Workshop Steering Committee Biographies
WORKSHOP STEERING COMMITTEE BIOGRAPHIES
Gerald E. Galloway Jr. (NAE), Chair, is a Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering and an affiliate professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. During his 38-year career in the military, he held positions as commander of the Army Corps of Engineers District in Vicksburg, Mississippi, professor and founding head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and dean of the Academic Board at the U.S. Military Academy. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1990 and retired from active duty in 1995. A civil engineer, public administrator, and geographer, Dr. Galloway’s current research focuses on the development of U.S. national water policy and national floodplain management policy. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he was vice president, Geospatial Strategies, for the ES3 Sector of the Titan Corporation. He is a member of the National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board and he served on the Committee to Review the JSOST U.S. Ocean Research Priorities Plan. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Galloway earned his M.S.E. at Princeton and his Ph.D. in geography (specializing in water resources) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
John C. Carrano is currently the president and founder of Carrano Consulting, a firm specializ ng in serving the in vitro diagnostics and homeland security industries. He is also the president and CEO of Paratus Diagnostics, LLC an early-stage company focused on developing sample preparation technologies and devices specifically suited for point-of-care clinical diagnostic testing. He has co-authored over 60 scholarly publications and has one patent issued and two patents pending. Dr. Carrano has served as the chairman of several international conferences and symposia, and is a fellow of SPIE and member of Phi Kappa Phi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies. Prior to starting his own businesses, Dr. Carrano was vice president, Research & Development, corporate executive officer, and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board at Luminex Corporation (LMNX:NASDAQ). Dr. Carrano was a program manager at DARPA for nearly 5 years, where he initiated and led several major Defense Department programs related to biological and chemical sensing. Prior to joining DARPA, he was an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), United States Military Academy. Dr. Carrano retired from the
military as a Lieutenant Colonel in June 2005, after over 24 years of service. During his service he held several command and staff positions worldwide, and received numerous decorations and awards including the Defense Superior Service Medal awarded by the Secretary of Defense. He was also a member of the Board of Directors for Xagenic, Inc. from 2011-2012. Dr. Carrano was recently personally appointed by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to serve on the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee. Dr. Carrano earned his B.S. from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1981, and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, from the University of Texas at Austin.
Bert M. Coursey served as an officer in the Army Nuclear Power Program and came to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) in 1972. He worked with the White House on the Transition Planning team for the Office of Homeland Security in 2002, and served for nine years on detail to the Department of Homeland Security as the standards executive and the director of the Office of Standards. He was co-chair of the Office of Science Technology and Policy’s Subcommittee on Standards that produced the National Strategy on CBRNE Standards. Dr. Coursey led the development of standards for radiological, nuclear, and microbiological detection, and funded efforts for chemical and explosives detection. He led federal writing groups on planning for decontamination following terrorists’ attacks with chemical, biological, and radiological/nuclear agents. He is presently the chair of the Strategic Advisory Group on Security of the ISO and collaborates with the European Union Joint Research Centres on harmonization of standards for CBRNE countermeasures. He has a B.S. and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Georgia.
The Honorable Sherri W. Goodman is senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of CNA. Known as an innovative and multidisciplinary leader, Ms. Goodman has been recognized for her work creating and overseeing a landmark project in her role as executive director of the CNA Military Advisory Board for projects on National Security and the Threat of Climate Change (2007), Powering America’s Defense: Energy & the Risks to National Security (2009), Powering America’s Economy: Energy Innovation at the Crossroads of National Security Challenges (2010), and Ensuring America’s Freedom of Movement: A National Security Imperative to Reduce US Oil Dependence (2011). From 1993 to 2001, she served as deputy undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security). As the chief environmental, safety, and occupational health officer for the Department of Defense (DOD), she oversaw an annual budget of over $5 billion. She established the first environmental, safety, and health performance metrics for the department and, as the nation’s largest energy user, led its energy, environmental, and natural resource conservation programs. Overseeing the President’s plan for revitalizing base closure communities, she ensured that 80 percent of base closure property became available for transfer and reuse. Ms. Goodman has twice received the DOD medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Gold Medal from the National Defense Industrial Association, and the EPA’s Climate Change Award. She served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee for Committee Chairman Senator Sam Nunn, practiced law at the Goodwin Procter, serving as both a litigator and environmental attorney, and has worked at RAND and SAIC. Ms. Goodman serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council of the U.S., including its Executive Committee, Blue Star Families, Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Marshall Legacy Institute, National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign
Relations, and serves on the Board of its Center for Preventive Action. She also serves on the Alliance Commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy, the Joint Ocean Commission Leadership Council, and the Responsibility to Protect Working Group co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In 2010, she served on the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel co-chaired by former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry. She has testified before numerous committees of the U.S. Congress, and conducted interviews with print, television, radio, and online media, and has published widely in various media and in legal and scholarly journals. She has been an adjunct lecturer in International Affairs and Security at the Kennedy School of Government and an adjunct research fellow at the Kennedy School’s Center for Science and International Affairs. Ms. Goodman has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a M.A. in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a B.A. from Amherst College.
Ann Lesperance has been with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory since 1990. In her current capacity she is the director of Regional Programs Northwest Regional Technology Center for Homeland Security located in Seattle, Washington. Her primary focus is developing regional programs to accelerate the demonstration and deployment of new Homeland Security technologies. To accomplish this, Ms. Lesperance works with state and local emergency responders and public safety officials to understand and help prioritize their operational needs and requirements. She also builds regional coalitions of emergency management professionals to partner with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies and manages program implementation in the field. Ms. Lesperance has over 20 years of experience in domestic and international environmental and public health analysis, project management, and program development. In the international arena she has managed water sustainability projects in Mexico City, worked with Russian managers on the cleanup of radioactive waste sites, and explored drug discovery and conservation strategies in Peru and Chile. Prior to joining PNNL, she worked for a private consulting firm in Los Angeles, CA and USDA in Atlanta, GA and Los Angeles. She served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Andes Mountain in Ecuador where she initiated community development, energy and environmental programs with USAID, and the United Nations. She is also on the Advisory Board at the University of Washington School of Business Center, for International Business Education and Research and is a former Fellow at the World Affairs Council in Seattle. Ms. Lesperance has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Environmental Science and Latin American Studies and a M.S. from UCLA’s School of Public Health, Environmental Science and Engineering Program in Public Health.
Randall S. Murch is a Professor in Practice, School of Public and International Affairs, Virginia Tech - National Capital Region, where he has been since December 2004. At Virginia Tech, he conducts research and program development activities in biosecurity, microbial forensics, advanced forensic science, and science and security. He teaches graduate courses in three programs and advises Ph.D. students in five programs. Prior to Virginia Tech, for two years he was a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a leading Federally Funded Research and Development Center where he led studies for the U.S. national security community. Prior to IDA, he was a special agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for nearly 23 years, retiring in November 2002. During his FBI career, he was assigned to investigative and technical support duties in three field offices, served in several assignments at
the FBI Laboratory including forensic practitioner, research scientist, department head, and deputy director and also served as a mid-level manager and deputy director in the technical operations (engineering) division. He has extensive experience in counterterrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction and catastrophic terrorism, crisis response and major, complex national and international terrorism investigations. During his last two FBI Laboratory assignments, he created the U.S. national WMD forensic investigative program, the first-ever of its kind and worked with a number of Federal departments and agencies to establish strong relationships and coordinated response to these threats. He has served or is serving on several standing boards and committees at the National Research Council (NRC), and has served on five NRC study committees including that which produced Determining Core Capabilities for Defense Chemical and Biological Defense Science and Technology, which was published in 2012. He also has served or is serving on several advisory committees for the U.S. national security community. He has published in several fields, presented extensively to public and government audiences, testified in U.S. courts of law approximately 110 times and testified before Congress on several occasions. He holds a B.S. from the University of Puget Sound, a M.S. from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in the Life Sciences.
The Honorable Andrew S. Natsios is executive professor at the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, and previously taught at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University from January 2006 to May 2012. Natsios served as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2001 to January 2006. In addition to teaching he served as President Bush’s Special Envoy to Sudan from October 2006 to December 2007. From 1993 to 1998, Natsios was vice president of World Vision U.S., the largest faith-based NGO in the world. Natsios was a member of the U.S. Army Reserves for 23 years, served in the Gulf War in 1991 on active duty and was a Lt. Colonel when he retired in the 1990s. Natsios served as secretary of Administration and Finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for six terms, and was named in 2000 by Governor Paul Cellucci as the chief executive officer for Boston’s Big Dig which he took over after a cost over-run scandal. Natsios is the author of three books, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1997), The Great North Korean Famine (2001), Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know (2012) and collaborated on 13 other books, and numerous articles. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and has a MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Gregory S. Parnell is a professor of systems engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His research focuses on decision analysis, risk analysis, resource allocation, and systems engineering for defense; intelligence; homeland security; research and development; and environmental applications. Dr. Parnell is a former president of the Decision Analysis Society of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) and of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS). He has served as editor of Journal of Military Operations Research. Dr. Parnell has published more than 100 papers and book chapters and has co-edited Decision Making for Systems Engineering and Management, Wiley Series in Systems Engineering (2nd Ed, Wiley & Sons, 2011) and co-wrote the Handbook of Decision Analysis (Wiley & Sons, 2013). He has served on three National Academy of Sciences Studies, including
the Committee on Evaluating the Performance Measures and Metrics for the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture. He is a fellow of MORS, INFORMS, the International Committee for Systems Engineering, Society for Decision Professionals, and the Lean Systems Society. He received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Engineering-Economic Systems. Dr. Parnell is a retired Air Force Colonel and a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Brent H. Woodworth is the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation and chairman of the Sahana Software Foundation. He also serves as a member of the national Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR/NEHRP) and on the American Red Cross advisory board for the Southern California region. In addition, he is the project manager for the national DHS/FEMA Community Innovations Resilience Award Program being supported by the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation. Mr. Woodworth is a well-known leader in global risk and crisis management, and has worked and consulted with governments, private sector companies, and non-profit organizations to help them more effectively prepare, mitigate, respond, and recover from significant risk exposures and crisis events. In December 2007, he retired from IBM after 32 years of service that included the development and management of all worldwide crisis response team operations. He is the founder and manager of "The Crisis Response Team"—a team of individual international specialists who have responded on-site to over 70 major crisis events in 49 countries, and is responsible for the concept creation, initial design and roll-out of the open source international emergency management software system “Sahana,” considered a global standard for nationwide crisis management (www.sahanafoundation.org). Mr. Woodworth has developed innovative business enterprise risk management procedures for early identification and mitigation of potential exposures for large private sector corporations. He was chairman of the Multihazard Mitigation Council’s congressionally mandated study on the benefits of government and private sector investment in pre-disaster mitigation, and he testified to Congress on the need for additional investment in mitigation. Mr. Woodworth is certified in business continuity planning, incident management, disaster communications, search and rescue, and emergency medical services. He is a regularly featured speaker on radio and television broadcasts along with industry conferences, government sessions, and senior executive board meetings. Mr. Woodworth has written multiple articles on disaster management and has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities including Caltech, Stanford, Wharton, USC, US Naval Post Graduate Academy, Harvard, and Yale Law Schools. Mr. Woodworth and his team have worked for many years in cooperation with international United Nations relief agencies and NGO’s including WHO, WFP, OCHA, World Bank, UNHCR, World Vision International, Red Cross, and USAID. He has a B.S. from the University of Southern California in Marketing Management.
NRC Staff Biographies
Dr. Lauren Alexander Augustine is the director of the Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events in the Office of Special Projects at the NAS. She serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Catastrophic Risks, and as an advisor for the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange program. In her tenure at the Academies, Lauren started as a study director for water science policy issues on the Water Science and Technology Board; since 2007, she has been the Country Director in the African Science Academy
Development Initiative (ASADI), a 10-year program that builds scientific capacity in national academies of science in eight African countries. Her most recent positions at the Academy entail her developing a portfolio on natural disasters and ways that science can inform policy to reduce the risk and elevate society’s resilience to them. Dr. Augustine earned her B.S. in applied mathematics and systems engineering and her Master’s degree in environmental planning and policy from the University of Virginia; she completed her Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary program that combined hydrology, geomorphology, and landscape ecology from Harvard University.
Sherrie Forrest is the program officer for the Resilience Roundtable. Previously, she was program officer for the Disasters Roundtable. She joined the full time staff of the National Research Council (NRC) in the summer of 2010 following a Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Graduate Fellowship in the fall of 2009. While at the NRC, she has worked with the Ocean Studies Board and the Board on Science Education on projects that include the Roundtable on Climate Change Education, the Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards, and the Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon-252 Oil Spill on Ecosystem Services in the Gulf of Mexico. She obtained her M.S. in biological oceanography from the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University and a B.A. in english from Pepperdine University.
John H. Brown Jr. is the program and administrative manager for the Resilience Roundtable. Since 2002, he has worked with the Disasters Roundtable and served on numerous project teams in conjunction with National Research Council studies, including toxicity pathway-based risk assessment, the hidden costs of energy, a research and restoration plan for Western Alaska salmon, endangered species in the Klamath and Platte River Basins, risk reduction and economic benefits from controlling ozone air pollution, and environmental impacts of wind energy projects. Prior to joining the National Academies staff, he worked with the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston University.
