management information systems from Florida Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Armed Forces Staff College, Advanced Program Management Course at the Defense Systems Management College, and U.S. Army Senior Service College Fellowship Program, University of Texas–Austin.

BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL CALHOUN

Assistant Adjutant General-Army Element Director of the Joint Staff, Florida National Guard

Brig. Gen. Michael Calhoun is assigned as the assistant adjutant general-Army element and serves as the Director of the Joint Staff. Brig.

Gen. Calhoun’s additional duties include joint task force commander and dual status commander, designee. Brig.

Gen. Calhoun has commanded Company A, 161st Area Support Medical Battalion; the 856th Quartermaster Battalion; the 53rd Infantry Brigade’s Special Troops Battalion; the 211th Regiment, Regional Training Institute; the 50th Area Support Group and the 83rd Troop Command of the Florida National Guard. Brig. Gen. Calhoun has completed Quartermaster Officer Advance Course, Air Defense Artillery Officer Course, Combined Joint Task Force Course, the Dual Status Commander Program, the Army Strategic Leaders Development Program-B, Chairman Joint Chief of Staff’s Level IV Antiterrorism Executive Training and the Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government General and Flag Officer Homeland Security Executive Seminar. In addition to a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from Florida A&M University, Brig. Gen. Calhoun holds a master’s in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

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BRIG. GEN. RICHARD DIX

Commanding General, Defense Logistics Agency Distribution New Cumberland, PA

Brig. Gen. Richard Dix assumed command of the Defense Logistics Agency Distribution on May 29, 2014. From July 2009 to July 2010, Dix commanded the 401st Army Field Support Brigade in Bagram, Afghanistan. He later served as the executive officer to the deputy chief of staff, G-4 from July 2012 to August 2013. Dix comes to Defense Logistics Agency Distribution after having served as the director of Strategy and Integration G-45/7 for the deputy chief of staff of the Army, G-4. He attended Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he also received a Master of Arts in procurement and acquisition management from Webster University. He is a 2009 graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. In 1987, he graduated from South Carolina State University’s Army ROTC Program as a Distinguished Military Graduate with a Bachelor of Science in marketing.

BRIG. GEN. JASON EVANS

Deputy Commanding General for Support Installation Management Command

Brig. Gen. Jason Evans was commissioned through ROTC as a second lieutenant in the Army Adjutant General Corps.

He is currently the deputy commanding general for support at Installation Management Command.

His responsibilities include developing and implementing policies and programs in support of 75 Installations worldwide, and oversees Installation Management Command’s Human Resources, Training, Education and a $2.8-Billion Soldier, Family and Morale Welfare and Recreation program. Prior to his current assignment, BG Evans served as adjutant general U.S. Army, Director, Personnel, CJ1 Multinational Force-Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom, followed by an assignment as executive officer to the assistant secretary of the Army, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Washington, D.C. Other assignments include commander, U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Monroe, www.blackengineer.com

Virginia; commander, 510th Personnel Services Battalion, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany; and commander Task Force 510th Personnel Services Battalion, Kosovo. He earned a bachelor’s in business administration and holds master’s degrees in business administration and national resource strategy.

BRIG. GEN. NORMAN GREEN

Commanding General, 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)

Brig. Gen. Norman Green is commanding general of 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) in San Antonio, Texas.

Prior assignments include chief of staff, 79th Sustainment Support Command and brigade commander, 304th Sustainment Brigade, both in California; battalion commander, 377th Theater Support Command, Belle Chase, Louisiana. He served as liaison officer, C35 to Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait and Iraq, and with 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan. He previously served as aide-de-camp, 377th Theater Support Command, company commander at Joint Readiness Training Center and 3rd Battalion 22nd Infantry. His staff assignments included support operations officer, Battalion S-3; plans officer, senior observer controller, assistant operations officer, Brigade S-4, company executive officer and Bradley platoon leader. He was commissioned as second lieutenant from South Carolina State College in December 1985. He is a graduate of the U.S. War College with a master’s in strategic studies, and Central Michigan University with a master’s in public administration.

BRIG. GEN. JOHN HARRIS Assistant Adjutant General-Army Ohio National Guard

Brig. Gen. John Harris serves as the assistant adjutant general for the Army of the Ohio National Guard.

In that capacity, he commands approximately 11,400 citizen soldiers, airmen and civilian personnel and is responsible for all aspects of readiness for overseas and homeland defense missions. Prior to his current as-

signment, Brig. Gen. Harris served as the chief of staff and director of personnel of the Ohio Army National Guard. He has also commanded a peacekeeping task force in Kosovo and remains engaged in the State Partnership Program and ongoing relations with Serbia and Hungary. He is a senior Army aviator with experience in attack, scout, and utility aircraft. Brig. Gen. Harris strives to inculcate emerging business practices and process improvement principles to assure efficient and responsible governance. He holds a master’s in strategic studies from the United States Army War College and has completed the Baldrige Executive Fellowship through the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

BRIG. GEN. FREDERICK HENRY

Chief of Staff, Defense Information Systems Agency

Brig. Gen. Frederick Henry has been assigned to a number of positions in the chemical corps and computer information systems areas of the Army, including chief of the information assurance division, Department of the Army Inspector General Agency; and operations officer at a chemical and biological division of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Prior to assignment as deputy commander of the Network Enterprise Technology Command, he was chief of the information assurance branch of the Army Inspector General’s Office. He is the first officer of the Army’s Information Systems Management functional area.

He graduated from Fitchburg State College in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial technology with a minor in marketing. He earned master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Maryland University System (Bowie State), and in national strategic studies from the United States Army War College. Brig. Gen. Henry took up his new assignment as chief of staff, Defense Information Systems Agency in July 2012.

BRIG. GEN. KENNETH HUBBARD Director for Resource Management (G8) Installation Management Command

Brig. Gen. Kenneth Hubbard is the son of a career Army officer and a 1986 graduate of the South Carolina State USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 31

Army ROTC Program. He holds a master’s in business administration from Syracuse University, and another master’s degree in national resource strategy from the National Defense University. His military education includes the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and the U.S. Air Command and Staff College. Prior to becoming director for resource management (G8), Installation Management Command, Brigadier General Hubbard served as the director of the Army Budget’s Operations and Support Directorate.

Previous assignments include the United States Forces – Afghanistan J8 while assigned as the V Corps G8; Division G8 (Comptroller) for 1st Infantry Division; Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq J8, NATO assignment as Joint Plans Officer in Croatia/Bosnia; Contingency Operations Budget Analyst, Army Budget Office; and Defense Resource Manager, J8, Joint Chief of Staffs. Brig. Gen. Hubbard’s deployments include Operation Just Cause 1990, Panama; Stabilization Force 1998, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation Iraqi Freedom 2009-2010, Iraq; and Operation Enduring Freedom 2012-2013 Afghanistan. Awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Services Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Services Commendation Medal, Army Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Iraq Campaign Medal with the Campaign Star, and Global War of Terrorism Medal.

BRIG. GEN. RONALD LEWIS Chief of Public Affairs United States Army

Brig. Gen. Ronald Lewis, who has been selected for promotion to major general, assumed duties as chief of public affairs in June 2014. He is responsible for all communication issues involving the United States Army. He is charged with the formulation of communication and 32 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

public affairs strategies, plans and policies, and serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary of the Army. He served as the deputy commanding general support, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Afghanistan. He served as the senior military assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, as military assistant to the under-secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics and as military assistant to the chairman of the Defense Business Board. Other assignments include: commander, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during Operation Iraqi Freedom; commander, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 4th Aviation Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, during Operation Iraqi Freedom; senior aviation task force trainer, Operations Group, Army National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif. He earned a Bachelor of Science at the U.S. Military Academy; and a Master of Arts at the Naval War College.

BRIG. GEN. BARBARA LYNNE OWENS

Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Human Resources Command

Brig. Gen. Barbara Lynne Owens is a 30year veteran of the Army Reserve. As deputy commanding general of the largest human resources organization in the world, she ensures Human Resources Command (Ft Knox) provides the full spectrum of human resources services to soldiers, veterans, retirees and Army families. The command manages soldier schooling, promotions, awards, records, transfers, appointments, benefits, and casualty affairs — one agency managing soldiers’ entire careers from the day they enter basic training until retirement and beyond. Prior to her arrival in Kentucky, she was the U.S. Army Reserve Command G-1, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A resident of Mississippi, Owens earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi, a master’s degree in human resources from Webster University, and a master of strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

BRIG. GEN. RENWICK PAYNE

Adjutant General, District of Columbia National Guard

Brig. Gen. Renwick Payne has served as adjutant general of the District of Columbia National Guard since July 2012. His previous assignment was director, Joint Staff, New York National Guard.

Brig. Gen. Payne has held a variety of positions throughout his career. He was assigned to the National Guard Bureau in October 1993 as the transportation organization integrator, force management division. He served as the military assistant to the assistant secretary of the Army, manpower and reserve affairs, Pentagon; executive officer to the director, Army National Guard, National Guard Bureau; G3/Operations Officer, Army National Guard, National Guard Bureau; chief of staff, Army National Guard, Army National Guard Readiness Center; and Global War on Terrorism Operational Assistant to the Director, Army National Guard. He also served as a senior service fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Washington, D.C. BRIG. GEN. BERTRAM C. PROVIDENCE, MD Command Surgeon, U.S. Army Forces Command

Brig. Gen. Bertram Providence is the command surgeon for the U.S. Army Forces Command. He earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Saint John’s University in Queens, New York, graduating magna cum laude. A Distinguished Military Graduate, Brig. Gen. Providence was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. He holds a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University, a master’s degree in business administration with a focus on healthcare from the George Washington University School of Business, and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon, board certified in adult reconstruction orthopedics and holds a certificate www.blackengineer.com

of added qualification in sports medicine from the American Board of Orthopedic Surgeons. He completed a fellowship in lower extremity reconstruction (hip and knee arthroplasty) at Scripps Clinic in LaJolla, California.

BRIG. GEN. JAMES E. SIMPSON

Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement and Director of Contracting

Brig. Gen. James Simpson is the deputy to the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for procurement and director of contracting.

Prior, he was the commander, Central Command Joint Theater Support Contracting Command, Afghanistan. He has served in numerous command and staff positions including: deputy chief of contracting management, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C.; senior contracting official - Iraq, Joint Theater Support contracting command; deputy project manager, Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense, Virginia; commander, Defense Contract Management Agency, Pennsylvania; and various Air Defense assignments in the United States and overseas. Brigadier General Simpson earned a Bachelor of Science in political science from Lander University in 1985.

He holds a Master of Science in public administration from Central Michigan University and a Master of Science in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

He also earned a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington.

BRIG. GEN. LESTER SIMPSON

Command of the 36 Infantry Division Texas Army National Guard, Austin, Texas

Brig. Gen. Lester Simpson assumed command of the 36 Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard, Austin, Texas, on June 1, 2014. In 2012, Brig. Gen. Simpson assumed the duties of assistant adjutant general, Army, Texas National Guard, and in May 2013 he assumed the www.blackengineer.com

duties of special assistant to the director, Army National Guard, the Pentagon. He received his commission in the Army National Guard in 1980 through the University of Texas, Arlington Reserve Officers Training Corps. After completing infantry officer basic course, he served in many leadership and command assignments.

He served as commander, 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment; commander, 142nd Rear Operations Center; and in 2010 he served as commander, 176th Engineer Brigade during major combat operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Brig. Gen. Simpson’s military awards include: Legion of Merit, Bronze star and Combat Action Badge awarded in Afghanistan, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (with 1 Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Commendation Medal (with 1 Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster) and numerous other awards. Brig. Gen. Simpson holds a master’s in strategic studies and is a graduate of the CAPSTONE General and Flag Officer Course in Washington, D.C. BRIG. GEN. LINDA SINGH

Commander, Maryland Army National Guard

Brig. Gen. Linda Singh is the commander, Maryland Army National Guard.

Her prior assignments include chief of current operations, Afghanistan National Security Force; assistant chief of staff, G-4, at the 29th Infantry Division; director, Maryland National Guard Joint Staff; commander, 70th Regiment; commander, 229th Main Support Battalion; and commander, 581st Readiness Battalion. She received her commission in 1991 through the Maryland Military Academy’s Officer Candidate School. She received her Bachelor of Science in business administration from Columbia Union College; and earned an M.B.A. in business administration and military management at Touro University. She later earned a master’s in strategic studies from United States Army War College; attended International Women’s Leadership Fellowship/ Executive Education Program, Harvard University and Institute European d’Administration des Affaires. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the study of industrial and organizational psychology.

BRIG. GEN. GREGORY D. MASON Assistant Adjutant General – Army Missouri National Guard

Brig. Gen. Gregory D. Mason was assigned as the assistant adjutant general – Army, Joint Force Headquarters, Jefferson City, Missouri in February 2011. As the assistant adjutant general, his duties include assisting the adjutant general in the formulation, development, and implementation of all programs and policies in the Missouri Army National Guard.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant through the Kansas Army National Guard Officer Candidate School in June 1987. He has held command leadership positions at company, battalion, and brigade levels. Brig. Gen. Mason served as the senior intelligence officer for the 35th Engineer Brigade during Operation Iraqi Freedom 2007-2008. The brigade conducted combat engineer operations throughout the central Iraq area of operations including Baghdad. He received a Masters of Strategic Studies in 2007 from the Army War College.

BRIG. GEN. PATRICK D. SARGENT Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, Diversity & Leadership Requirement

Brig. Gen. Patrick D. Sargent is the deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7 for the United States Army Medical Command. His previous assignments include commander, Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Hood; chief of staff, Warrior Transition Command and commander, 62nd Medical Brigade including a deployment as the medical task force commander in Iraq. As an aeromedical evacuation pilot and leader, Brig. Gen. Sargent has commanded at both the battalion and company level. He served as an aeromedical evacuation pilot with the 236th Medical Company (air ambulance) in Operation Desert Shield/ Storm. He has served in the Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison and as an Army Congressional Fellow. Brig. Gen. Sargent received his commission from the Florida State University ROTC program. He is the recipient of graduate degrees from USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 33

Webster University and the National Defense University while attending the National War College. He also holds a certificate in healthcare leadership from Cornell University.

BRIG. GEN. C. DAVID TURNER Commander, South Atlantic Division

Brig. Gen. C. David Turner became commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Atlantic Division on July 24, 2014.

He previously commanded the South Pacific Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Prior assignments include chief of staff, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; chief of staff for Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435, Afghanistan; commander,

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District, Seoul, Korea, and many other command and staff assignments in the United States and overseas. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematical sciences. He also holds a Master of Science Degree in industrial engineering from Wichita State University and a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Army War College. He is a Harvard Senior Executive Fellow.

BRIG. GEN. NORVELL VANDERVALL (VAN) COOTS

Commander, U.S. Army Europe Regional Medical Command and Command Surgeon, U.S. Army Europe

Brigadier General Norvell Coots is commander, U.S. Army Europe Regional Medical Command and command surgeon, U.S. Army Europe. Previously he served as deputy commanding general for support and assistant surgeon general for

force projection from March 2013 to May 2014. He was surgeon general of United States Forces Afghanistan from May 2012 to March 13.

He commanded the Walter Reed Healthcare System, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C. between 11 July 2008 and 31 August 2011, Brig. Gen. Coots attended Howard University, where he received his commission through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), a college-based program for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. He is also graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He performed a transitional Internship at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, Texas, and, after a two-year tour as a general medical of-

U.S. NAVY

ADM. CECIL D. HANEY

Commander, U.S. Strategic Command

Adm. Cecil Haney, a native of Washington, D.C., graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in ocean engineering. Adm. Haney is commander of U.S. Strategic Command. USSTRACOM’s No. 1 mission is to ensure the United States has a credible nuclear deterrent that the president could call on at any time. The admiral is also responsible for synchronizing space, cyberspace, missile defense, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities across the military. Previously, he commanded the world’s largest fleet. In that capacity he led 125,000 sailors, Marines and civilians who operate 180 ships and 2,000 aircraft.

Adm. Haney is the 33rd Naval officer to command the Pacific fleet since it was 34 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

established in February 1941. He has also completed assignments in USS John C. Calhoun in division officer positions, and USS Frank Cable, where he completed surface warfare qualifications while serving as a radiological controls officer. He served as an engineer in USS Hyman G. Rickover, executive officer in USS Asheville and he was assistant squadron deputy at Submarine Squadron Eight before taking command of the USS Honolulu in 1996. He commanded Submarine Squadron One from June 2002 to July 2004, and Submarine Group Two from October 2006 to March 2008. His shore duty tours include service as an administrative assistant for enlisted affairs at Naval Reactors, and congressional appropriations liaison officer for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (comptroller). Other positions include, deputy chief of staff, plans, policies and requirements, U.S. Pacific Fleet; director, Submarine Warfare Division; director, Naval Warfare Integration Group and as deputy commander, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. Haney holds master’s degrees in engineering acoustics and system technology from the Naval Post Graduate School, and a master’s degree in national security strategy from the National Defense University.

ADM. MICHELLE HOWARD Vice Chief of Naval Operations

Adm. Michelle Howard is a 1978 graduate of Aurora, Colorado-based Gateway High School. Four years later, she graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982 and then from the Army’s Command and General Staff College in 1998, with a master’s in military arts and sciences. Howard’s initial sea tours were aboard USS Hunley and USS Lexington. While serving on Lexington, she received the Secretary of the Navy/Navy League Captain Winifred Collins Award in 1987. The award is given to a woman officer for outstanding leadership. She took command of USS Rushmore March 1999, becoming the first African-American woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy. From May 2004 to September 2005, Howard commanded Amphibiwww.blackengineer.com

ous Squadron Seven, deploying with Expeditionary Strike Group 5. Operations included tsunami relief in Indonesia and maritime security operations in the North Arabian Gulf. In 2009, she deployed to Central Command Theater, where she commanded Task Force 151, Multinational Counter-piracy effort, and Task Force 51, Expeditionary Forces. In 2010, she was the Maritime Task Force commander for Baltic Operations, under 6th Fleet prior to reporting as chief of staff, J5, Joint Staff. Shore assignments include: J-3, Global Operations, Readiness and executive assistant to the Joint Staff director of Operations; senior military assistant to the secretary of the Navy; chief of staff to the director for Strategic Plans and Policy, J-5, Joint Staff, deputy commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, and deputy chief of Naval operations for operations, plans and strategy. She currently serves as the 38th vice chief of Naval operations.

VICE ADM. BRUCE GROOMS

Deputy Chief of Staff for Capability Development at NATO Headquarters Supreme Allied Command Transformation

Vice Adm. Bruce Grooms, a native of Cleveland, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering.

Following completion of nuclear power training he served in nearly every capacity aboard a variety of submarines, including a tour as executive officer of USS Pasadena where he twice deployed to the Persian Gulf. His command tours included USS Asheville where the ship earned the Battle Efficiency “E” award, the Golden Anchor, and the Silver Anchor for the highest retention in the submarine force. He subsequently served as commander, Submarine Squadron Six and later as commander, Submarine Group Two. Ashore, he served as a company officer and later as the commandant of midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. He served as the senior military assistant to the undersecretary of defense for policy, the senior inspector for the Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board, the deputy director, then director, Submarine Warfare Division. He was the vice director, Joint Staff and later served on the chief of naval operations staff as assistant deputy for operations, plans and www.blackengineer.com

strategy. Grooms was the Vice Adm. Stockdale Inspirational Leadership Award winner for 1999. He earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, graduating with distinction, and attended Stanford University as a National Security Affairs Fellow.

REAR ADM. ANNIE B. ANDREWS Commander, Navy Recruiting Command

Rear Adm. Annie Andrews assumed command of the Navy Recruiting Command in August 2013. She is responsible for the recruitment for the U.S. Navy. Her first flag assignment was as director of the Total Force Requirements Division. A native of Midway, Georgia, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Savannah State University and a master’s in management from Troy State. Her assignments have largely been in the areas of manpower, personnel, training and education. Upon commissioning through Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, Andrews began her career at Naval Station Whiting Field with assignments to Training Squadrons Five and Eight. Other assignments include director, Counseling and Assistance Center, Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland; officer-in-charge, Navy Personnel Support Activity Detachments Subic Bay and Cubi Point, United States Forces Philippines, Republic of the Philippines; and, chief, Requirements Branch and Joint Manpower Planner, Manpower and Personnel Directorate Joint Staff, J-1.

She also served as an executive assistant and naval aide to the assistant secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserves Affairs and as a fellow on the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group. Andrews was commanding officer of three commands including Recruit Training Command where she led the training efforts of over 100,000 sailors for duty in the fleet, and was instrumental in commissioning the Navy’s only immersive simulator trainer.

REAR ADM. JAMES CRAWFORD III Deputy Judge Advocate General Commander, Naval Legal Service Command Judge Advocate General's Corps

Rear Adm. James Crawford is the deputy judge advocate general of the Navy and commander, Naval Legal Ser-

vice Command. He serves as the deputy Department of Defense representative for ocean policy affairs and leads attorneys, enlisted legal men, and civilian employees of 17 commands, providing prosecution and defense services, legal services to individuals, and support to commands around the world.

Crawford graduated from Belmont Abbey College and the University of North Carolina, School of Law. From 2007 to 2011, he served as legal counsel to the chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. From 2011 to 2012, he was commander, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Rule of Law Field Support Mission/Rule of Law Field Force-Afghanistan. Before his appointment to flag rank, he was the special counsel to the chief of naval operations, the senior staff judge advocate for commander, U.S. Pacific Command, and as the fleet judge advocate for U.S. 7th Fleet. In command, he served as commanding officer, Region Legal Service Office Southeast.

REAR ADM. KELVIN DIXON

Deputy Commander, Navy Surface Force Atlantic

Rear Adm. Kelvin Dixon graduated from Prairie View A&M University where he received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He also holds a Master of Science in management.

Dixon’s tours include director, Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission-Navy and Marine; deputy commander Navy Region Northwest; commander, Naval Surface Forces Detachment; Naval Beach Group Two, Inshore Boat Unit Two Three. In 1991, he participated in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as operations officer for the United Nations Mission headquartered in Kuwait. He assisted in the establishment of checkpoints and managed the movement of all military and civilian personnel throughout Kuwait and Iraq. He was mobilized in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom responsible for protecting shipping in the Persian Gulf; chief of biometrics, with responsibility for all aspects of identification and verification, and Director, Iraqi Training, USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 35

Advising, Operations Mission-Navy and Marine building the Iraqi navy and marines. He was awarded the prestigious Captain Leo V. Bilger Award for excellence in mission effectiveness and 2012 Distinguished and Outstanding Eagle Boy Scout Awards.

REAR ADM. VINCENT GRIFFITH

Supply Corps, United States Navy Commander, Navy Supply Global Logistics Support

Rear Adm. Vincent Griffith graduated in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Berry College. Two years later, he received a master’s degree in business administration from the George Washington University.

His sea duty assignments include service as a supply officer on USS Saratoga, USS Stonewall Jackson, and the USS John C. Stennis. Ashore, his tours include: the Naval Supply Center, Naval Supply Systems Command, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, the Office of Chief of Naval Operations N81 Staff, and Naval Air Station Lemoore. He has commanded Naval Air Forces U.S. Pacific Fleet, San Diego, and was commanding officer, Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Jacksonville, Florida. Additionally, he has served as commander, Naval Air Forces U.S. Pacific Fleet, San Diego, and commander, Defense Logistics Agency, Aviation. His most recent assignment was director, fleet ordnance and supply and fleet supply officer on the staff of commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Virginia. He is a member of the Navy Acquisition Professional community.

REAR ADM. SINCLAIR HARRIS Vice Director for Operations Joint Chiefs of Staff

Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris is a native of Washington D.C. and a 1981 graduate of James Madison University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics. He had early sea assignments on the USS Long Beach, USS Vincennes, USS Jarrett, and USS Coronado and was a commissioning executive officer in USS Benfold. He also commanded USS Comstock during Operation Enduring 36 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

Freedom and the Amphibious Squadron 4/ Iwo Jima Strike Group during humanitarian assistance and disaster reliefHurricanes Katrina/Rita in 2005 and non-combative evacuation operation of Lebanon in 2006. He was a senior fellow in the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group. In May 2008, Harris returned to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations as the deputy director, Expeditionary Warfare Division. He was commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 5 from 2009 to 2010 providing foreign disaster relief during the Pakistan Floods of 2010. Harris then served on the Chief of Naval Operations staff as the director, Navy Irregular Warfare Office/Future Concepts from 2010 to 2012. More recently, he was commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, and commander, U.S. Fourth Fleet. He earned a master’s in defense and strategic studies from University of Madras, India’s Defense Services staff college.

REAR ADM. WILLIE METTS

Director for Intelligence, U.S. Pacific Command

Rear Adm. Willie Metts assumed his current position as director for intelligence at the U.S. Pacific Command in 2013. Prior, he was deputy chief of tailored access operations at the National Security Agency. He graduated from the Savannah State University with a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering technology.

After his commission, he completed ship deployments to the Mediterranean and Red Seas, with combat operations during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was a cryptologic resource coordinator for Carrier Group 2, and deputy director in the Collections and Information Acquisitions Division.

In 2004, Metts completed the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program. A year later, he was named special assistant to the commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet and in 2006, reported for

duty as the commanding officer of the Navy Information Operations Command.

Following that, he was assigned to the Navy Personnel Command as a division director for the Information Dominance Corps and Foreign Area Officer Assignments. In August 2010, Metts reported to United State Cyber Command as director of Intelligence.

REAR ADM. FERNANDEZ “FRANK” PONDS

Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Three

Rear Adm. Fernandez Ponds is a native of Alabama, and graduated in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree from University of Alabama, receiving his commission from Officer Candidate School in June 1983. Ponds commanded Amphibious Squadron Eight from 2007 to 2009. As commander of the Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group, he led 4 numbered fleet areas in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, counter piracy operations, and Operation Sea Angel II-Bangladesh humanitarian assistance/disaster relief. He also served as the mission commander for two operations in 2008, Operation Continuing Promise, and Haiti Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief. Previously Ponds commanded USS Fife. Other assignments include engineering officer, flag secretary, and selection to the Fleet Propulsion Examination Board. He was senior naval advisor, Department of State during the 2005 earthquake relief operations, 2006 Lebanon non-combatant evacuation operation and Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.

Ponds holds a Master’s in Information Systems Technology, another in Military Studies and National Security Strategy.

REAR ADM. KEVIN SCOTT

Vice Director J7, Joint Force Development, Joint Staff

Rear Adm. Kevin Scott is vice director J7 for joint force development on the Joint Staff. A native of Portsmouth, Virginia, and New York City, Scott was designated a naval aviator in 1984. Under his command, Helicopter Mine Counter Measures Squadron 14 was awarded the 2001 Commander Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet Battle “E” Efficiency Award. He served the Mine www.blackengineer.com

Countermeasures Squadron One as commodore, and was a commander of the Expeditionary Strike Group 2. Other assignments include: HM-14 legal officer, aircraft division officer and maintenance test pilot (1985-1987); flight deck officer aboard USS Inchon; and HM-14 admin officer, operations officer and detachment officer in charge (1994-1996). Ashore, he was air combat placement officer, Bureau of Naval Personnel; wing operations officer, Commander Tactical Wing Atlantic; military aide to the vice president (1997-1999); current operations chief and division chief, Joint Forces Command; director of aviation officer Distribution Division, Naval Personnel Command; and acting director, Expeditionary Warfare Division, Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Naval Postgraduate School, Naval War College, and the Joint Forces Staff College. He holds a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies.

REAR ADM. DWIGHT SHEPHERD

Director, Cyberspace Operations/J6 U.S. Northern Command/North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

Rear Adm. Dwight Shepherd is a native of Cleveland. He graduated in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Cincinnati.

He also earned a Master of Science in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of Armed Forces in 2006. Shepherd was commissioned an ensign in 1984 and earned his naval flight officer wings in 1985. His operational command tours include: Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Three, the largest aviation squadron. His major command was Strategic Communications Wing One and Task Force 124, and he is the first Black officer to command a “Take Charge and Move Out” squadron and air wing. His operational tours include: Patrol Special Projects Unit Two (avionics division officer); Fleet Air Reconnaiswww.blackengineer.com

sance Special Projects Patrol Squadron Three (Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization, flight officer, and maintenance officer). His shore tours include: Bureau of Naval Personnel/Personnel-43 (Initial Assignment and VQ/Force Support detailer); Naval Training Support Unit/Naval Training Service Command (Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization evaluator/instructor); U.S. Strategic Command (Take Charge and Move Out /Airborne Command Post current ops officer); Office of the Chief of Naval Operations/N6F (executive assistant); Office of the Chief of Naval Operations N00X (Strategic Alignment branch head); and senior military assistant to the secretary of the Navy.

REAR ADM. JOHN SMITH JR.

Commandant, Joint Forces Staff College

Rear Adm. John Smith entered the U.S. Navy via the Aviation Officer Candidate program in 1982 and was designated a naval aviator in 1984. He has flown over 4,200 hours in H-3 and H-60F/H/B aircraft. His most recent assignment includes command of the Helicopter Sea Combat Wing, Atlantic Fleet. Ashore, he served as deputy director of Equal Opportunity (Personnel 61) in Washington, D.C.; and head aviation commander helicopter detailer, Bureau of Naval Personnel (Personnel 43) Millington, Tennessee. In 2009, he served as chief of staff for Navy Cyber Forces in Little Creek, Virginia. From 2010 to 2012, he was deputy director of the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Florida, responsible for coordinating efforts to combat drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from South Carolina State College and a master’s degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. His squadron command tours include Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron -11. He deployed aboard USS John F. Kennedy to the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch, and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron -10, the fleet replacement squadron for the helicopter anti-submarine squadron community.

REAR ADM. COY YOUNG

Commander, Navy Reserve Forces Command

Rear Adm. Young is a native of Abilene, Texas and a 1984 graduate of Angelo State University in San Angelo Texas, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. He received his commission as an ensign from Officer Candidate School. He holds a Master of Science in financial management and a Master of Arts in national security. His tours as a surface warfare officer include ordnance officer, navigator, operations officer, combat systems officer, executive officer, commanding officer, and commander, Destroyer Squadron One. During his command tour, his crew won five of five Command Excellence awards. In October 2009, Destroyer Squadron One was assigned as Sea Combat Commander for the Carl Vinson Strike Group, and Rear Adm. Young commanded Destroyer Squadron One from 2009 through 2010.

He spearheaded Destroyer Squadron One’s transformation to an operational focused destroyer squadron.

REAR ADM. (SEL) KEITH M. JONES Supply Corps, U.S. Navy

Rear Adm. (Select) Keith M. Jones’ command assignments include Navy Overseas Air Cargo Terminal E208; Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 6; Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk Detachment 206; commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic Supply 1086; Defense Logistics Agency Distribution Operations Team-Atlanta and Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet Logistics Readiness Center Headquarters 120. Jones is a qualified Seabee combat warfare officer. Jones’ personal awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (4 awards), Navy Commendation Medal (4 awards), Joint Service Achievement Medal and Navy Achievement Medal. He is the first-ever Supply Corps reserve officer to receive USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 37

the Vice Admiral Robert F. Batchelder Award. Recalled to active duty, Rear Adm. Jones served as deputy logistics director, commander, Joint Task Force Southwest Asia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Southern Watch; and later as senior watch commander, Logistics Readiness Cell, commander, United States Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rear Adm. Jones earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from California State University Bakersfield.

REAR ADM. JESSE A. WILSON, JR. Director, Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization Joint Staff, J8

Rear Adm. Jesse Wilson leads Joint Air and Missile Defense operations.

He is also the U.S. head of Delegation to NATO’s Air and Missile Defense Committee, helping develop Alliance policy.

He assumed these duties in June 2014. As the commanding officer of USS Higgins, he led a 2009-10 Western Pacific deployment as part of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. During this tour, he was sea combat commander, USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, and while in command of Destroyer Squadron 23, he was mission commander for the Pacific Partnership 2011, and commander, US Pacific Fleet’s humanitarian

and civil assistance mission to Southeast Asia and Oceania. Wilson received a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1986. He also attended the Naval Postgraduate School, earning a Master’s of Science in operations research in 1991, and is a graduate of the Naval War College, where he received a master’s in national security and strategic studies in 2001. Wilson is a 2007-2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI Fellow and is a graduate of the Navy Corporate Business Course at UVA-Darden.

U.S. MARINE CORPS and a ground lieutenant colonel’s monitor. Bailey earned a master’s in business management and administration from Webster University and attended the National War College, where he earned his second master’s degree in national security strategy.

MAJ. GEN. VINCENT STEWART Commander, Marine Forces Cyber Command

LT. GEN. RONALD BAILEY

Deputy Commandant, Plans, Policies and Operations

Lt. Gen. Ronald Bailey was promoted to his current rank in June 2013 and assigned to Headquarters Marine Corps as the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations. Prior, he commanded more than 26,000 men and women in the oldest and largest activeduty division, the 1st Marine Division.

After graduating from Austin Peay State University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps and went on to serve as an infantry officer. Over his more than 30-year career, he has served as company commander, chief of professional military education, plans officer, J-5, Headquarters U.S. European Command 38 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

Maj. Gen. Vincent Stewart is the new commander of Marine Forces Cyber.

Prior, he served as director of intelligence, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps.

He received his baccalaureate degree in 1981 from Western Illinois University, where he majored in history. After his commission, some of his principal command tours included tank platoon leader with Company A, 1st Tank; executive officer, 1st Tank Battalion; and company commander with Company E, Marine Support Battalion, Japan. He also served as commanding officer, 1st Intelligence Battalion, and commanding officer, Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division. Staff assignments include project officer, assistant signals intelligence officer, intelligence officer and chief, command, control, communications and intelligence, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force; as well as senior intelligence planner, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and as assistant chief of staff, Intelligence,

Marine Corps Forces Command, and more recently assistant chief of staff, Intelligence, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, (2008-2009). He holds master’s degrees in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College and in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University.

BRIG. GEN. CRAIG CRENSHAW Assistant Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics (Plans)

Brig. Gen. Craig Crenshaw began his career as a logistics officer with 3rd Force Service Support Group, Okinawa, Japan. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1984 through the NROTC Scholarship Program. Since then, he has served as www.blackengineer.com

platoon commander, maintenance management officer and assistant logistics officer.

While assigned to 1st Marine Regiment, he deployed in support of operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

In 1992, he was assigned to the Program Executive Office for Cruise Missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. He has also served as Marine Corps integrated logistics support manager and deputy director, Joint Logistics Program, Joint Logistics Directorate. In July 2012, he relinquished command of 3rd Marine Logistics, which he commanded since June 2010 to serve at the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. In October 2013, Brig.

Gen. Crenshaw assumed his current position as the Assistant Deputy Commandant, Installations and Logistics (LP) HQMC. The general earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Southern University, Baton Rouge; a master’s degree in procurement and acquisitions management from Webster University, and another master’s degree in national resource strategy from National Defense University.

BRIG. GEN. CRAIG TIMBERLAKE

Deputy Commanding General, III Marine Expeditionary Force and Commanding General, 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade

Brig.

Gen. Craig Timberlake enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1977 and was promoted to staff sergeant in January 1982.

Two years later, he was commissioned through the Enlisted Commissioning Program in August 1984. He was promoted brigadier general in January 2011. Timberlake’s assignments in the operating forces include platoon commander and company executive officer, 2d Battalion, 6th Marines; www.blackengineer.com

company commander, operations officer 1st Battalion, 1st Marines; regimental operations officer, 1st Marines; and inspector and instructor, 23d Marines. His other assignments in the supporting establishment include platoon commander and company commander. Headquarters and staff assignments include: action officer, Manpower Equal Opportunity Branch; and plans officer and deputy J54, U.S. Pacific Command. Timberlake’s military education includes Amphibious Warfare School, Command and Staff College, and the Naval War College. He has also earned master’s degrees in military studies and in national security and strategic studies.

BRIG. GEN. TERRY WILLIAMS

Commanding General of Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and the Eastern Recruiting Region in June 2014

Brig.

Gen. Terry Williams was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1986 after graduating with a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of California in Los Angeles. Brig. Gen. Williams has served throughout Marine Air-Ground Task Force, with command and staff assignments at every level from platoon/ company commander at 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion to series commander and battalion adjutant, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot. He has also served as engineer officer, ground operations officer, operations officer, and logistics officer. Other assignments include commanding officer, 8th Engineer Support Battalion, where he deployed to Haiti, in 2004, and in 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He subsequently served as operations officer, Facilities and Services Division, Installations and Logistics Department, Headquarters Marine Corps. In 2009, Williams took command of Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany and was subsequently assigned to Headquarters Marines Corps as executive assistant to the deputy commandant, Installations and Logistics in 2012. From June 2013-June 2014 he served as the Director of Public Affairs.

HQMC Public Affairs and Combat Camera were consolidated under the Directorate, Office of United States Marine Corps Communication (OUSMCC) in March 2014. He assumed his current duties as the Commanding General of Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and the Eastern Recruiting Region in June 2014.

BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL E LANGLEY

Marine Corps Col. Michael E. Langley was nominated for appointment to the rank of brigadier general in February 2014 and received Senate confirmation in June. He is currently serving as the senior advisor, 215th Corps, Regional Command (Southwest), Afghanistan.

While deployed to Afghanistan from November 2008 to August 2009, Brig. Gen. Langley received a Bronze Star medal for meritorious service in connection with combat operations while serving as the senior mentor to the commanding general of the 201st Corps. He was the officer in charge for the Special Operations Training Group for III Marine Expeditionary Force. He also served as a commander of the Regional Corps Advisory Command– Central, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. “Langley created a comprehensive mentoring program that transformed the 201st Corps into war fighting that successfully executes counterinsurgency operations,” according to the citation.

Langley, a Forth, Texas, native, “was also described as an exemplary leader, a role model and praised for establishing personnel standards in the critical areas of accountability and preparation for combat that were the hallmarks of his leadership.

THE ARMY CELEBRATED ITS 239TH BIRTHDAY ON JUNE 14, 2014.

USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 39

U.S. AIR FORCE forces. Prior to his current assignment, Gen. McDew was the commander of the 18th Air Force, Scott AFB, Illinois.

LT. GEN. RONNIE D. HAWKINS JR. Director, Defense Information Systems Agency

GEN. LARRY O. SPENCER

Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force

Gen. Larry O. Spencer has served as the vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., since July 2012. As vice chief, he presides over the air staff and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff requirements oversight council and deputy advisory working group. He assists the chief of staff with organizing, training, and equipping of 690,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the United States and overseas. Gen. Spencer was born in Washington, D.C. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering technology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and was commissioned through Officer Training School in 1980 as a distinguished graduate. Gen. Spencer has commanded a squadron, group and wing, and he was vice commander of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center. He was also the first Air Force officer to serve as assistant chief of staff in the White House Military Office. He served as the comptroller and then director of mission support (A7) at a major command; and held positions within the air staff and the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force. Prior to his current assignment, the general was director, force structure, resources and assessment, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

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GEN. DARREN W. MCDEW

Commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base

Gen. Darren W. McDew is commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Air Mobility Command’s mission is to provide rapid, global mobility and sustainment for America’s armed forces. The command also plays a crucial role in providing humanitarian support at home and around the world. The men and women of AMC — active duty, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and civilians — provide airlift, aerial refueling, and special air mission and aeromedical evacuation.

Gen. McDew was commissioned in 1982 following his graduation from Virginia Military Institute. He began his flying career at Loring Air Force Base, Maine.

His staff assignments include serving as a member of the Air Force Chief of Staff operations group, Air Force aide to the president, and chief of the U.S. Air Force senate liaison division, Washington, D.C. and the director of public affairs, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. As part of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, Gen. McDew also served as vice director for strategic plans and policy. He has served as the vice commander of the18th Air Force, Scott AFB, Illinois, and has commanded at the squadron, group and wing levels as well as an Air Force direct reporting unit.

He has deployed in support of ongoing operations in central and southwest Asia as an air expeditionary group commander and later as the director of mobility

Lt. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr. is director, Defense Information Systems Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland.

He leads a global organization of military and civilian personnel who plan, develop, deliver, and operate joint, interoperable, command and control capabilities and a global enterprise infrastructure in direct support of the president, Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, Department of Defense components, and other mission partners across the full spectrum of operations. Gen. Hawkins received his commission as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at Angelo State University in 1977. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Angelo State University; a Master of Science degree in management and human relations from Abilene Christian University; a Master of Science degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University; and a Master of Divinity degree in church ministries from Liberty Theological Seminary. He served as the director of communications and information, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces; director of communications operations, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Installations and Logistics, Headquarters U.S. Air Force; and director, Infrastructure Delivery, Office of Warfighting Integration and chief information officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

Gen. Hawkins served as deputy chief of staff, communications and information systems, Multi-National Force-Iraq, and as vice director, Defense Information www.blackengineer.com

Systems Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland. Prior to his current assignment, Gen. Hawkins was the deputy director, Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. LT. GEN. SAMUEL A. GREAVES

Commander, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base

Lt. Gen. Samuel A. Greaves is the commander, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. He is responsible for more than 5,000 employees nationwide and an annual budget of $6 billion. As the Air Force program executive officer for space, Gen. Greaves manages the research, design, development, acquisition, and sustainment of satellites and the associated command and control systems. His extensive portfolio includes military satellite communication, missile warning, navigation and timing, space-based weather, space launch and test ranges, certification for launch, space superiority, responsive space and other emerging evolutionary space programs. Gen. Greaves was commissioned in 1982 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program after he graduated from Cornell University.

He has held a variety of assignments in operational, acquisition and staff units, including assignments at Headquarters Air Combat Command; the National Reconnaissance Office; and on the Air Staff within the Directorate of Operational Requirements and the Air Force Colonel Matters Office. He commanded the 45th Launch Group at Patrick AFB, Florida, the Launch and Range Systems Wing and Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing at Los Angeles AFB, California. The general also served as vice commander, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, California, and then as director, strategic plans, programs and analyses, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colorado. Prior to his current assignment, he was the deputy director, Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

He has operational launch crew experiwww.blackengineer.com

ence in the space shuttle, Titan, Atlas and Delta space-launch systems. He wears the Command Space Badge.

MAJ. GEN. CHARLES Q. BROWN JR. Director, Operations, Strategic Deterrence, and Nuclear Integration Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, Ramstein Air Base, Germany

Maj. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is director, operations, strategic deterrence, and nuclear integration, Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, Ramstein Air Base, Germany. In this position, the general devises and implements policy, obtains resources and develops concepts of operation to ensure U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa are organized, trained and equipped to meet combatant commander requirements. Assigned and allocated forces provide integrated air and missile defense, aeromedical evacuation, cyberspace operations, airfield operations and support, aerial refueling, weather, combat aerial delivery, operational support airlift and distinguished visitor airlift, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and precision strike in the European and African command areas of responsibility and for other combatant commands when tasked. Gen. Brown was commissioned in 1984 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at Texas Tech University. His notable staff tours include aide-de-camp to the chief of staff of the Air Force; director, Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff Executive Action Group; and deputy director, operations, U.S. Central Command. The general is a command pilot with more than 2,850 flying hours, including 95 combat hours.

MAJ. GEN. RICHARD M. CLARK

Vice Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana

Maj. Gen. Richard M. Clark is the vice commander, Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command organizes, trains, equips and maintains all U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear-capable bomber forces. The command’s mission is to develop and provide combat-ready forces for nuclear deter-

rence and global strike operations — safe, secure and effective — to support the president of the United States and combatant commanders.

The command’s six wings control the nation’s entire inventory of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, B-2 and B-52 bomber aircraft.

Gen. Clark graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1986. His commands include the 34th Bomb Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, and 12th Flying Training Wing, Randolph AFB, Texas. He has also served as the vice commander, 8th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic), Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, and commandant of cadets, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Prior to his current assignment, he served as senior defense official, Defense Attaché, Cairo, Egypt. Gen. Clark is a command pilot with 4,200 flight hours, primarily in the B-1 bomber.

MAJ. GEN. ROOSEVELT ALLEN

Commander, 79th Medical Wing, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Roosevelt Allen is the commander, 79th Medical Wing, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. The wing consists of 1,550 Air Force health care professionals operating in eight locations and providing Air Force medical forces for expeditionary deployment, homeland defense operations, and joint operations worldwide. In addition, General Allen is the Command Surgeon, Headquarters Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews; and the Air Force Medical Component Commander, Defense Health Agency National Capital Region Medical Directorate, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, providing the single voice for planning and implementing Air Force Medical Service activity in the National Capital Region. Gen. Allen also serves as the assistant surgeon general for dental services, Office of the Surgeon General, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washing-

USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 41

ton, D.C., providing policy and operational advice to the Air Force surgeon general on matters involving the dental practice of 1,000 dentists and 2,500 technicians. Prior to this assignment, Gen. Allen served as deputy command surgeon, Air Education and Training Command, providing daily oversight to strategic planning, budgeting, programming, assignments, health plans management, clinical quality management, behavioral medicine, deployment medicine, and medical policy for 14 medical units with over 10,000 personnel assigned to two medical centers, 11 medical treatment facilities and a training group. Gen. Allen received a direct commission in 1986.

MAJ. GEN. GARRY C. DEAN

The Special Assistant to the Chief, National Guard Bureau

Maj. Gen. Garry C. Dean is the special assistant to the chief, National Guard Bureau.

As the special assistant, he is acting in the capacity of the director, National Guard Joint Staff. He is the principal staff officer and advisor to the chief, National Guard Bureau, responsible for the performance of the 1,100 member National Guard Staff and its transformation in support of the chief, National Guard Bureau in his role as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to his current assignment, Gen. Dean served as deputy chief of staff for operations, Allied Joint Forces Command where he was responsible for all intelligence, operations, and campaign assessment for ongoing and contingency North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations and engagement in the Balkans, Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa regions. Gen. Dean was commissioned in 1978 as a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. His experience in the F-15 includes tours of duty in Pacific Air Forces, Air Combat Command, and the Oregon Air National Guard. He has commanded a fighter squadron, aircraft maintenance squadron, fighter wing, and numbered Air Force.

Gen. Dean is a command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours, primarily in the F-15.

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MAJ. GEN. STAYCE D. HARRIS

Commander, 22nd Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia

Maj. Gen. Stayce D. Harris is commander, 22nd Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.

Twenty-Second Air Force has command supervision of the Reserve’s air mobility operations and other vital mission sets to include undergraduate pilot training, flight test operations and a highly mobile civil engineering response force. With more than 15,000 reservists and 105 unit-equipped aircraft, 22nd Air Force contributes daily to the Air Force’s worldwide operational mission.

Reserve aircrews within 22nd Air Force fly a variety of missions to include aerial spraying, fire suppression, hurricane hunters to troop transport utilizing the C-130 Hercules. Gen. Harris received a commission in the Air Force through the University of Southern California’s Air Force ROTC program. Her staff assignments include serving as a mobility force planner for the deputy chief of staff for plans and operations and as the individual mobilization augmentee to the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force. She has commanded an airlift squadron, an expeditionary operations group and an air refueling wing. In her civilian occupation, she is a commercial airline pilot flying routes to Asia and Europe.

Prior to her current position, Gen. Harris served as the mobilization assistant to the commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

MAJ. GEN. MARK BROWN

Commander, Second Air Force, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi

Maj. Gen. Mark Brown is the commander of Second Air Force, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. He is responsible for the development, oversight, and direction of all operational aspects of basic military training, initial skills training,

and advanced technical training for the U.S. Air Force enlisted force and support officers. Second Air Force provides training in more than 390 Air Force specialties through 1,900 courses graduating 150,000 airmen, soldiers, sailors, Marines, and international students annually in diverse areas including aircraft maintenance, civil engineering, medical, cyber, avionics, security forces, space and missile operations/maintenance, and multiple intelligence disciplines. The command includes training wings at Keesler AFB, Mississippi; Sheppard and Goodfellow Air Force Bases, Texas; Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas; a training group at Vandenberg AFB, California; and 103 field training units around the world. Second Air Force also oversees all U.S. Air Force Airmen throughout the joint expeditionary tasking/individual augmentee training pipeline at several Army training sites across the country.

Gen. Brown was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama, and entered active duty in 1986. Prior to his current assignment, he was the comptroller for Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command with responsibility for 38 percent of the Air Force budget totaling approximately $60 billion.

BRIG. GEN. ONDRA L. BERRY

Assistant Adjutant General, Air, Nevada National Guard

Brig. Gen. Ondra L. Berry currently serves as assistant adjutant general–air, Nevada National Guard. He is responsible for formulating, developing and coordinating all policies, programs and plans affecting more than 1,100 Nevada Air National Guard airmen. He serves the adjutant general as a principal advisor on all matters pertaining to the Nevada Air National Guard. General Berry received his commission from the Air National Guard Academy of Military Science in 1990.

His most recent assignment was special assistant to the Chief National Guard Bureau, providing advice on all diversity and leadership matters. He has had a significant impact on diversity and inclusion in the Nevada Air National Guard, taking the message of diversity, education, and opportunity to the National Guard Bureau and around the country. www.blackengineer.com

BRIG. GEN. ANTHONY J. COTTON Deputy Director, National Reconnaissance Office

Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Cotton is deputy director, National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Virginia. His responsibilities include assisting the director and principal deputy director in managing the strategic and tactical operations of the NRO. Also, as the commander, Air Force Element, he manages all Air Force personnel and resources assigned to the NRO and serves as the senior adviser to the DNRO on all military matters. Gen. Cotton entered the Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1986 where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He has commanded at the squadron, group, and wing levels, serving as a wing vice commander, deputy operations group commander, deputy director of the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force Executive Action Group; and as Senior Military Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

BRIG. GEN. CEDRIC D. GEORGE

Deputy Director, Resource Integration, Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics, Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Brig.

Gen. Cedric D. George is the deputy director of resource integration, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. He is responsible for the planning, programming and budgeting of weapons systems sustainment, equipment, and logistics and installations resource requirements. As part of the Air Force corporate structure, he monitors performance of operations and maintenance, working capital funds and investment programs; participates in program and financial review groups; and advocates for financial adjustments to optimize force readiness. He oversees preparation and defense of these Air Force www.blackengineer.com

programs to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Management and Budget, and Congress. He also directs planning, development and implementation of innovative logistics concepts and initiatives across the full spectrum of the Air Force logistics enterprise to enable the evolving expeditionary air and space force. He is responsible for developing architectures and providing management and oversight across the full range of a diverse logistics information technology enterprise. Gen. George is a 1987 graduate of the ROTC program at Norwich University.

BRIG. GEN. LEONARD ISABELLE Chief of Staff, Joint Forces Headquarters Michigan Air National Guard

Brig. Gen. Leonard W. Isabelle, Jr. is chief of staff, Joint Forces Headquarters, Michigan Air National Guard and also serves as the commander, Michigan Air National Guard.

As commander, Gen. Isabelle directs the activities of the Michigan Air National Guard in support of the adjutant general of Michigan and is responsible for the Air National Guard units located at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Battle Creek Air National Guard Base and the Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Michigan. Gen. Isabelle received his commission as a second lieutenant in 1987 as a graduate of the Academy of Military Science. He has served in numerous assignments in operations and maintenance, as well as command positions at the squadron and group level.

Gen. Isabelle is a command pilot with more than 2,950 hours primarily in the A-10 and F-16 aircraft.

BRIG. GEN. ALLEN J. JAMERSON

Director of Security Forces, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force

Brig. Gen. Allen J. Jamerson is director of security forces, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, Headquarters

U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. He is the focal point for ensuring the physical security of Air Force nuclear assets, and planning and programming for more than 37,000 active-duty and reserve component security forces at locations worldwide. He provides policy and oversight for protecting Air Force resources from terrorism, criminal acts, sabotage and acts of war, and ensures security forces are trained, equipped and ready to support contingency and exercise plans.

Gen. Jamerson entered the Air Force in 1986 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He was also commissioned as an AFROTC distinguished graduate. Gen. Jamerson also held a staff position at Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colorado, and commanded security forces squadrons at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. He also commanded the 90th Security Forces Group at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, was vice commander of the 42d Air Base Wing, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and commanded the 72nd Air Base Wing at Tinker, Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

BRIG. GEN. JAMES JOHNSON

Commander, Air Force Recruiting Service, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas

Brig. Gen. James Johnson is the commander, Air Force Recruiting Service, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.

The Air Force Recruiting Service comprises more than 2,600 airmen and civilians in more than 1,200 recruiting offices across the United States and abroad. He is responsible for all enlisted accessions and a variety of officer accession programs.

AFRS also manages all strategic marketing for the U.S. Air Force. Gen. Johnson entered the Air Force through the University of Puget Sound ROTC program in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He served in operational positions supporting U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Mobility Command and completed numerous leadership assignments at the squadron, wing, major command, Headquarters Air Force, as well as Joint Command levels at U.S. Transportation Command, Central Command and USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 43

Special Operations Command. Prior to his current position, General Johnson served as Director for Logistics, U.S. Africa Command, Stuttgart, Germany.

BRIG. GEN. BRIAN NEWBY

Chief of Staff, Texas Air National Guard

Brig. Gen. Brian C. Newby is Chief of Staff, Texas Air National Guard, Camp Mabry, Austin, Texas.

He serves as the principle advisor to the commander of the Texas Air National Guard for all Air National Guard issues. In this assignment, he is responsible for assisting in the planning, direction and administration of over 3,100 Air National Guard personnel within the state of Texas. Gen. Newby’s responsibilities also include recruiting, retention, labor relations, training, employee development and equal opportunity initiatives.

Gen. Newby was commissioned in 1983 as a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.

BRIG. GEN. BRIAN S. ROBINSON Vice Commander, 618th Air and Space Operations Center, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois

Brig.

Gen. Brian S. Robinson is the vice commander, 618th Air and Space Operations Center, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. The 618th AOC is responsible for planning, scheduling and directing a fleet of approximately 1,300 aircraft in support of combat delivery and strategic airlift, air refueling and aeromedical operations around the world. Gen. Robinson is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Philadelphia University in 1987. Later that year, he received his commission from Air Force Officer Training School.

He attended undergraduate pilot training and later served as a T-38B First Assign44 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

ment Instructor Pilot before moving on to a series of operational assignments in the C-130E/H/J and the C-17A, representing the full range of tactical and strategic airlift and aerial delivery. Gen. Robinson is a command pilot and U.S. Air Force weapons officer with more than 4,300 hours in airlift and trainer aircraft.

BRIG. GEN. ROBERT L. SHANNON, JR.

Chief of Staff, Georgia Air National Guard

Brig.

Gen. Robert L. Shannon is chief of staff, Georgia Air National Guard.

He assists the adjutant general in providing oversight and supervision of the headquarters, Georgia Air National Guard staff and command of the 2,900 Georgia Air Guard members serving in two flying wings, six geographically separated units, and a combat readiness training center.

Additionally, he oversees the Georgia Air National Guard’s strategic planning and initiatives. He previously served as director, joint staff for Joint Forces Headquarters, Georgia National Guard.

Gen. Shannon serves as a member of the steering committee for the Air National Guard’s Strategic Planning System. He is a charter member of the Joint Diversity Executive Council and serves as the chair for the Special Emphasis and Outreach Programs. Gen. Shannon was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1981.

BRIG. GEN. CURTIS L. WILLIAMS Director of Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command, Robins Air Force Base

Brig. Gen. Curtis L. Williams is director of installations and mission support, Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.

He is responsible for organizing, training and equipping the command’s in-garrison and expeditionary agile combat support,

which supports more than 70,000 airmen and consists of more than 350 aircraft, assigned to three numbered air forces, 33 wings, three flying groups and one space wing. The command has assets at nine primary and 61 tenant locations with a $6.4 billion average plant replacement value and a $220 million annual operating budget. The general enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1976 under the delayed enlistment program. He left active duty in 1984, and entered the ROTC program at Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas. He received his commission in 1986, along with his master’s degree in public administration. He has held leadership and command positions at the squadron, wing and numbered air force levels.

BRIG. GEN. WAYNE A. WRIGHT Director, Joint Staff, Virginia National Guard, Joint Force Headquarters

Brig. Gen. Wayne A. Wright is director, Joint Staff, Virginia Joint Force Headquarters, Richmond, Virginia. Gen. Wright entered the United States Air Force and received his commission in 1981 after graduating from the University of South Carolina. He transitioned from active duty to the Georgia Air National Guard in 1992. Gen. Wright has held various leadership and command positions at the squadron, wing, and headquarters level. His assignments involved operations, formal training of United States Air Force, and allied command and control personnel. He also worked in the developmental and operational testing arena. Gen. Wright is a Master Air Battle Manager with qualifications in six ground-based command and control systems, including joint and allied systems.

His most recent assignment was chief of staff, Virginia Air National Guard.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID D. HAMLAR, JR. Assistant Adjutant General - Air, Minnesota National Guard

Brig. Gen. David D. Hamlar serves as assistant adjutant general– air, Minnesota National Guard.

He assists in the oversight and

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leadership of Minnesota Air National Guard units and in deploying specific strategic themes relevant to external audiences, with a primary strategic objective to maintain two high-quality Air National Guard Wings assigned to the State of Minnesota. The secondary strategic objective is to sustain and acquire relevant missions for the Minnesota Air National Guard. Gen. Hamlar provides service

component leadership and policy advice to the adjutant general and enforces the policies of the adjutant general in the Minnesota Air National Guard as the senior Air Force officer. Brig. Gen. Hamlar graduated from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, with a bachelor of science in biology. He then attended the Howard University College of Dentistry as a National Health Service Corps schol-

arship recipient, gaining a commission at the equivalent naval rank of lieutenant.

Gen. Hamlar continued his military career by joining the 121st Tactical Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard in 1989. He joined the 133rd Airlift Wing as a traditional guardsman and general practice physician in 1995.

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embers of the Senior Executive Service (SES) operate and oversee nearly every government activity in approximately 75 federal agencies. In keeping with USBE&IT magazine’s Homeland Security, Government and Defense tradition, we feature more than 60 executives in the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, Department of the Air Force, Department of Homeland Security, and the 17 defense agencies and other DOD field activities.

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USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 47

U.S. ARMY JAMES ABNEY

Deputy Director of Training and Leader Development Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7 Installation Management Command

Mr. James Abney was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2010. He is the first director of G-9, Morale, Welfare and Recreation Programs. Prior, he was deputy to the commanding general of the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command, and served as special assistant to the commanding general. Currently, his duties include oversight of family programs such as child, youth and school services, as well as soldier and community recreation; armed forces recreation centers, business operations, Army recreation machine programs, and non-appropriated funds for human resources and benefits. Mr. Abney retired from active duty at the rank of colonel after more than 27 years with the U.S. Army. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Furman University and a Master of Science from the National Defense University.

JAY ARONOWITZ

Assistant G-1 for Civilian Personnel Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, Headquarters Department of the Army

The United States Army is the largest federal employer of civilians, with more than 300,000 employees, and Mr. Jay Aronowitz plays a lead role in managing civilian human resources at the Department of the Army. Since his appointment in 2012, he has been responsible for workforce planning, employment, emerging human resources program information systems, labor relations and non-appropriated funds policies. Mr. Aronowitz also serves as chief representative of civilian careers, 48 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

overseeing the professional development of 10,000 civilian human resource professionals. Before selection to the Senior Executive Service in July 2010, Mr. Aronowitz was deputy assistant secretary to Army Force Management, Manpower and Resources, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs). He also served as acting deputy assistant secretary, Army Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights. Aronowitz graduated from Xavier University with a bachelor’s degree in social work and later earned a master’s in public administration from The Ohio State University.

DONN BOOKER

Contingency Business Director of the Transatlantic Division Principal Adviser, Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers

Mr. Donn Booker is principal adviser to the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers and a contingency business director in the Corps Transatlantic Division. He leads direction and financial operations as well as regional support to the division’s regional business center. He also serves as a representative to the management board and is responsible for establishing policy and guidance. The Transatlantic Division provides the Corps of Engineers construction, engineering and project management support for Central Command, a unified combatant command within the Department of Defense. Central Command’s area includes countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq. Overseeing thousands of United States Army projects, the transatlantic division also provides support to Afghan national security Forces, Coalition forces, counter narcotics and border management, reconstruction support to the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Corps commander’s Emergency Response Program. Mr. Booker graduated from North Carolina A&T State University with a bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s from Georgia Institute of Technology.

THEODORE BROWN

Chief, Planning and Policy/Leader, Mississippi Valley Division Regional Integration Team Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Mr. Theodore Brown serves as chief of planning and policy and leader of the Mississippi Valley Division Regional Integration Team, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). He provides oversight for coastal Louisiana post-Katrina reconstruction and planning. Mr. Brown also serves as leader, USACE planning community of practice. In his current position, he coordinates civil works policy with the Department of the Army, other federal agencies, and the Office of Management and Budget. He is executive liaison for the USACE chief’s Environmental Advisory Board, and provides representation to other federal advisory committees. Mr. Brown is responsible for leading implementation of the 2007 Water Resources Development Act. Further, he is the principal civil works point of contact with congressional authorizing committees on policy and planning matters. He formulates civil works environmental policy, and develops planning and program initiatives. Mr. Brown earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Ohio State University and a master’s in business administration from Marshall University.

JAMES DALTON

Chief, Engineering and Construction Division Directorate of Civil Works, Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Mr. James Dalton was selected into the Senior Executive Service in 2005. Currently, he is engineering and construction divisional chief in the Corps Director-

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ate of Civil Works. He is responsible for policy and technical expertise in design and construction programs worth over $10 billion for the U.S. Army, Air Force, Department of Defense, other federal agencies, and more than sixty foreign nations. He provides leadership to eight divisions, 41 districts, and 15,000 people and guides the development of engineering and construction policy for the Army Corps’ civil works, military, and environmental missions. Dalton is regional integration team leader for the South Pacific Division. His previous assignment was as the deputy district engineer for the Programs and Project Management Division, Alaska District, Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Dalton holds a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and a master’s in civil engineering from North Carolina State University.

MONIQUE FERRELL Deputy Auditor General U.S. Army Audit Agency

Ms. Monique Ferrell was appointed to the Senior Executive Service and the position of deputy auditor general on November 20, 2011. She has worked for the federal government and the U.S. Army Audit Agency for over 27 years. As deputy auditor general for Manpower, Reserve Affairs and Training Audits, Ms. Ferrell is principal advisor to the auditor General of the Army on all matters pertaining to agency programs for auditing the army’s major functional areas of human capital, force protection, force structure, and training. Her responsibilities also include directing army-wide audit coverage of high-risk areas that focus on theater deployment and sustainment ―combat logistics planning, logistics, storage and disposal, and combat service support activities―the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, contingency contracting and contractors on the battlefield. She exercises operational control over four continental United States agency field offices and three field offices in Southwest Asia. Her previous assignment was as program director, Expeditionary Support Audits, Army Audit Agency. Ms. Ferrell holds a Bachelor of Science in Accountwww.blackengineer.com

ing from Hampton University and a master’s in policy management from Georgetown University.

TOMMY MARKS

Executive Dir. for Acquisition Services, HQ, Department of the Army Asst. Sec. of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement

Mr. Tommy Marks was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2011 and is currently executive director for acquisition services in the Department of the Army and assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement. Mr. Marks is responsible for developing and implementing acquisition services, in order to use appropriate resources while achieving objectives. As senior service manager, his primary function is to assist commanders in obtaining cost effective and efficient services to achieve their mission. He has served as an executive director for the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) in the Army Sustainment Command; as a deputy program director in Kuwait, and director of operations and plans and deputy to the executive director for LOGCAP, Army Sustainment Command. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical education from McNeese State University, a master’s in acquisition management from Florida Institute of Technology, and another in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College.

ROBERT MOORE

Deputy to the Commanding General U. S. Army Security Assistance Command

Mr. Robert Moore is a deputy to the commanding general of the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command.

The USASAC implements Army security assistance programs, and

manages 4,000 foreign military sales valued at $103 billion as well as production of Army material. The command supports U.S. emergency assistance, humanitarian relief, and United Nations peacekeeping operations. Previously Mr. Moore was deputy director of Security Cooperation and Offices of Defense Cooperation, J-5, Headquarters U.S. European Command, Germany. Prior, he was the deputy director of Logistics and Security Assistance, J-4 Headquarters U.S. European Command. Mr. Moore was selected to the Senior Executive Service July 2003. Like many veteran executives in the federal Senior Executive Service, he served for more than 28 years in the Air Force, retiring as a colonel. His last assignment was with the United States Embassy in Berlin, Germany, as chief, Office of Defense Cooperation. He received his bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in biology and chemistry from Alabama State University, a master’s in counseling from Pepperdine University and another in logistics management at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He also holds a number of certificates in logistics and technology, leadership and innovation, business transformation, management and Army acquisition.

LEVATOR NORSWORTHY, JR.

Deputy General Counsel for Acquisition, Office of the Army General Counsel Headquarters Department of the Army

Mr. Levator Norsworthy was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 1998 and currently serves as deputy general counsel for acquisition in the Office of the Army General Counsel at the Headquarters, Department of the Army. He assists the general counsel in providing advice and counsel to all Army Secretariat officials to include the secretary of the army, acquisition executive, chief information officer, and their staff. The provision of advice encompass areas such as federal procurement law, weapon system acquisition, military construction, research and development, developmental and operational testing, logistics, international cooperative programs, security assistance, competitive sourcing, and contracting.

Mr. Norsworthy previously served as USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 49

chief counsel, Army Communications and Electronics Command. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration–economics from University of Dayton and a J.D. from the University of Cincinnati, College of Law. LARRY STUBBLEFIELD

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Diversity and Leadership

Mr. Larry Stubblefield was selected as deputy assistant secretary in 2010. He acts for the assistant secretary of the Army, Manpower and Reserve Affairs on plans, programs, policy formulation and practices pertaining to diversity and leadership. He also serves as a functional chief representative for the Army’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Career Program, responsible for addressing accessibility and public use of army facilities. In 2005, he joined the Senior Executive Service when he was selected as deputy administrative assistant to the secretary of the Army.

Stubblefield retired at the rank of colonel after 30 years of active duty. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, a master’s in business organizational management from University of Laverne, another in strategic studies from the United States Army War College, plus an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS

Director, U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency

Mr. Michael Williams assumed his current position as director of the Army Logistics Innovation Agency in February 2013. He leads and manages solutions for enhancements across the current and future logistics enterprise. He guides integration of logistics that leverage concept, technologies, and processes to support tactical, operational, and strategic levels in a Joint, integrated logistics environment. He also acts as deputy chief of staff for the Army logistics architecture, lead for the common logistics operating environment, and agent for the Science and Technology Working Group, the Small Business and Innovation Research Program, and related science and technology initiatives. Mr. Williams has served at Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, which provides the defense department with transportation engineering, research, and analytical expertise to support National Military Strategy. Mr. Williams rose to deputy to the commander, responsible for improvement and innovation in development of distribution plans and programs supporting the global mission and impacting Joint Service force deployment and logistics operations.

ESSYE B. MILLER

Director, Cyber Security Office of the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6

Mrs. Miller became the Director for Cyber Security on August 24, 2014.

As the Director for Cyber Security, Mrs. Miller assists the Secretary of the Army, the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army and the CIO/G-6 with implementing cyber strategy and cyber-related information technology initiatives. She is also the Army’s Senior Information Assurance Officer and therefore, she is responsible for the development, implementation, execution and oversight of the Army’s Cyber Security program.

Mrs. Miller is a Senior Executive with broad experience information technology. During her 29- year career, Mrs. Miller has held positions of increased responsibility in U.S. Air Force, both tactical and strategic C4IT. Mrs. Miller previously served as the Director, Headquarters Air Force Information Management, Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. Additionally, Ms Miller served as the Headquarters Air Force Chief Information Officer and Air Force rep to the Pentagon Area CIO Council. She also managed the Air Force Declassification Office, Air Force Departmental Publications Office, Headquarters Air Force Multimedia Services and Enterprise Business Solutions. Mrs. Miller holds a B.A. from Talladega College, a MBA from Troy State University, and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the United States Air War College, Pennsylvania.

NAVY AND MARINE CORPS RONNIE BOOTH

Assistant Auditor General for Installations and Environment Audits

Mr. Ronnie Booth has oversight of Navy and Marine Corps property, housing and facilities totaling over 72,000 buildings and 4.5 million acres

50 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

valued at $215 billion. He is responsible for environmental protection, safety and occupational health for military and civilian personnel; as well as the Japanese agreement to realign U.S. forces in Japan, and the relocation from Okinawa to Guam of 8,000 American Marines and their families. As former assistant auditor general for plans, policy, and resource management, he assessed institutional and program vulnerabilities at the Department of Navy, developing audit plans and managing the alloca-

tion of audit resources to ensure the best outcomes. Previously, he was a technical adviser to the special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy for base realignment and closure. Booth is a certified fraud examiner and internal control auditor.

He is a winner of the Presidential Rank Award and the Department of the Navy’s Superior Civilian Service Award. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia State University in 1980.

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ELLIOTT BRANCH

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Acquisition Procurement) Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition)

Mr. Elliott Branch is the most senior Department of the Navy career civilian responsible for acquisition, contracting, and operation of the Navy’s multibillion-dollar acquisition system. He is principal civilian advisor to the department’s acquisition and procurement executive, and serves as Department of the Navy competition advocate general. He also leads the Navy’s contracting, purchasing and government property. His accomplishments in the federal government have been recognized with various awards, including the 2012 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for Management Excellence, the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award, two Presidential Rank Awards for Meritorious Executive, and the Vice Presidential Hammer Award for Reinventing Government. Branch graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and completed the executive program at the University of Virginia Darden School.

ANDREA BROTHERTON

Deputy Naval Inspector General

Ms. Andrea Brotherton was appointed to her current position in 2009.

She oversees investigations involving senior officials and fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement at every level of the Navy. Ms. Brotherton has 28 years of civilian service. In 1985, she joined the Navy Office of the General Counsel, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) where she served as associate counsel in the office of counsel, Naval Sea Systems Command. In July 1999, she became an assistant to the general counsel in the office of the associate genwww.blackengineer.com

eral counsel (management). From 1995 to 1999, she served in the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division as a staff attorney preceding her selection as counsel. In 2004, she was appointed to the Senior Executive Service position of executive director, Office of Counsel, NAVAIR. She became counsel for Naval Facilities Engineering Command in 2005. A year later, she joined the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy as assistant general counsel (financial management and comptroller). Brotherton holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and political science. She also holds a juris doctorate and is licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

KAREN BURROWS

Executive Director- Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity and Deputy for Weapons Safety, Naval Sea Systems Command

Ms. Karen Burrows is chair of the Department of the Navy’s Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board, which provides oversight for safety of all Navy and Marine Corps munitions, ordnance items, weapons and combat systems. She was selected to the federal Senior Executive Service in April 2012 and has more than 29 years of experience in the Department of Defense. Her previous positions include deputy administrator/chief information officer–Defense Technical Information Center; director, emerging capabilities and special assistant, office of the assistant secretary of defense (research and engineering); director, Weapons Technology Division; insensitive munitions program manager, and mine countermeasures program manager - Naval Surface Warfare Center.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

KAREN M. DAVIS

Director, Integrated Combat Systems Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems

Ms. Karen Davis is the director for Integrated Combat Systems within the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS). Her responsibilities are organization and

direction of efforts to produce integrated combat systems, sensors, weapons and C4I war fighting capabilities for surface ships.

Ms. Davis was selected to the Senior Executive Service in 2014. Immediately prior, she was the PEO IWS major program manager for advanced technology. Ms. Davis’ past key leadership and critical acquisition positions include: program manager for Marine Corps Information Systems and Infrastructure; deputy program manager for future aircraft carriers; director for aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships within the Navy Secretariat; and principal assistant program manager for Nimitz class aircraft carrier construction.

Ms. Davis’ early technical proficiency was gained as a weapon systems engineer. Ms. Davis, a graduate of Clemson University, holds a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management. Her continuous learning includes programs at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, and American University. Her professional recognition includes a Meritorious Service Award and a Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer Information Technology Excellence Award.

LARRY E. DOUCHAND, P.E.

Assistant Commander for Environmental Programs Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC)

Mr. Larry Douchand has served as the Naval Facilities Engineering assistant commander for environmental programs since July 2006. He is responsible for NAVFAC services to Department of the Navy. Prior to his Senior Executive Service position with NAVFAC (Jan. 2004 to July 2006), he served as chief, Strategic Integration Branch at the Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for establishing the management and execution for the $11-billion Base Realignment and USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 51

Closure program, which included military construction, environmental cleanup, and real estate disposal. From July 2003 to January 2004, he served as chief, Environmental Support Branch at the Army Corps of Engineers. He holds a master’s degree in environmental management from the University of San Francisco, and a bachelor’s of science in engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Maryland, and a member of the NAVFAC acquisition community.

STEFFANIE EASTER

Executive Director, F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office

Ms. Steffanie Easter is executive director for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office. The acquisition program is the Department of Defense’s largest, which will deliver a sustainable fifth generation strike aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and eight international partners. Prior, she was the assistant deputy chief of naval operations for Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education, where she was executive advisor for planning and programming of manpower, personnel, training, and education resources, budgeting for Navy personnel and developing information systems and tools to manage the Navy Total Force. Ms. Easter is a 1985 graduate of North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s in chemical engineering. She holds a master’s in engineering management from the Catholic University of America. Ms. Easter has 29 years of federal service and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2002.

She was awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 2007, the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award in 2009, and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 2013.

She is also the recipient of the 2009 Women of Color Managerial Leadership award and the 2010 BEYA Professional Achievement-Government Award.

52 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

VICTOR GAVIN

Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems

Mr. Victor Gavin is responsible for acquiring the Department of the Navy’s enterprise information systems and applications. He oversees a $2 billion portfolio of information technology projects and programs designed to enable common business processes and provide standard information technology capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps. Mr. Gavin was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2007 while serving as technical director in the program executive office for submarines. He was responsible for submarine combat systems acquisition and program executive office-directed research and development. His responsibilities included modernization of all in-service submarines and support of foreign sales to the Royal Australian Navy Collins Class submarine and the Brazilian Navy Scorpene Class submarine Mr. Gavin holds a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and a master’s in systems engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

JANICE HAITH

Director, Department of Navy Deputy Chief Information Officer (Navy) Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance

Ms. Janice Haith was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2004, as the principal deputy and chief information officer for the Defense Security Service. She was responsible for operations and development of the defense personnel security system. Currently, she is director of the Department of Navy Deputy Chief Information Officer office, responsible for information management technology policy, governance, and information assurance. Previous positions include director, Intelligence Access for

Warfighter Support (Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence)) and federal information sharing executive for the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer. A designated U. S. Air Force Congressional Fellow, she is a graduate of Hampton Institute, with a bachelor’s in sociology and master’s in technology management from the University of Maryland. She is also a graduate of National Defense University - Chief Information Officer and Information Assurance Programs.

LARRY HOLLINGSWORTH

Director, Integration and Interoperability

Mr. Larry Hollingsworth is currently director of integration and interoperability. He was appointed to this position in May 2013

by Vice Adm. David Dunaway, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command. Mr. Hollingsworth has been a civil service employee for 35 years. He began his career with the Naval Air Systems Command and served in the Avionics Division for eight years. In 1886, he was promoted to the position of chief engineer for the HARM, Sidearm, Maverick, Hellfire and TOW weapon systems. Three years later, he rose to deputy program manager for defense suppression systems. In March 1994, he was reassigned to Air-to-Air missile systems, where he was responsible for managing the Sidewinder, Sparrow and Phoenix missile programs. In February of 1996, he was selected into the Senior Executive Service position of national director of AIR-4.5 Avionics Department, managing 700 civilians. He also served as director of Rapid Response/Irregular Warfare at the Naval Air Systems Command. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University and a master’s degree in engineering administration at Catholic University. In 2008, Hollingsworth won the National Society of Black Engineers’ Golden Torch Award for Lifetime Achievement in Government.

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CHARLES MAY, JR.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service Executive Assistant Director for Atlantic Operations

Special Agent Charles T. May, Jr. was assigned as Acting Executive Assistant Director for Atlantic Operations, Virginia Beach, Virginia in September 2013. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service (SES) on 31 July 2014 and assumed the assignment permanently. As Executive Assistant Director for Atlantic Operations, Mr. May supervises the activities of seven field offices to include overseas operations in Europe and Africa and the Middle East. He oversees investigations, operations, and led strategic initiatives with law enforcement, security, and investigative agencies. Mr. May joined the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in 1984 and his previous senior-level NCIS assignments include, Special Agent In Charge Norfolk Field Office, Norfolk Virginia, Special Agent In Charge, Camp Lejeune North Carolina, Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Directorate for Intelligence and Information Sharing (DIIS) Internal Communications (Code 25), and NCIS Senior Representative to the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (DoDIG). Mr. May is a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), Hampton Roads Chief of Police (Executive Member), Virginia Area Maritime Security Committee (Co-Chairman), and NC/VA Law Enforcement Information Exchange (Co Chairman).

MS. PAULA PATRICK

Director, Human Resources Operations Office of Civilian Human Resources

Ms. Paula Patrick leads Department of Navy operations centers in California, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.

She advises the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy about human rewww.blackengineer.com

source operations and Ms. Patrick’s 1,000 plus staff fill Navy and Marine Corps’ vacancies. Patrick previously served as director of the executive management program office. During her tenure, she was responsible for the creation and execution of a Department of the Navy life-cycle management system and strategy for the department’s executives. For her achievements, she was awarded the highest honorary award that the secretary of the navy can bestow on a civilian employee― Distinguished Civilian Service Award. Prior to working for the Department of Navy, she worked for the Department of Air Force for 17 years in positions across the United States, Japan and Germany. Ms. Patrick has taught classes at undergraduate and master’s degree level. Ms. Patrick has an undergraduate degree in marketing from South Carolina State University and a master’s in management from Troy State University. Ms. Patrick maintains active memberships with the Senior Executive Association and the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

MARK RIDLEY

Deputy Director Naval Criminal Investigative Service

Special Agent Mark D. Ridley was appointed Deputy Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on February 22, 2010. In this role, he supervises the activities of 20 field offices, oversees investigations and operations, and leads strategic initiatives with law enforcement, security, and investigative agencies. Mr. Ridley began his career as an NCIS special agent in 1987. He rose to senior leadership positions, serving as the first special agent in charge of the newly established NCIS Marine Corps West Field Office at Camp Pendleton, as deputy assistant director for Counterintelligence Operations, and as the first assistant director for the newly established Directorate of Intelligence. Mr. Ridley joined the Senior Executive Service ranks in 2006 and served as executive assistant director (EAD) for Pacific Operations and later as EAD for criminal investigations. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Nevada and a master’s degree in Justice

Administration from Norwich University.

In 1983, Mr. Ridley was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve and served six years. He is a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the International Association of Chiefs of Police International Policing Division Steering Committee.

ARTHUR SCOTT

Assistant Auditor General for Research, Development, Acquisition, and Logistics

Mr. Arthur Scott was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2010, and has 23 years of federal service in the Department of Navy and United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General. As the assistant auditor general for Research, Development, Acquisition, and Logistics, he is responsible for overseeing a directorate of 70 auditors in performance of internal audits that focus on research, development, and acquisition of Navy and Marine Corps platforms and warfare systems with an annual budget in excess of $50 billion.

His staff is located in Washington, DC, at the historic Washington Navy Yard. A native of South Carolina, Mr. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of South Carolina State College at Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Mr. Scott has received numerous awards and recognition during his audit career to include the American Society of Military Comptroller’s Meritorious Performance Award from the Department of Defense Comptroller.

JIMMY SMITH

Director for Nuclear Weapons Safety and Security Strategic Systems Programs

Mr. Jimmy Smith serves as the director of Nuclear Weapons Safety and Security at Strategic Systems Programs.

In this capacity, he serves as senior advisor to the director,

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Strategic Systems Programs on nuclear weapons safety and security matters, and is also responsible for the direction, review, and coordination of the NWS Division and its mission. Prior to working at SSP, Mr. Smith served as the director for the Above Water Sensors Directorate within the program executive office for integrated warfare systems where he managed planning, procuring and sustaining war fighting sensors, electronic warfare systems, missiles, guns, and ammunition systems for all surface ships.

In 2005, he served as deputy program manager for the Ohio Class Submarine Guided Missile Conversion Program. In 2003, he served as construction manager for the first seven submarines of the Virginia Class. He graduated from Tuskegee University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Graduate-level pursuits include environmental engineering, marine engineering, and business management. He began his career in government civil service in 1991 at the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC where he was an engineer-in-training.

He was awarded the 2009 Blacks in Government Department of Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Award - Navy.

SHARON SMOOT

Executive Director, Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations Naval Sea Systems Command

Ms. Sharon Smoot began her career with the Department of the Navy in 1986. She was selected for her current position in April 2010.

She entered the Senior Executive Service (SES) in September 2006.

Other positions she has held include finance and industrial manager, Fleet Maintenance Directorate of Fleet Forces Command; nuclear business and strategic planning officer, Norfolk Naval Shipyard; and electrical engineer, Control Engineering Division of the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department, Norfolk Naval Shipyard. She holds a master’s degree in engineering management from Old Dominion University and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Virginia Tech.

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THEODORE SHORT JR.

Comptroller, Naval Air Systems Command

Mr. Theodore Short’s federal career spans over 25 years in financial management.

During his tenure with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), he has had oversight of budget formulation and financial reporting in financial management positions. Mr. Short entered the Senior Executive Service as the NAVAIR comptroller in 2010. He is responsible for budgeting, accounting and financial management in an organization responsible for $42 billion annually in acquisition and sustainment funds. Mr. Short leads fiscal policies and controls over financial operations for NAVAIR in budgets, accounting and finance, and audit and review. Mr. Short has twice been recognized with the prestigious Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He is a member of the American Society of Military Comptrollers and president of the Southern Maryland Chapter. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Salisbury University in 1988.

RONALD SMILEY, PH.D.

National Director, Avionics, Sensors and E*Warfare and Director, Electronic Warfare and Combat Systems, Naval Air Systems Command

Dr. Smiley currently directs the efforts of over 1100 scientists and engineers geographically dispersed across seven (7) locations and involved in naval aviation electronics and electronic systems utilized to enable advanced warfighting capabilities. He has spent over 40 years in maritime aviation and weapon systems research, development, acquisition, test and engineering fields, performing in key technical and executive assignments including directorships in Corporate Operations, Systems Engineering Department, Advanced Technology and Analysis Center, Weapons Evaluation Directorate, and the Information

and Electronic Warfare Department.

He earned a master’s and a doctorate in management from Claremont Graduate School. He earned an M.B.A. at Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Howard University. Dr. Smiley has served various boards including the College of Engineering and Computer Science Industry Advisory Board of California State University Northridge; the President’s Advisory Board of California State University, Channel Islands; Board of Directors for World Affairs Council of Ventura County, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Ventura County, and Interface Children and Family Services. His professional affiliations include the Engineering Management Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Association of Old Crows Electronic Defense Organization.

U.S. AIR FORCE JOHN H. BONAPART JR.

Director, Installations and Mission Support Headquarters Air Mobility Command

Mr. John Bonapart is responsible for Air Mobility Command (AMC) expeditionary combat support.

He provides oversight to civil engineer activities, including readiness, emergency services, base development, environmental and housing programs, and AMC Security Forces activities serving 53,000 military and civilian employees and their families.

Mr. Bonapart is AMC’s Services Advocate, ensuring the command is proactively engaged in acquisition efforts for requirements valued greater than or equal to $100 million. The directorate manages more than $24 billion in facilities and infrastructure at 25 locations worldwide.

Bonapart earned a bachelor’s in history and a secondary school teaching certificate at Fordham University. He was commissioned in 1975 from the Air Force ROTC program. While on duty, he held assignments in communications; air traffic control and he also served at the Secretariat Air Staff, command and joint levels. He commanded a communications squadron, www.blackengineer.com

support group, cadet group and an air base wing. He retired at the rank of colonel in 2005. Prior to assuming his current position, he was associate director, Directorate of Strategic Plans, Programs, Analyses, Assessments and Lessons Learned, Headquarters Air Force Space Command.

TIMOTHY K. BRIDGES

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations Headquarters Air Force, Pentagon

Mr. Timothy Bridges is responsible for management, policy and oversight of the $6 billion annual Air Force installation and facility programs. They include facility management, base closures, construction, family housing, acquisition, maintenance, operation, repair and disposal of real property. He was commissioned in 1979 as a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program at the Virginia Military Institute, earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

Since then, he has served in design, planning, contract management, operations and heavy construction. Mr. Bridges most recent assignment was as the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health. He served twice as a base civil engineer squadron commander, and as an installation commander. He also served as an Air Force ROTC assistant professor and held various staff positions at the major command and Air Force levels in the readiness, environmental and resources arenas. Mr. Bridges retired from active duty at the rank of colonel in 2006 and entered the Senior Executive Service.

EUGENE COLLINS

Deputy Director of Logistics, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force

Mr. Collins is responsible for organizing, training and equipping more than 180,000 technicians and managers maintaining the Air Force’s

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engagement aerospace weapons system inventory. He provides strategic direction for materiel and equipment management, fuels, vehicles, distribution, personal property, and passenger traffic management. The directorate develops logistics, maintenance and munitions policy, ensuring readiness of the largest element of manpower supporting Air Force combat forces worldwide. He is a combatproven aircraft maintenance and logistics leader who participated in operations Iraqi Freedom, Southern Watch and Enduring Freedom. He was commissioned upon graduation from Mississippi Valley State University, and has served in a variety of active duty military and civilian positions of increasing responsibility at Wing, Major Command, Air Force and non-Department of Defense federal government headquarters levels; including service as the Health and Human Services’ University Chief Learning Officer and Executive Officer to the Office of the Secretary. Mr. Collins entered the Senior Executive Service in 2007, following retirement from active duty at the rank of Colonel. Prior to assuming his current position, he was Deputy Director of Logistics, Air Combat Command.

GAIL P. FOREST

Director for Information Dominance Programs Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Ms. Forest is responsible for planning and programing all acquisition and modernization activities for Air Force command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR).

She guides the development of program management, budget submissions, congressional testimony and international acquisition programs. She advocates acquisition strategies for reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, command and control and combat support systems, evolving C4ISR infrastructure, net-centric operations and information warfare programs.

Ms. Forest also provides guidance on combat C4ISR systems and architectures to the Secretary of the Air Force the Air Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and Congress. Ms. Forest

began her career as a manufacturing engineer with Buick Motor Division, General Motors Corp. In 1982, she entered federal civil service as an engineer in the Maintenance Directorate at Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command. She has held numerous engineering, logistics, and acquisition program management positions. Prior to her current assignment, she was Director, Plans and Programs, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), responsible for developing and managing the processes that defined AFRL’s $2 billion annual investment in technologies for future Air Force systems.

ARTHUR G. HATCHER, JR.

Director of Communications Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command Barksdale Air Force Base, La

Mr. Arthur Hatcher is a member of the Senior Executive Service. As director of communications at the Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command, he leads the staff managing cyberspace, information technology infrastructure and knowledge operation support to 24,000 personnel. He oversees command management for fourteen Air Force-level nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) systems supporting B-2, B-52 and Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations. He also manages more than 1,700 command cyber personnel providing organizing, training and equipment guidance. In addition, he serves as chief architect for Air Force Nuclear Deterrence Operations/Nuclear Command and Control Systems. Mr. Hatcher is from Selma, Ala. He completed thirty years with the U.S. Air Force, and entered federal service in July 2013.

While on active duty, he served on the Joint Staff, a combatant command staff and two major commands. He has commanded an installation in southwest Asia, communications group and two communications squadrons. His units won both Department of Defense and Air Force level awards. His previous assignment was as the director of communications and chief information officer, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces.

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HORACE L. LARRY

Deputy Director of Air Force Services Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel

Mr. Horace Larry provides policy direction and oversight for the $2 billion worldwide services program. The organization’s mission is to increase combat capability and productivity through programs promoting readiness, esprit de corps and quality service for Air Force people. This includes physical fitness, peacetime and wartime troop feeding, Air Force mortuary affairs, Armed Forces entertainment, Air Force protocol, lodging and libraries. It also includes child development centers, youth centers and recreation activities. He provides oversight for uniforms, awards and recognition; Airman and family readiness, and Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, as well as other programs that contribute to sustainment. Mr. Larry was commissioned in the Air Force in 1975.

Over the next 30 years, he was assigned to various posts including deputy support group commander; commander of the Air Force Services Agency; and deputy director of Air Force Services in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Installations and Logistics at Headquarters U.S. Air Force. He retired from the Air Force in 2005 as a colonel. Mr. Larry became a civil service employee in 2006 and federal contractor a year later, serving as a senior program manager for Logistics Applications Inc. at the Department of Energy. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2009.

CHEVALIER CLEAVES

Director, Diversity and Inclusion Directorate Headquarters U.S. Air Force

Chevalier P. Cleaves is responsible for broadening U.S. Air Force outreach and recruitment opportunities, strengthening institutional diversity infrastructure, developing and implementing a strategic diversity plan, cultivating 56 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

diversity awareness and appreciation, and monitoring success. Mr. Cleaves earned his commission in 1985 through the United States Air Force Academy. A career aviator, Mr. Cleaves has commanded at the squadron level, and played a critical role in the response to Sept. 11, 2001, events as the lead CHECKMATE team chief. Later as a Joint Staff division chief, he was responsible for delivering integrated, joint special technical operations capabilities to unified commanders.

Mr. Cleaves was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to lead the U.S. Air Force Academy admissions directorate, where the superintendent selected him to lead USAFA’s diversity and inclusion efforts. He retired in the grade of colonel in 2010. Prior to his current position, Mr. Cleaves lead Diversity and Inclusion Business Integration for the Internal Revenue Service.

TAWANDA R. ROONEY

Director, Intelligence Systems Support Office

Mrs. Tawanda Rooney is responsible for directing, managing, and leading organizational resources to meet mission objectives consistent with the Defense Intelligence Enterprise priorities. She leads technology developments and methodology efforts that provide specialized and innovative approaches to rapidly address the Department of Defense strategic, operational and tactical requirements. She began her federal career in 1984 through the Air Force summer-hire program. After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Virginia State University in 1988, she became a budget analyst with the office of the deputy chief of staff for plans and operations. Five years later she moved to the Defense Evaluation Support Activity, holding positions including project manager, contracting officer and directorate budget representative.

In 1997, she became a deputy program manager at the ISSO, responsible for acquisition and evaluation of sensitive technology efforts. She served as a staff officer with the deputy assistant secretary of defense for program analysis and evaluation at the Pentagon, and, in 2001,

was appointed deputy director for the information engineering and assessment laboratory at the ISSO. In 2006, Ms. Rooney was assigned as laboratory director, providing research and development as well as technical support to the director of ISSO on acquisition and management of technology, intelligence systems and related methodologies to support the organization.”

JEFFERY R. SHELTON

Deputy Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force

Mr. Jeffery Shelton assists the Administrative Assistant in executing the responsibilities of the office, to include performing high-level assignments according to secretarial policies, goals, and objectives. He oversees the execution and programming of the Headquarters U.S. Air Force portfolio with an annual budget of $5.6 billion and 37,000 personnel. Mr. Shelton also assists in managing and administratively supporting the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, its 1,650-member Secretariat and 2,400-member- supported field operating agencies. Mr. Shelton entered federal service in 1981 and spent his first four years at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. He completed a twoyear logistics career broadening assignment at the Pentagon and then moved to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where he was command public and private competition program manager and base realignment and closure liaison officer. In 1999, he returned to Washington, D.C., where he served in positions with the secretary of the Air Force for acquisition; financial management and budget; and the war fighting, integration and chief information office. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2008, and served as associate deputy assistant secretary for acquisition integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force offices for acquisition, and the deputy director of resource integration, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics Installation and Mission Support.

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KEITH D. THOMAS

Director, Air Force Cryptologic Office

Mr. Keith Thomas is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance representative to both the National Security and Central Security Service agencies on Air Force cryptologic matters. As Air Force Cryptologic Office director, he guides development of Air Force cryptologic strategy and technologies to enhance mission support to signals intelligence and information assurance. He provides oversight and guidance for Air Force cryptologic activities, including missions related to both tactical war fighting and national-level operations. Mr. Thomas also serves as technical authority for the Air Force within the National Security Agency (NSA) on development, signals intelligence, and information security

equipment and systems. He was appointed as the chairperson of the Inter-Agency Senior Electronic Intelligence Steering Group by the director of NSA. Mr. Thomas is a 1979 graduate of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

He received a master’s degree in business administration in 1999 from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, and one year later, earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. JARRIS LOUIS TAYLOR JR.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Air Force for the Strategic Diversity Integration Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs

Dr. Jarris Taylor is the deputy assistant secretary of Air Force strategic diversity integration in the office of the assistant secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. He is responsible for policy, guidance, direction, and oversight

of all plans and programs affecting diversity integration for Air Force military and civilian personnel. Dr. Taylor provides leadership, direction, and oversight to all levels of the Air Force to ensure a diverse and inclusive total force. Prior to his current position, he was associate director, William R. Harvey Leadership Institute and Honors College at Hampton University. Dr. Taylor has extensive experience in research, service and fundraising, earning his doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University. He retired from the Air Force in 2005 and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2009.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ALBERT CURRY, JR.

Deputy Assistant Commandant for Engineering and Logistics U.S. Coast Guard

Mr. Albert Curry is currently acting deputy assistant commandant for engineering and logistics at the Coast Guard.

Additionally, he has served as deputy project manager for the Coast Guard Rescue 21 Program, and as deputy program manager for the Coast Guard’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) major systems acquisition project. He is a member of a number of professional groups, such as the Surface Navy, and National Naval Officer associations and the Savannah State University National Alumni body. Curry earned a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from Savannah State University. He was commissioned in 1980 through Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program and retired as a captain from the Navy in 2006. During active duty his at sea assignments include: engineering officer aboard USS Barnstable County, execuwww.blackengineer.com

tive officer aboard the USS Nicholson and commanding officer of the USS Pensacola. His ashore assignments in the Navy include: assistant program manager for the Global Positioning Systems Program Office for ships and submarines, deputy program manager for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile Mission Planning System Program, and Director, Naval Sea Systems Command Total Force Development Office. He is a graduate of the Advanced Program Management Course at the Defense Systems Management College and is a certified Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security Acquisition Level III Acquisition program manager. Curry earned a master’s in Systems Engineering (Electronic Warfare) from the Naval Postgraduate School.

TERRI A. DICKERSON Director of Civil Rights U.S. Coast Guard

Ms. Terri Dickerson, a member of the Senior Executive Service since 2000, joined the Coast Guard as director, Office of Civil Rights in 2006. Seven

years later, Ms. Dickerson was honored

by BEYA for her superior performance and contributions to Coast Guard personnel and missions in February 2013. From 2000 to 2006, she was second in charge at the Commission on Civil Rights. She examined federal agencies’ civil rights offices, and advised officials, Congress, and the White House on improved enforcement. In 2005, the White House installed her as interim agency head. Ms. Dickerson is a published author, with articles in industry and national publications including the Washington Post, USA-TODAY, and the Ladies’ Home Journal. The Supreme Court cited a study she directed, “Beyond Percentage Plans: The Challenge of Equal Opportunity in Higher Education,” in its 2005 decision on affirmative action. In 2008, she was named a Presidential Meritorious Executive. Ms. Dickerson earned a bachelor of science from the University of Virginia and a master of arts from the Johns Hopkins University. She is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Board of Trustees.

CURTIS B. ODOM

U.S. Coast Guard Director of Civilian Human Resources, Diversity and Leadership, Coast Guard Headquarters

Mr. Curt Odom currently oversees the Coast Guard’s Civilian Human ReUSBE&IT I WINTER 2014 57

sources Office, Diversity, Workforce Planning, Leadership, and Professional Development.

He leads a staff of over 180. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as the deputy director of personnel management in 2007, and assumed duties as Coast Guard director of personnel management in 2009. Mr. Odom is a graduate of the U. S. Coast Guard

Academy where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Government. He retired from active duty with the Coast Guard at the rank of captain. Over his career, he has held various assignments including, executive officer, Coast Guard Training and Support Center. While serving at the center he was selected as the “Outstanding Military Officer of the Year” by the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Executive Board. Other assignments include chief, Office of Leadership and Diversity, Reserve and Training Directorate and ethnic policy advisor to the commandant of the Coast Guard as a member of the Diversity Management Staff. Odom completed

a fellowship with the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group before assuming command of the Coast Guard’s only Recruitment Training Center. With a staff of over 500 military and civilian personnel, the center graduated approximately 5,000 military members each year that were assigned to Coast Guard units all over the world. He is a member of the Coast Guard Academy Board of Trustees.

He also has an M.B.A. from the Florida Institute of Technology and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.

DEFENSE AGENCIES ROGERS E. CAMPBELL

Executive Director for Sales, Marketing and Policy Defense Commissary Agency

Mr. Rogers Campbell has oversight of directorates responsible for Defense Commissary Agency’s (DeCA) $6.1 billion sales, operations and policy, health and safety and resale contracting. He assumed this position in 2011. Campbell entered federal government service in 2010 with appointment as director of the agency’s East region, after having worked for more than 30 years in the private sector selling and marketing various consumer goods. A former captain in the U.S. Army, Campbell’s career has taken him from commanding a tank platoon to leading marketing, sales planning and merchandising of new car sales for both the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) and the Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM). As vice president and chief marketing officer of Overseas Military Sales Corporation, he directed marketing efforts on 120 military installations in 30 countries and aboard U.S. Navy ships through NEXCOM’s Ships Store program. Campbell’s career highlights include: managing partner of Marketcorp International, a brand strategy consultancy, senior director of marketing for Nabisco Foods Group, and director of global new products for Schering-Plough Consumer Healthcare.

He began his consumer packaged goods 58 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

career at General Mills. He earned an M.B.A. from Rutgers University in 1974 and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing as a distinguished military graduate from Saint Peter’s College, New Jersey in 1973.

DONJETTE GILMORE

Director, Accounting and Finance Policy Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)

Ms. Donjette Gilmore has responsibility for implementation of the Department of Defense (DOD) Financial Management Regulation― a 6,600 page document of accounting and finance policy guidance.

She has led financial management regulation modernization for 650,000 DOD users. Under her leadership, an Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) team accounted for $8.7 billion in development funds for Iraq. She was also key planner of a hotline, deployed in 22 days, providing visibility over $18.4 billion set-aside to rebuild Iraq. She has also served as an assistant chief information officer for business transformation at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, representing NGA’s equities to the defense department, congressional staffers, and Oracle Technical Exchange.

She chairs a taskforce comprised of 70 professionals, twenty-one agencies, 4 accounting firms, and several industry members to resolve issues like account-

ing for $478 billion in general property, plant and equipment and $1 trillion in assets on financial DOD statements. Ms. Gilmore served in the Air Force Audit Agency as director of Policy, Oversight, and Systems and is a certified defense financial manager and Level II Acquisition Professional in Financial and Program Management. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from Auburn University, and an M.B.A. from Washington University.

LYTWAIVE L. HUTCHINSON

Director, Enterprise Information Technology Services Directorate Deputy Chief Information Officer Office of the Secretary of Defense

Mrs. Lytwaive Hutchinson became director, Enterprise IT Services for Washington Headquarters Services in 2011, following the merger of the Information Technology Management Directorate (ITMD) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Networks. She was promoted director of ITMD in 2010.

As the deputy chief information officer, OSD, she assisted with strategy, implementation, maintenance of information, and information systems. Prior, she was director, Enterprise Services, where she implemented the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) Customer Service Software Platform and Service Desk.

Hutchinson was promoted director, Inforwww.blackengineer.com

mation Assurance Division in 2004 and served as designated approving authority for IT services at WHS. She entered federal government service in 2002 as an information assurance manager. She was instrumental in modernizing the training program from a paper-based system to an automated system. Prior, she served for 21 years with the Army, attaining the rank of chief warrant officer 3. Mrs. Hutchinson holds a Master of Science in Quality Systems Management and a bachelor’s in computer science. She is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and Harvard Business School for Executive Education.

JOHN H. JAMES, JR. Executive Director, Missile Defense Agency

Mr. John James is executive director of the Missile Defense Agency, Office of the Secretary of Defense. He is senior civilian advisor to the Missile Defense Agency director on all issues relating to the agency’s operational and management activities. Mr. James provides oversight, direction and guidance to MDA staff, ensuring integration of all MDA functions required to sustain an effective Ballistic Missile Defense program. He also serves as an interface to the office of the secretary of defense, the services, and Congress. Previously, Mr. James was director, National Security Personnel System Transition Office, within Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was responsible for the Congressional mandate to transition 228,000 employees to alternate personnel and pay system. In addition, he held the position of executive director, logistics, maintenance and industrial operations and executive director for undersea warfare, both at the Naval Sea Systems Command. He joined the Senior Executive Service in May 2000. Mr. James holds an undergraduate degree from Howard University, a master’s degree from Florida Institute of Technology and attended the Harvard School of Business and the KeenanFlagler Business School.

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CLARENCE A. JOHNSON

Principal Director and Director for Civilian Equal Employment Opportunity Office of the Deputy under Secretary of Defense (Equal Opportunity)

Mr. Clarence Johnson was selected to the Senior Executive Service In 2003, and assigned as the principal director and director for Civilian Equal Employment Opportunity, Office of the Deputy under Secretary of Defense (Equal Opportunity) at the Pentagon. In 2006, the office was renamed the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity.

He is responsible for coordination of diversity management and equal opportunities policy and programs affecting all Department of Defense (DOD) civilian and military personnel. He also provides supervision of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), the premiere DOD school in equal opportunity and equal employment opportunity training, education and research.

Mr. Johnson is principal advisor to the undersecretary of defense (personnel and readiness) on diversity management, equal opportunity and employment opportunity matters. He earned a bachelor’s in biology from Tuskegee Institute and a master’s in human resource management from Webster University. He is also a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College, Alabama, and the National Security Management Course from the National Defense University.

MILTON K. LEWIS

Acquisition Executive Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime

Mr. Milton Lewis is acquisition executive director at Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Land and Maritime.

He assumed

this position and was inducted into the Senior Executive Service in 2008. DLA Land and Maritime manages more than 1.8 million spare and repair parts, with 3,400 associates in 37 locations around the world, to include seven DLA Depot Level Reparable and Supply Storage and Distribution units supporting supply requirements at U.S. Navy naval shipyards, Marine Corps logistics centers and deployed units. In 2012, DLA Land and Maritime sales exceeded $4 billion.

Mr. Lewis is a retired Army colonel with 29 years of military service. In his final military assignment, he was the director, Land-Based Weapon Systems Group with the Defense Supply Center Columbus. He received his commission as a distinguished military graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Morehouse College and a Master of Science in Systems Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to assuming his current position, Lewis was an acquisition and logistics management consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton. In this position, he was responsible for conducting analysis and developing acquisition, logistics and supply chain management solutions for government and commercial client organizations.

WARREN LOCKETTE, M.D.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Clinical and Program Policy Chief Medical Officer of the TRICARE Management Activity

Dr. Warren Lockette is responsible for Department of Defense programs in clinical informatics, military public health, women’s health issues, mental health policy, graduate medical education, and patient safety. Dr. Lockette received his undergraduate and doctor of medicine degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Following post-graduate training at the University of California, he was recruited by the Wayne State University School of Medicine, and was a tenured professor of endocrinology and medicine. Lockette was also appointed USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 59

adjunct associate professor of physiology at the University of Michigan and professor of medicine and Faculty Fellow of the International House at the University of California, San Diego. In addition, he studies the molecular genetics of complex quantitative traits and human performance in extreme environments. Dr. Lockette has served as a senior advisor to the commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command and the U.S. Special Operations Command. At Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Dr. Lockette helped guide the growth of the largest military clinical research program in graduate medical education. Most recently, he was special assistant to the commander, U.S. Navy Fourth Fleet, where he forged partnerships between military and civilian organizations of health care and public health practitioners to provide collaborative humanitarian assistance and disaster relief training in Latin America.

MS. CYNTHIA MILLER

Chief of Staff, Information Assurance Director National Security Agency

Prior to joining the National Security Agency (NSA), Ms. Cynthia Miller was a U.S. Navy human resources officer, retiring as captain. Over her 27 year career, she earned several professional certificates including human resources and civilian management training. Ms. Miller’s most recent SES assignment was as the director, Leadership and Development, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), providing oversight for the ODNI and sixteen Intelligence Community agencies. Additionally, she was responsible for implementation of the Five Year Strategic Plan for Human Capital (2012-2017). As HR director for the ODNI and chief human capital officer, she served as advisor to senior leadership. She was also chief of staff for the associate director of human capital, and advised on planning, logistics, and human capital programs. Other positions Ms. Miller has held include chief of staff for the Intelligence Community Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity.

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She supported the director on management of the Intelligence Community’s efforts to build and retain a diverse workforce. Additionally, she provided guidance on the representation of minorities and persons with disabilities.

Miller graduated in 1983 with a master’s in business management from Central Michigan University. In 1977, she earned a bachelor’s in business administration from Savannah State University. She also graduated from Marine Corps Command and Staff College in 1991 with a master’s level equivalency in strategic planning.

FREDERICK SELLERS

Deputy Assistant Director United States Secret Service

Mr. Frederick Sellers ‘s career with the U.S. Secret Service has focused on both the protective and investigative missions of the agency.

Over his 25-year tenure, he has played an executive protecting role with five U.S. presidents: Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, William Clinton, George W. Bush and currently Barack Obama. Currently, Mr. Sellers oversees forensics, asset forfeiture, analytic/research specialists, commercial database management, and criminal investigations to include all financial/cyber-crimes. He holds a bachelor’s in criminal justice from University of South Carolina and joined the Secret Service as a uniformed division officer in 1988. Two years later, he was appointed a Special Agent. After seven years in field offices he was assigned to the Protective Intelligence Division, which monitors threats directed at the President, Vice President and world leaders when visiting the United States. Later, Mr. Sellers was selected to the Department of Homeland Security’s Senior Executive Service cohort to serve as chief of staff in the office of the director of risk management analysis, which informs homeland security strategy, formulation, preparedness priorities, and resource allocations. In 2012, he was appointed as a deputy assistant director in the Office of Investigations. In this role, he oversaw logistics of the 2,400 special agents and 745 administrative, professional and

technical personnel in the domestic and international field offices. He is an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

ANTHONY C. THOMAS

Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence and Special Program Assessments

Mr. Anthony Thomas was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2013. He has more than 28 years of experience in the intelligence field. Prior, he served as chief, Counterintelligence (CI) Policy and Assessments at the Defense CI and Human Intelligence Center, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In that capacity he planned, led and directed assessment of defense department counterintelligence enterprise missions, functions and activities. Before joining DIA, Mr. Thomas served in key roles at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and provided intelligence and counterintelligence support regarding weapons of mass destruction.

He began his career in 1985 as an Air Force intelligence officer, and served in leadership positions at the Strategic Air Command, Air Combat Command, U.S. Air Forces Europe, Air Staff, and the U.S. Pacific Command. Following military service, he briefly entered private industry and later joined the federal government in 2005 with a focus on national security and intelligence issues.

Mr. Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Alabama State University and a master’s in business administration (aviation) from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. His professional military education includes Joint Doctrine Air Campaign Planning, Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, Joint Forces Staff College, and the Air War College.

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SUPPORTING HEROES

WE HONOR ALL VETERANS

WHOSE LASTING LEGACY WILL FOREVER BE FREEDOM. All of us at Raytheon salute the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces. You and your families have our admiration, respect and eternal thanks.

We honor you for your ongoing commitment.

Raytheon.com Connect with us:

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“Customer Success Is Our Mission” is a registered trademark of Raytheon Company.

62 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

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VETERANS OPPORTUNITY FUND Designed with veteran-owned businesses in mind

by Garland Thompson gthompson@ccgmag.com

M

ilitary veterans’ leadership, tenacity, skill and dedication are the backbone of America’s armed forces. They also are characteristics that one group of partners view as the stepping stones for entrepreneurial success. And they’ve put their faith in that belief in a big way.

The Veterans’ Opportunity Fund (VOF) was launched earlier this year by TCP Venture Capital, which manages a family of specialized venture capital funds. Conceived by the Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) in Maryland and several experienced partners, the VOF is the first and only venture capital fund focused solely in veteran owned and operated businesses, according to TCP. The VOF anticipates investing in up to 20 early-stage companies focusing on technology, healthcare, business services and specialty manufacturing industries. The VOF plans to make investments of up to $3 million.

“We’re betting on veterans’ management and leadership skills to make a project successful,” said Stuart Sutley, partner with the Veterans’ Opportunity Fund.

In June 2014, the fund announced its first investment into RedOwl Analytics, a company that applies rigorous analytics to corporate communication data for proactive risk oversight.

“We believe veteran-owned and managed business like RedOwl Analytics represent attractive investment opportunities,” said Christopher College, managing partner of TCP, in a press release. “Studies indicate that veteran-owned businesses generate 20 percent more revenue than non-veteran-owned businesses in the same industry sectors. In fact, 70 percent of Americans would prefer to make purchases from veteranowned businesses.”

Sutley said VOF not only invests in upstarts such as RedOwl but also provides assistance in helping business owners get their financial affairs in order as well as connecting them to other funding sources. In RedOwl’s case, VOF invested $1 million and took the lead in raising another $3.5 million from other sources, he said.

RedOwl’s CEO and co-founder, Guy Filippelli, said, “The support from VOF is important to us, and we are very excited to see a fund with a focus on veterans, right here in Maryland.” RedOwl is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, with a satellite office in New York City. www.blackengineer.com

Today’s veterans gain tremendous insight from their military service and often walk away with innovative business ideas coming directly from their time in uniform.

“RedOwl exemplifies the type of investment we are looking to make,” said Sutley. “RedOwl’s founders are West Point graduates who admirably served their country, working with highly sensitive data in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have taken their military experience and developed a world-class product for the commercial market.”

“America’s veterans are some of the smartest, hardest working and most successful members of our community,” states the VOF website. “Veterans have created billions of dollars in wealth for their investors, been leaders in technology innovation, and created millions of jobs to fuel our economy. At the same time, the United States Military is reducing its size and thousands of additional veterans are joining the commercial and entrepreneurial labor force.”

VOF’s slogan is “capital for proven leaders.”

The idea for the fund came about when College realized that many entrepreneurs seeking financing were, in fact, veterans. College did some research and determined that there weren’t any capital venture funding sources specifically focused on veterans, Sutley said.

Sutley pointed out that many veterans spend their 20s and 30s in service to their country but fall behind their peers USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 63

in building collateral, establishing credit and developing business networks.

Sutley knows this all too well. He spent four years in the Marine Corps, then went into the corporate world for a couple of years before venturing out to start his first healthcare business, which he eventually sold before starting another business in the healthcare market.

“It is hard to find capital,” reflected Sutley.

However, today’s veterans gain tremendous insight from their military service and often walk away with innovative business ideas coming directly from their time in uniform. Sutley added that invariably these ideas involve technology skills and how to integrate advanced technology into the private sector.

“A lot of people lose sight of people going into the military today are not just digging foxholes in the desert,” he said. “They are very, very technology capable now.”

Sutley said he and his partners have reviewed about 70-80 business plans from veterans seeking financing from the fund — 90 percent of them technology related.

And he added that companies that aren’t interested in solely have the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) as their client have an advantage when it comes to being considered for funding.

“That’s a moving target,” said Sutley of the DOD, noting

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that it’s funding is unpredictable. “We prefer at least 75 percent of the expected revenue to come from the commercial market.”

Asked what type of startups the fund is looking to support, Sutley said, “Like any other fund, we’re seeking a return on our investment. We need to make money for our limited partners, but we also want to help the vets.”

The companies that interest VOF the most have the potential for significant growth, already have some customers and have a proven product or concept.

He added that currently there are about three companies that VOF is close to funding next. It generally takes six months for successful applicants to go through VOF’s process. Many of the applicants have good ideas but haven’t developed enough for the fund to seriously consider. Others have potential for successful businesses, however, but have low profit margins. In some cases, VOF partners refer startups to other sources for seed capital or assistance in getting necessary paperwork in order or help getting sales in the pipeline or financial analysis done properly.

Ideally the funds’ managers hope that the companies they finance also will hire veterans as they build their organizations.

“There’s not a stronger network than the military,” noted Sutley.

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for serving with integrity.

The values you gained throughout your military service have provided you with the tools you need to succeed. At PNC, we are proud to hire military talent and are proud to be named a “Top Veteran Friendly Company” by U.S. Veterans magazine.

Career Opportunities for Military, Veterans and Reservists www.pnc.jobs/military PNC is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer – M/F/D/V/SO. © 2013 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved. PNC Bank, National Association. Member FDIC

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Spotlight on Veterans

INSIDE: VETERANS TRANSITION INITIATIVE  2015 STARS AND STRIPES

MENTORING PROGRAM  VETERAN EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE 

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USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 67

CAREER OUTLOOK

Veterans Transition Initiative BEYA STEM PROGRAM LEADS CHANGE

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group of veterans at the 2014 BEYA Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Conference launched a transition initiative to provide more visible support for veterans.

In October, the initiative, which aims to provide seamless transition from the military to high-demand jobs in software engineering, cloud computing and big data analytics, held a video conference with more than a 100 veterans from North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. Up for discussion were certification and job skills, opportunities in business, and the barriers vets face in finding employment.

“The BEYA STEM Veterans Transition Initiative highlights to technology-based companies the fact that most military professionals — from junior to senior — are experienced in STEM-related work from their start of service to transition. They are a tremendous resource to this nation and to the business community,” said the initiative’s co-founder, Tony Watson, CEO of Alliance Leadership Group, and a 1970 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Watson’s career included command of nuclear submarines. He retired at the rank of rear admiral and since then has provided veterans’ transition and executive recruitment services to the business community.

A snapshot survey conducted by the Veterans Transition Initiative (VTI) finds employed veterans are more likely to feel valued, while unemployed veterans are more likely to believe their military experience is not recognized in a civilian occupation.

Veterans scheduled to attend VTI events at the 2015 BEYA STEM Conference will take part in the headline “Vets Career Transition: Mapping your experience to STEM Careers” seminar. Panels will highlight what you need to know to market your talents to employers, application of military skills to industry and business, and coaching from veterans who have made the successful transition. Panelists will also discuss innovative programs and competitive organizations that create opportunities for veteran entrepreneurs, including access to money to start and build a business.

“The VTI provides an opportunity for veterans around the world to learn about STEM related careers and connect with companies who provide those jobs,” said Watson, who has operated oil, gas, and coal-fired electricity generating power plants and provided consulting services to technology businesses large and small.

The 2014 VTI Survey found veterans were receptive to programs and services that help in career transition. Services such as career consulting, coaching, job fairs, interview preparation, and resume writing aid in successful transition. The initiative also looked at programs supporting veterans with information on the fastest-growing fields in information and communication technology.

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Ernest Smiley, the chief technology officer for Source at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is also co-founder of the Veterans Transition Initiative. Smiley is a retired Army officer with 20 years of experience integrating computer systems for the Department of Defense, intelligence community and commercial businesses. Currently, he provides strategy to implement new technologies. Prior to this, Smiley managed a more than $100 million budget and led integration for more than 29,000 computers at NGA. His other positions include security and program manager at Sprint, U.S. Department of Energy, and NASA. Smiley holds a master’s www.blackengineer.com

degree in technology from Georgetown University, master’s-level certificate in information technology project management from Carnegie Mellon University, M.B.A. from Regis University, and a bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Maryland.

He is a certified software analyst, information security manager, project manager, forensic, and e-commerce consultant. He is also certified in risk and information systems control and the governance of enterprise IT. “The combination of leadership experience and technical know-how make transitioning and prior-service vets the perfect www.blackengineer.com

choice for growing companies,” Watson said. “Where else can you find that win-win combination?”

USBE&IT analysis of various reports found that in 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor reported one in 10 returning veterans couldn’t find a job to support their family, didn’t have an income that provided stability or work that provided them with the pride that is so critical to their transition home. Additionally, a 2013 report prepared by the National Economic Council and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers among others discussed the challenges that confront service members, military spouses and veterans in establishing their qualifications for civilian employment.

Despite having valuable experience, veterans frequently find it difficult to obtain private sector recognition of their military training, experiences, skill sets through civilian certification and licensure, which also makes it difficult for the private sector to capitalize on the resources and time spent training and educating service members.

According to a Ernest Smiley, chief technology officer for 2014 Bureau of LaSource, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency bor Statistics report, the unemployment rates of veterans varied by state over 2013, ranging from 10 percent in Michigan and New Jersey to under 4 percent in Delaware, Iowa, North Dakota, Vermont, and Virginia. Veterans with a service-connected disability had an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent in August 2013, the report said. Among the 722,000 unemployed veterans in 2013, 60 percent were age 45 and over. Thirty-five percent were age 25 to 44, and 5 percent were age 18 to 24.

In February 2015, the BEYA STEM Conference will mark 29 years of growth and success in highlighting the value of the STEM workforce. An indicator of that success is the caliber of leaders and professionals who make up the annual BEYA STEM program. More than 5,000 professionals from 50 agencies and companies are expected to converge at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in Washington, D.C. USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 69

CAREER OUTLOOK

2015 BEYA Stars and Stripes Mentoring Program T

he Stars and Stripes Mentoring Session will be held as part of the 10th annual Stars and Stripes Program in February at the 2015 BEYA STEM Conference, hosted by Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Council of HBCU Engineering Deans and US Black Engineer magazine.

The mentoring session will allow students to sit in the same room with more than 100 mentors including educators, industry professionals and flag officers of all services. Several of the program participants have never interacted with people of this caliber, let alone speak to them about a future in STEM. Students will have the opportunity to listen to speakers, and witness presentations that will give them a great amount of exposure and support in their academic careers.

In addition to the Stars and Stripes mentoring session, the founders — retired Vice Adm. Walter Davis, retired Vice Adm. Mel Williams, retired Gen. Johnnie Wilson, retired Maj. Gen. Ron Johnson, and retired Senior Executive Service member William Brown — have worked together to create a sustained mentoring program that runs from September to February’s BEYA STEM Conference.

Since September 2014, selected students have been mentored by flag officers in the Sustained Mentoring Program, a pilot program that the team hopes will continue yearly. Area high schools, including TC Williams High School and Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology, both located in Alexandria, Virginia, are partnered with this program where students are able to work with flag officers and learn about opportunities in STEM and the seven Cs of leadership which are competence, commitment, caring, character, courage, community and communicating. During this time, flag officers also assist students in developing a “portfolium,” a website that allows potential job employers to observe their profile and portfolio.

At the end of the Sustained Mentoring Program, students bring back what they learned over the five month sessions at the BEYA Stars and Stripes mentoring session. The mentoring program coordinators plan to weave the two programs together 70 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

so that students will have constant mentoring and will be able to keep in touch with their mentors outside of the Stars and Stripes mentoring program.

The BEYA Stars and Stripes mentoring program not only encourage STEM participation, it bridges the gap between the students and the Annual Stars and Stripes Dinner, one of the nation’s largest events that follows the mentoring program sessions. The Stars and Stripes dinner honors admirals, generals, military leaders and members of the Senior Executive Service.

Over the last four years, attendees have included Department of Defense executives, service chiefs, political leaders, corporate executives and many others who wish to honor the contributions of outstanding African-American men and women in the armed forces and promote awareness of their talents and sacrifices.

Students involved in either of the programs are instilled with a drive and passion to follow the steps of their mentors and could one day find his or her self on a stage being honored for their accomplishments and mentorship to others.

This year’s Stars and Stripes mentoring program will take place February 6, 2015 from 4:40-6 p.m. at the BEYA STEM Conference located at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C. www.blackengineer.com

CAREER OUTLOOK

Sailors learn about education opportunities in the Hampton Roads area during an educational fair held at the Navy college office on board Naval Station Norfolk. The fair hosted more than 20 schools and provided information to approximately 300 prospective students.

Veteran Educational Assistance

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ccording to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Educational Assistance Program is available if you elected to make contributions from your military pay to participate in this education benefit program. The government matches your contributions on a 2-for-1 basis.

Assistance may be used for college degree and certificate programs, technical or vocational courses, flight training, apprenticeships or on-the-job training, high-tech training, licensing and certification tests, entrepreneurship training, certain entrance examinations, and correspondence courses. In certain circumstances, remedial, deficiency and refresher training may also be available. Get the VEAP pamphlet.

You may use these benefits for degree, certificate, correspondence, apprenticeship/on-the-job training programs, and vocational flight training programs.

Benefit entitlement is for one to 36 months depending on the number of monthly contributions. You have 10 years from your release from active duty to use VEAP benefits. If the entitlement is not used after the 10-year period, your portion remaining in the fund will be automatically refunded.

GI Jobs — a website not affiliated with the U.S. Governwww.blackengineer.com

ment, U.S. Armed Forces, or the Department of Veteran Affairs — has some of the best military transition information online.

Their mission is to simplify the experience using education and employment tools to guide veterans to a successful career.

Run a search on military friendly schools and you get more than 1,700 returns from GI’s huge database. Kansas State University and Kaplan College Academy of Art University are some of the featured schools on GI Jobs, but you can match-make personal favorites against hundreds more by location, degree type, school reviews, area of study and veteran services.

Other articles on the website discuss choosing between private, local and state schools, provide step-by-step guidelines for applying to schools, tips on choosing a school based on your entitlement to a tuition and fee payment that is paid to your school on your behalf, a books and supplies stipend, and a monthly housing allowance; and steps to help ease the process.

You also find articles on what you should know when applying to college as a veteran, why you should choose an accredited college, how to translate military training into college credits, reasons for veterans to consider an associate degree, and fast-track tips to get a jump start on education during your civilUSBE&IT I WINTER 2014 71

CAREER OUTLOOK

ian transition without wasting time or money.

GI Jobs provides a manual for using the GI Bill. Their trove of articles will help you get the most of your education benefits, with insights on the new VA reform bill Congress passed this fall and how it will benefit recent veterans pursuing a post military education. They also give the complete rundown on paying for graduate school with military benefits.

Other articles discuss how much of the tuition and living expenses the GI Bill covers, whether a college plays a role in easing veteran student finances, and the lowdown on the real value of education from veterans themselves. In addition, GI Jobs dot com shows how tens of thousands of veterans have used their GI Bill or other Veterans Administration education benefits to attend noncollege degree programs, apprenticeships or on-thejob training. They also list sites to find college books for less.

According to GI Jobs the top 10 hot degrees for veterans include: Business Administration Engineering Health Care Information Technology Operations and Logistics Computer Support In addition, the GI Jobs 2014 Military Friendly Employers list – which polls 184 large employers that boast the best military recruiting and retention programs in America – rank top 20 hot jobs for veterans according to demand with a brief description of each, their average national salary, why they’re “hot” and what you need to land the job.

Hot Jobs for Veterans 2014 include: IT Specialist Operations Manager Engineer Logistician Customer Service Manager / Representative Manufacturing Technician Business Administrator Sales Representative Financial Services Professional STUDENT VETERANS OF AMERICA

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. launched Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq). As OEF and OIF veterans returned home to use GI Bill benefits, they found that their campuses did not provide adequate support services to assist student veterans as they worked towards their educational goals.

Lacking support, student veterans decided to organize on campuses across the country. These groups began to connect through social media with one another, spreading best practices, sharing success stories, and supporting one another to further strengthen the student veteran community. In 2008, members from various chapters formalized this grassroots movement and Student Veterans of America was born.

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GI Bill and Tuition Assistance Approved Programs include Military Specific Scholarships Military Spouse Benefits Military Tuition Rate for Active Duty, Reservist, and National Guard (spouses Included) Receive credit for previous courses / experience that is eligible for transfer Student Veterans of America – Student-led CTU Chapter Learning Center with tutoring and resources for specific courses Advisors dedicated to military and veteran students and their spouse

SVA was officially incorporated in January 2008 to provide programs, resources and support to the ever-evolving network of local student veteran organizations. Each of these independent groups could then join the umbrella coalition as a chapter.

Concurrently, SVA and a number of Veteran Service Organizations were tirelessly advocating for an overhaul of the GI Bill to address the needs of the 21st Century student veteran. Six months after SVA’s founding, President George W. Bush signed into law the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

Since SVA’s founding in 2008, over one million veterans have returned home to pursue a postsecondary degree or certificate using VA education benefits. To meet this need, SVA’s presence at the local and national levels has grown to include more than 1,100 chapter affiliates, numerous private and nonprofit partners, and most importantly, an expanding list of impactful programs and services for veterans.

At the national level, SVA’s advocacy efforts ensure policies are not only supportive for veterans in their transition to school and employment, but also for the entire military community. To best serve this large community, SVA develops partnerships with other organizations to provide scholarships, mentorships, employment, and benefits counseling. Student Veterans of America is developing a networking program that will connect alumni veterans with even more professional opportunities. These initiatives are designed to bring veterans closer to their degrees, yet little data exists on student veterans’ academic performance. By investing in research, SVA hopes to fill that void and showcase student veteran success.

SVA’s Million Record Project plans to: 1. Track the academic outcomes of approximately 1 million student veterans enrolled from 2002-2009 2. Deep dive in-state tuition, graduation rates, GI Bill benefits, and student loan debt

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CAREER OUTLOOK

Best Companies for Veterans

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by Imani Carter icarter@ccgmag.com

ransitioning from military to a civilian lifestyle is a challenging time--filled with questions and uncertainty. That’s why we’ve partnered with leading employers offering opportunities to help make this transition as smooth as possible for veterans. Below is a list of the top employers who offer job opportunities and champion other veteran support initiatives.

gram (VA VR&E) currently has up to 5% of veterans. And will hire up to 15% of undergraduate degree-holding veterans in the next six months. The program not only offers training initiatives such as apprenticeship opportunities but also gives classes in technical training, peer training and informal mentoring.

EXELON CORPORATION

With currently up to 5% of veterans a part of its staff, Becton, Dickinson and Company prepares to double that percentage over the next six months. Along with the option of tuition assistance, veterans are offered full time employment in areas of IT, Finance/Accounting, Engineering and Human Resources.

Becton Dickinson has partnered with SACC and Be a Hero Hire a Hero for hiring veterans.

MANTECH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

THE UNITED STATES ARMY TEST AND EVALUATION COMMAND (ATEC)

Currently, 11-15% of veterans are in Exelon Corporation’s technical/managerial ranks. And in the next six months, the same percentage of veterans will be hired. At Exelon Corporation, veterans are commonly recruited into positions such as Meter Reader, Nuclear Security Officer, Utility Trainee, and a host of others.

ManTech International Corporation is home to over 43 percent veterans and will continue to house over 43 percent veterans in the next six months, offering beneficial programs on technical training and informal meetings. ManTech also offers education opportunities including, tuition assistance and technical certification courses.

HEWLETT PACKARD

In the next six months, Hewlett Packard up to 10% of Hewlett Packard’s team will be veterans. The company offers its veteran employees on the job training, apprenticeship opportunities, technical training and more professional development training sessions. Hewlett Packard’s most attractive military employment structure and vocations consists of Business Development/Sales, Engineering, Human Resources, IT, Operations and several others.

BECTON, DICKINSON AND COMPANY

ATEC plans to hire over 20% of veterans over the next six months, and partners with the Wounded Warrior Project and CAPS to hire both undergraduate and graduate- level veteran candidates. ATEC offers tuition assistance, training, resume writing as well as interview techniques to their veteran employees.

UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER

The UT Southwestern Medical Center currently has up to 5 percent of veterans in its technical/managerial ranks, and plans to hire up to 10 percent of veterans in the next six months. The Medical Center offers training sessions in various areas including DISC Work Style Assessment, Process Improvement and Increasing Personal Effectiveness. Veteran employees are also provided with tuition assistance and vocational rehabilitation and counseling.

PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP

THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION

The Aerospace Corporation is filled with up to 10% of veterans. All veterans are provided with on the job training, peer training and technical training. The Aerospace Corporation also offers tuition assistance, technical certification courses and vocational rehabilitation and counseling to its veteran employees.

PNC Financial Services Group has worked with Recruit Military, Military Officer Job Opportunities and “Hiring our Heroes” in their recruitment initiatives for veteran employees. At PNC Bank, veterans commonly work in the areas of Finance/Accounting, Business Development/Sales and IT. The company hires veterans that hold either undergraduate or graduate degrees.

COMCAST

USAA

VA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM

BAE SYSTEMS

Up to 5% of Comcast’s employees are veterans. Most veteran employees hold positions in Operations, Business Development/ Sales, and Project Management. Comcast also has a specialized on-boarding curriculum via its Vet New Hire portal.

The company follows its own veteran’s recruiting schedule and plans to bring on at least another 1-5% of veterans in the next six months.

The VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Pro-

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Over the past few years at USAA, one out of every four of its employees has been a veteran or military spouse. USAA offers a Junior Military Officer Program that gives veterans knowledge, skills and the awareness needed for a USAA leadership career. The company also provides recruiting programs like “Combat to Claims,” which attracts veterans interested in insurance claim positions with the company.

BAE Systems is a frequent exhibitor at job fairs hosted by military installations, and also participates in Hiring our Heroes, USBE&IT I WINTER 2014 73

CAREER OUTLOOK

a program launched in 2011 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help veterans and military spouses find employment. BAE Systems tends to the needs of transitioning veterans by offering assistance in resume preparation and job search methods.

AT&T INC.

AT&T Inc. is an active participator in mentoring programs for transitioning military persons. Yearly, its group AT&T Veterans awards several thousand dollars to student veterans via the AT&T Veterans Scholarship. AT&T Veterans also offers a Veterans Talent Network, jobs near military installations and careers for military spouses.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION

Northrop Grumman Corporation was named Top Military Friendly Employer from 2008 to 2014 by GI Jobs. Its Operation IMPACT (Injured Military Pursuing Assisted Career Transition) initiative is a diversity program within Northrop Grumman Corporation with a main goal of assisting severely wounded service members as they transition from the military to a private-sector career.

THE BOEING COMPANY

The Boeing Company supports veterans with its Wounded Warrior Hiring Program. The company also launched a pilot program that matches college student veterans with Boeing employees as mentors. Boeing also manages a military careers website with a military-skills translator tool that enables armed forces personnel and veterans find Boeing career opportunities that best align with their experiences.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The United States Department of Defense has a Hiring Heroes Program, which provides continuing outreach, recruitment assistance products and services to wounded, ill, injured and transitioning Service members, Veterans, spouses and primary caregivers. The Department also provides career fairs, which bring together DOD Agencies, other Federal Agencies and private sector corporations to market and offer career opportunities.

L-3 COMMUNICATIONS

L-3 Communications is an employer of over 15,000 veterans of the U.S. military, including many of the company’s top business leaders who are former military personnel. L-3 is also a 2011 Top 100 Military Friendly Employer, a list produced by G.I. jobs.

ACCENTURE

The Accenture Military Community comprises approximately 1,000 employees. Accenture offers a variety of opportunities of military personnel who are interested in pursuing a new career. The company’s Health & Public Service group places a premium on individuals with security clearances and experience operating in the government environment.

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WAL-MART STORES, INC.

By 2018, Walmart expects to hire 100,000 veterans.

Through Walmart’s Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, the company has hired over 40,000 veterans in one year, and we will continue to offer a job to any honorably-discharged veteran who meets their standard hiring criteria and is within 12-months of active duty. Walmart’s military community provides ongoing job information and interview tips.

EXELIS INC.

Exelis Inc., in partnership with Points of Light, launched a five-year, $5 million initiative to support returning military service members, veterans and their families. Exelis proudly provides solutions that protect military service members, and with an employee base comprising of approximately 10 percent veterans.

BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON

Booz Allen Hamilton is committed to supporting veterans, and helps military personnel and wounded warriors make the transition to a civilian career and a civilian life by way of programs and mentoring from Booz Allen volunteers. Booz Allen mentors counsels recently wounded warriors, helping them to develop a life plan, seek benefits, enroll in higher education, as well as other activities.

LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION

The Lockheed Martin Corporation has a regular attendance on military bases and transitioning military job fairs to recruit veteran employees. They have also partnered with on-base transition centers and The Department of Defense’s Hiring for Heroes. Lockheed Martin employees mentor transitioning Veterans, military spouses and spouses of fallen service members through the American Corporate Partners mentorship program.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC.

Marriott plans to hire 1,500 veterans over the next three years as part of Operation Enduring Opportunity, a campaign of the International Franchise Association. The company makes the job search process simple for veterans with its Military Occupation Translator Tool, which allows users to include military experience and civilian skills.

RMOA BUSINESS INSTITUTE

The RMOA Business Institute provides experienced-based entrepreneurial training and mentoring to its veteran members.

The program helps members start and grow successful small businesses, obtain certifications and other benefits such as providing technical assistance.

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CAREER OUTLOOK

People You Should Know T

his feature spotlights a previously unexplored, and unheralded, connection among the nation’s Historically Black Colleges & Universities and other STEM programs, the four branches of the U.S. military, and the MilitaryTimes.org list of Best for Vets: Employers 2014 list.

Everyone profiled below has graduated from an HBCU or other program after earning at least one STEM degree. A number of the individuals showcased are veterans of the U.S. armed forces, and a substantial number work for defense-related organizations of which nearly all are ranked on the Best for Vets list.

The tripartite nature of this union exemplifies the association that African Americans have had with the United States military beginning in the Revolutionary War. Always faithful.

Ever ready to serve.

CHANELLE GREEN

Senior Analyst -Tech Arch - Emerging Technologies Innovation Accenture PLC B.S. Degree in Computer Science, Spelman College B.S. Degree in Engineering Degree in Industrial & Operations Engineering, University of Michigan

As a high school student Chanelle Green chose to matriculate at Spelman, and what her dual majors would be, after personal research revealed that computing and engineering were receptive fields for black women. As an undergrad, she completed five internships in industries including defense contracting, supply chain manufacturing, and gaming. In 2014, a year after being hired, Accenture, a global management consulting, technology service, and outsourcing firm promoted Green to her current position. Consequently, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. member proffers keen advice to students: be aware of and own what you know…and also what you don’t; be confident and approach problems with diligence and conviction; and be ready to plunge into developing areas. As an Accenture consulting senior analyst for the Emerging Technologies Innovation group, Green focuses on developing solutions to leverage progressive principles and technologies for clients. She says her STEM education made her a leader able to master technologies quickly, anticipate industry trends, and use problem-solving to ensure that Accenture provides clients with a competitive edge.

JESSE INGRAM

Acquisition and Logistics Manager BAE Systems, Inc. Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering, FAMU/FSU College of Engineering

A STEM career was a natural for Jesse Ingram. Both parents were math teachers, and his mom introduced him to www.blackengineer.com

engineering, where a desire to work with what “I could see and touch” led to mechanical engineering. Since 2012, Ingram, who has a Secret clearance, has worked at BAE Systems, a global defense, security, and aerospace company. The team manager, who joined BAE in 2008, leads the development of Department of Defense information requirements for a key Navy shipbuilding program. Ingram urges students to investigate the aerospace and defense because of its breadth and many entry points. Tasks can vary within a program that may have a 10-to-20-year lifecycle, and require varied skills. Some require a Ph.D., are technical and entail lab research and development work. Others require only a STEM bachelor’s degree to manage a technical process or personnel. As baby boomers retire, he says, “early career employees with STEM backgrounds will be in demand and receive challenging assignments with greater responsibility.” Ingram also advises strongly that students learn negotiation skills.

QUENTIN E. LAMBERT

Senior Information Assurance Analyst CSC Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Alabama State University

Quentin Lambert, a Senior Information Assurance Analyst at CSC, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors, has spent his adult life defending this nation. He is seconded to SPAWAR (the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command) Naval Data Center in New Orleans, and leads the analysis, design, development, testing, deployment, and post-deployment phases of application migration related to Information Assurance/Network Security. This is his latest defense-oriented placement. Between 1992 and 2003, Lambert served in U.S. Army and the Alabama National Guard, rising to Combat Engineer Platoon Leader then Company Executive Officer. In 2005, Northrop Grumman hired Lambert as a Systems Engineer II working at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base. That experience led to Apptis Technologies, and NCI Information Systems Inc. which placed Lambert in Southwest Asia Camp Buehring, Kuwait. There managed and maintained the Improved Outer Tactical Vest Warehouse Inventory Management System database and all associated computer systems. He also worked for General Dynamics at Southwest Asia CyberCenter Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and installed, configured, maintained, and troubleshot systems networks supporting U.S. Army units in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

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CAREER OUTLOOK

SHAUNTA MASON

Engineering Design Manager Eaton Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Electrical Engineering North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Shaunta Mason is the Engineering Design Manager for Eaton’s Motor Control Center product line. Eaton is a U.S. multinational power management company providing electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical power management solutions. Mason manages 20 drafters that develop electrical and mechanical drawings that not limited to schematic and wiring diagrams. She also coordinates with supply chain, customer service, manufacturing, and other engineering groups to ensure that Eaton meets and exceeds customer hopes. She uses her STEM experience to assist her team with electrical drawings, sizing components for applications, or evaluating the complexities and resources an order may require. Prior to her current job, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. member worked at Eaton as an LDP/Custom Order Engineer, and a LDP Project/Application Engineer. She counsels STEM students to think strategically urging them to be resourceful and creative in their problem-solving. Mason says “the willingness to learn new things and simply knowing how to adjust for failures are what makes STEM students and me capable of being a potential leader in my industry and throughout society.”

ADEWALE O. ADEKUNLE

Advanced Technical Leadership Program Senior Lockheed Martin Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Morgan State University Master of Business Administration Degree, American InterContinental University

As a boy, Adewale Adekunle had dual benefits. Investigating household appliances drew him to STEM, and his pharmacist father assisted his journey. In college Adekunle favored computer science initially, but the desire to gain technical understanding of hardware and software’s functionality in electronic devices including computers led him to electrical engineering. A veteran, he served as a U.S. National Guard Sergeant before being hired by Lockheed Martin in 2005.He says a disruptive factor to watch in the Defense Industry today is the shift in culture from designing systems solely for defense and aerospace use to the trend of integrating commercially available products into military systems. That game changer has increased industry competition by defense contractors two-fold. Some companies have bought firms funded previously by DoD, and other firms to widen their revenue base and reduce risk have entered private markets including renewable energy. To attract employers, Adekunle says, STEM students should gain experience broadly that will open up opportunities in disciplines including basic hardware/software design principles in the Aerospace/ Defense, Biomedical, Civil/Construction, Mechanical, Software, 76 USBE&IT I WINTER 2014

and Information Technology industries.

COREY STATEN

Vice President Client Service & Support Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Corey Staton received prescient advice in high school when he was curious about accounting as a career. A math teacher suggested he should consider a career in industrial engineering instead. “She believed that industrial engineers were versatile enough to be valuable in a variety of industries: manufacturing, service, and financial,” says Staten. In 2013, Corey Staten was hired by Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. one of the world’s largest discount brokerages, to lead a 300-plus Financial Service Profession in Phoenix Service Center to drive connections with nine million Investor Services Retail Clients. During the prior 11 years, he had risen at American Express from a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma, or in-house coach on inter-department process improvement to Vice President Lead Operational Risk Officer. Staten urges STEM grads to exploit the natural connection between the financial /securities Industry and their majors, as their strengths are analytics, critical thinking, and problemsolving. Plus he adds, students should not be intimidated by the need to obtain securities licenses which deliver instant industry credibility. Instead, Staten says they can leverage their “technical skills to challenge the status quo, as the industry is seeking people to be shake up some antiquated processes.”

APRIL L. TAYLOR

Human Resources Business Partner Humana Inc. B.S. Degree in Computer Engineering, Tennessee State University M.S. Degree in Software Engineering, Brandeis University M.B.A. Degree in Organizational Management, Indiana University

In eighth grade, April Taylor thought she would become a nurse or a teacher, and wanted to drop Algebra. A woman teacher challenged her, says Taylor, “to think outside the box about careers for women and convinced me to stay in the class. I did stay and made an A.” April’s dad also encouraged her to attend a STEM summer camp where she became fascinated with learning about resistors, capacitors, and engineering. In 2012, April Taylor became a HR Business partner at Humana, a national for-profit managed health care company.

Taylor’s responsibilities include providing HR support for the Senior Products Corporate Groups and aligned sales leaders; assisting senior leaders to execute strategy and talent development; and planning, communicating and assisting HR programs and policy rollout. She says that a key skill from her engineering experience that is crucial in the business world is linking requirements to desired outcomes.

This unexpected productive attribute Taylors says to led a business partner to comment to her “we’ve never had an HR partner like you.”

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GILBERT C.E. LEWIS, JR.

JERRY WILLIAMS

Gil Lewis, who has been a Cybersecurity Systems Engineer at AT&T since 2012 and oversees requirements, development, and analysis of related products, knows exactly why he decided become an engineer.

He says during high school transformative events directed him toward his major and career. An aptitude test suggested Lewis consider engineering as a career and he was impressed that engineers’ starting salaries were the highest in many disciplines. Lewis was also then, and now, a Star Trek fan and associated engineering with space which aligned his research about NASA’s Apollo missions for a high school science class. In college everything came together, when during an internship at Hughes Aircraft he began to use personal computers. “I was a little scared of them at first, but by the end of the summer I had three on my desk,” he says. To succeed in life, Lewis advises students to master customer service as a vital skill, “because I recognize that everyone around me [at AT&T] is my customer and I am their customer. “

As a geek, Jerry Williams was attracted to STEM the traditional way. “I was looking for a field where I could take equipment apart. My first computer was an Apple and I wanted to know how it worked too,” says he. Williams is an IT Field Service Technician III. A great job because he can test the new equipment before it’s released to the company. He says, “The coolest one has been a laptop called the Toughbook. You can even spill liquid on it and it will not stop functioning.” Williams, who honed his problem-solving, reliability, organizational skills as an Eagle Scout, also performs full disk encryption preceded by full data backup on MAC and Windows-based computers. The information he gleans provides customer or end users with information and support related to products and services. He advises STEM students to get certified in their field before graduating, to pursue advanced certification on-the-job, and thinks learning about legal terms will be helpful to understand job contract details. Williams hopes to receive his Cisco Networking Certification in 2015.. Safeway, Inc. is owned by Ceberus Capital Management and is the nation’s second-largest supermarket chain.

TIM ATWELL

BENJAMIN CRAIN

Cybersecurity Systems Engineer AT&T Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Howard University Master of Science Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology

Data Architect Executive Bank of America Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science, North Carolina A&T State University

Tim Atwell says a STEM education offers myriad benefits.

These include building the foundation of a career, offering opportunities through teamwork to hone leadership skills, and encouraging innovative problem-solving.

STEM students also learn to create a framework to confront challenges and find resolutions, and gain academic contacts that mentor, challenge, and share expertise and knowledge.

Such attributes serve him well as an executive in the Enterprise Chief Information Officer organization section of the Global Technology and Operations division at Bank of America, where Atwell is responsibile for creating and maintaining data provisioning operations. His STEM background has also prepared him to lead international teams, impact the bottom line positively, and to assist colleagues through both business and personal relationship. Equally important is assisting others to pursue their tech aspirations. A vital key is networking whether by keeping in touch with individuals from college or reaching out to other professionals to share best practices. This approach he says, “has helped me establish partnerships and lead our technology efforts which ultimately helps the business grow and achieve success. “

www.blackengineer.com

IT Field Service Technician III Safeway Inc. Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering Technology, Prairie View A&M University

Turnaround Production & Integration Unit Manager, Manufacturing Americas Shell Oil Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge Master of Business Administration Degree, Rice University

When Benjamin Crain was a teen, two events led him to his career at Shell Oil, a global network of energy and petrochemical companies. Crain was accepted into his high school’s Gifted and Talented Program which emphasized mathematics and engineering, and he attended Southern University’s summer Engineering Summer Institute. There, he says, “I designed and built an automatic dog food dispenser with a timer,” and decided to study mechanical engineering for its versatility. Since college, Crain has worked at Shell only, in seven global locations, and in 15 to 20 roles. Currently, his division produces energy products including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Crain wants students to understand that to work in the energy industry entails being “responsible to the community in which you operate.” He wishes that as an undergrad he had studied financial management and the commercial aspects of business. “It is not enough to know only the technical side; you must also know how the business makes money.”

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CAREER OUTLOOK

DARYLENE HARRIS

Shell Shareholder Representative, Manufacturing Americas Shell Oil Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry, Xavier University Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering , Tulane University M.B.A. Degree, Tulane University

In high school, Darylene Harris joined a Society of Women Engineers summer program called, “Day in the Life of an Engineer,” and helped create and design a bridge for elephants. As engineers critiqued the design, Harris, who was hired by Shell in 1991, says she realized that combining chemistry and engineering could lead to an exciting career. The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. member says that while her current job isn’t technical that having a STEMl background illuminates communication between engineering and business teams to ensure that Shell generates the best financial return. Harris tells students that energy workers both “power the world through what we do” and provide a useful value proposition for society.

To enter the industry, she advises students to take on leadership roles, get exposure, find an internship and be willing to move for a great development opportunity. That worked for Harris as her Shell internship turned into a job offer. She also encourages students to never stop learning; this belief is why Harris went back to school to get an MBA and improve her business skills.

DEBRA CURRY

Chief of Systems Engineering, Project Engineering, Configuration Management and Data Management Bell Helicopter B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Prairie View A&M University M.A. Degree in International Business, Central Michigan University M.S. Degree in Systems Engineering, Southern Methodist University

In 2006 Debra Curry was hired by Bell Helicopter, a U.S. rotorcraft manufacturer, after spending 14 years at the Ford Motor Co. By 2011, Curry had risen to her current post, and it was an unsurprising ascent by the daughter of a mathematician and a mechanical engineer to whom excellence in math and science she says “came naturally.”

Curry considers highlights of her Bell role to be the dual opportunities of impacting aircraft development to ensuring meeting a customer’s overall mission, and nurturing and guiding others. The latter is crucial, she says, because “I know that I benefited from having great mentors.” Curry suggests STEM majors consider an aerospace career due to its excellent opportunity to develop technical solutions for challenging problems, and urges potential colleagues to pay attention to domestic and global news which influence U.S. governmental policy. Curry’s must-have advice for STEM students is lifelong education through formal and informal methods that include classes, seminars, and joining tech groups “where one should be an active participant,” giving presentations, or to writing technical papers.

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LEANDRE FOSTER

Software Developer and Integrator USAA Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics, Xavier University of Louisiana Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering, University of New Orleans,

In 2005, LeAndre Foster, a math major at Xaxier University, was trapped in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. The city’s resulting engineering breakdowns says Foster made him switch majors to Physics/ Electrical Engineering, as “Doing math problems is one thing, but actually applying the knowledge to improve real life applications seemed to serve more purpose. “ Since 2012, Foster has been a Software Developer and Integrator at USAA, the national provider of insurance, banking, investments, retirement products and advice to more than 10 million current and former military service members. Foster has specific advice for students: Open your career search to STEM fields beyond your major; Cultivate a broad view of personal and industry opportunities; and take business classes to learn how to translate technical terms and ideas into business language to avoid miscommunication. He says that “There are many parallels between the STEM and business way of thinking. Although the specific details are different, they both use logic and reasoning in making decisions that will significantly impact the company.”

SHANNON MCADOO Account Manager TEKsystems

Shannon McAdoo, a retired captain in the Army National Guard, represents the best of what veterans bring to the workplace.

His successsful career in the Army ran parallel to his information technology (IT) civilian career and attests to his determination. He is one of a few employees at TEKsystems that have deployed in support of the United States military and then returned to top IT sales with a new crop of clients. Shannon has deployed three times during his tenure at TEKsystems, an IT service provider with 80,000 IT professionals at over 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. He mentors and helps to promote IT recruiters reporting to him, as well as enlisted soldiers and junior officers under his command. He has being actively involved in growing TEKsystems’ veterans hiring initiative and led the TEKsystems Veterans Employee Resource group. In addition, Shannon volunteers with colleges in his area to mentor veteran students seeking to break into the business world. He has helped diverse students at Texas Woman University learn the landscape of business and how to get into their career field.

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We are driven to excel.

At Exelon, we recognize the value of constant improvement. As the nation’s leading competitive energy company, we are driven to perform, and our military veteran employees bring the background and training that help drive our progress. From engineering to operations to security and beyond, there are opportunities throughout the Exelon family of companies for you to create a brighter future. www.exeloncorp.com/careers

Exelon is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and employees or applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Š Exelon Corporation, 2014

We’re committed to serving those who so valiantly serve.

Those who serve our country every day with unwavering dedication and commitment deserve accolades for their sacrifices to our nation. www.northropgrumman.com

making sure america the beautiful remains

america the free.

America will always be the land of the free because of the brave men and women of our military forces.

We thank them for their service and sacrifice.

Learn more at lockheedmartin.com

Š 2014 LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION VC377_165