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Thank you for attending!

On behalf of the 2008 UARC Administrative Challenges Meeting organizing committee, thank you for attending this year’s event. CASL welcomes your feedback on the program, facility, and speakers so that we can make future meetings better.

To view the presentations from this year’s meeting, please visit to the Conference Presentations page.

Speaker Profile: Richard Brecht

Richard Brecht is currently the Executive Director of the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language. Having received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in Slavic Languages and Literatures, he is currently professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Maryland at College Park and visiting professor at Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Brecht has been a principal in the founding of a number of national organizations and projects: American Councils for International Education/ACTR-ACCELS (for which he serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees), the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages, Project EELIAS (Evaluation of Exchange, Language, International and Area Studies), LangNet (the Language Network), and Project ICONS (International Communication and Negotiation Simulations). Dr. Brecht has authored numerous books and articles on language policy, second language acquisition, and Slavic and Russian linguistics; and he has received awards from a number of national and international organizations in the language field.

Speaker Profile: Erica Kropp

Erica serves as the Director of Research Administration at University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES). She is responsible for UMCES pre- and post-award research administration, research compliance in general (including human subjects, animals use, conflict of interest, technology transfer and export controls) and development of related policy and procedures and training programs. Ms. Kropp is the UMCES representative to the Federal Demonstration Partnership. She holds a B.S. degree in Technology Management from the University of Maryland, University College. In the research administration field for over 34 years with a broad range of experience, Ms. Kropp was with the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) for 32 years starting her career with seven years at the department level before moving to the central research administration. Ms. Kropp served as the Director of Research Administration and Advancement at the University of Maryland College Park 1994-2004. Her leadership at College Park was during a period of tremendous growth in their research programs and included early involvement in export control issues at UMCP and with other universities in general on a national level. Ms. Kropp has served on the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) Committees 1997-1999, as a COGR Board Member 1999-2004 and was Co-Chair of the first COGR Export Control Working Group. She is a current member of the COGR Export Controls Working Group and continues to work with the University of Maryland, College Park on export control issues. Ms. Kropp has been a member of NCURA since 1978 and has served as a moderator and/or presenter on numerous panels over the years at both regional and national meetings, including many on export controls and security matters.

Speaker Profile: Mr. Gary Bliss

 

Gary R. Bliss is currently the Deputy Director, Enterprise Engineering and OSD Studies in the office of the Undersecretary, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (USD(AT&L)).  His responsibilities include oversight of the five OSD-funded Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), the OSD’s university research program, as well as review and development of innovations to overhaul the AT&L enterprise management systems. 

He is perhaps best known from his recent position as the longstanding Director of OD(PAE) Weapon System Cost Analysis Division  (WSCAD).  WSCAD’s ten staff members constitute one of the two offices dedicated to OSD Cost Analysis Improvement Group (CAIG) functions, and responsible for the preparation of independent development and procurement cost estimates for major systems that range from munitions (e.g., tactical missiles) through platforms (e.g., helicopters, submarines, fighter aircraft, tanks, etc.).  As such, Mr. Bliss has been a key player for more than twelve years in DoD’s most important system decisions by the Services, OSD, and the Congress.

Generally recognized in both industry and government as a leading authority on the economics of defense procurement, Mr. Bliss has also an established track record in institutional reform/reengineering including:

•       Management information system reengineering helping to develop a broad-based re-definition of the core management systems used to coordinate the far-flung value chain of major defense program focusing on the key signals that individual decision makers face throughout the supply-chain — at both the prime and vendor.
•       Manufacturing enterprise reengineering conducting studies of the potential for savings from enterprise reengineering reviewing in considerable detail the four basic enterprise-wide systems:  design/engineering; manufacturing shop floor performance; supplier-chain management; and overhead/indirect functions.
•       Public/Private Competition acting as a principal economic advisor on the Source Selection Evaluation Boards for both McClellan AFB and Kelly AFB public/private competitions.
•       CCDR Project Office as the architect of the initiative that reengineered DoD’s Contractor Cost Data Reporting (CCDR) system.

Ga  Gary has a BA, Mathematics and Economics (Highest Honors in Economics) from College of William and Mary and done PhD graduate work at School of Business, University of Chicago. 

 

Speaker Profile: Dr. John Parmentola

Director for Research and Laboratory Management, U.S. Army         

 John Parmentola has built a career as a pioneer, entrepreneur and innovator. His extensive background in science and technology spans three decades of fundamental research, technology development and acquisition, and manufacturing technology.  He has broad experience in the private sector, academia and has held many positions in the Federal government and Defense Community. Born in the Bronx, New York, Dr. Parmentola received his BS degree in Physics cum laude from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1971 and his PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977.

He currently serves as Director for Research and Laboratory Management for the US Army, directing laboratory management policy for all Army laboratories, research, development and engineering centers—including the Army’s Basic and Applied Research programs spanning 12 basic research disciplines and 14 technology areas at the Army Research Laboratory, Army Research Institute, Army Corps of Engineers, and Simulation and Training Technology Center.  He also oversees Environmental Quality technology, Manufacturing Technology, Small Business Innovative Research, and Army High Performance Computing programs—with a combined annual budget of roughly $750M.  His responsibility encompasses policy for personnel systems, laboratory infrastructure, laboratory security, and Base Realignment and Closure.

 

 

Before coming to the Army, Dr. Parmentola was Science and Technology Advisor to the Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Energy, where he provided technical, budgetary, and programmatic advice to DOE leaders for more than $7B in science and technology investments—including Defense, Non-proliferation, Science, Fossil Energy, Energy Efficiency, Nuclear Energy and Environmental programs. Prior to joining the US Department of Energy, he was co-founder of the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office of the newly formed Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), where he led a diverse group of 20 scientists and engineers in addressing major national challenges concerning the threat of weapons of mass destruction.    

 

 

 

 

 

Speaker Profile: Dr. Scott Weems

Scott Weems is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL). Scott has embarked on an academic career that has taken him from Boston University to the University of California, where he earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2003, and now, finally, to Maryland. He currently leads two research projects at CASL. 

Scott’s first project addresses how language analysts deal with missing information, with particular emphasis on the neurophysiological processes involved in dealing with textual ambiguity.  His second project examines deception in people from non-Western cultures.  Little is known about the verbal or non-verbal deception cues for this population, even though such knowledge is very important for security screening personnel.  Scott is also very interested in the laterality of language, particularly the important role of the brain’s right hemisphere in language processing.

Before embarking on his academic path, Scott had a short but successful career as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. Stationed in Kodiak Alaska, his first tour was as boarding officer aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter YOCONA in the frigid Bering Sea, checking safety equipment on local fishing vessels.  His second tour was as a marine safety officer in New Orleans, where he was responsible for enforcing marine pollution laws.

 

Speaker Profile: Dr. Barry Aprison

Barry Aprison, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Director of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Initiatives in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.  Dr. Aprison is currently working with K-12 teachers, principals, superintendents, curriculum specialists, engineers, scientists, evaluators, and designers on STEM education projects for Maryland schools.

Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Aprison was Director of Science and Technology at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago for nineteen years (1988-2007). He led project teams to design and produce highly successful, multi-million dollar, interactive exhibitions.  He also directed outreach education programs for millions of visitors, parents, teachers, and students.  The National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and other organizations supported these projects. In 2007, before leaving MSI, he was leading a $24-million project, ScienceStorms, to produce 20,000-sq. ft. of new hands-on exhibits about physics, chemistry, materials science, and nanotechnology.  Two of Dr. Aprison’s permanent exhibitions– Imaging: The Tools of Science and AIDS: The War Within–won national award-recognitions from the Curators’ Committee of the American Association of Museums, and he is listed in Richard Saul Wurman’s “1000” book, a compendium of the most creative people in the United States.

Dr. Aprison joined the Museum of Science and Industry in 1988 after serving as an NIH post-doctoral fellow in Indiana University’s Department of Biology.  There he researched the molecular genetics of sex-specific regulation of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster.  He also taught undergraduate genetics and developmental biology.

At Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, Dr. Aprison studied the regulation of yolk protein gene expression and DNA synthesis in Xenopus laevis. He taught undergraduate biology and received his Ph.D. in biology in 1984.

 

Speaker Profile: Security Expert Ray Semko, “THE D*I*C*E MAN”

 

Ray Semko is an expert security briefer and motivator who is widely known for the popular D*I*C*E Program he created in 1989. D*I*C*E stands for “Defensive Information to Counter Espionage.” He uses Dice as a memory aid–every time you see dice, he wants you to think about the important message he conveyed in his briefing about security and OPSEC.

 

After serving 21 years in the US Army, Semko started doing security awareness briefings while a counterintelligence agent in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as a way to inform employees of the threats to our nation’s security as the result of espionage. His D*I*C*E briefings became very popular and soon were in demand at other agencies.  Semko has presented his unique, entertaining, unclassified D*I*C*E briefings around the world to thousands of US government, military, public safety and industry personnel since 1989.

 

Along the way, he has also worked as a counterintelligence officer at the Department of Energy, the National Security Agency and most recently, the Defense Security Service where he retired from over 35 years of US Government service.

 

Semko joined the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre) in August 2006 to continue to provide his signature D*I*C*E briefings, but now to an expanded audience of federal, state and local government, police, public safety, military, corporations and other organizations who wish to increase their employee’s security awareness of threats from espionage (including cyber and industrial espionage) and terrorism as well as enhance employee awareness of OPSEC (operations security) and information security.

Speaker Profile: Mr. Robert Hardy

 

Robert B. Hardy is Director, Contracts and Intellectual Property and provides staff support to the CIP Committee. Prior to coming to COGR in April 2001, Bob was with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for over 30 years, serving in a variety of capacities.

Most recently he was Director of the Division of Contracts, Policy and Oversight at NSF. He holds a B.A. degree from Gettysburg College and J.D. from Catholic University. He served as the NSF representative on the National Science and Technology Council Task Force working group charged with developing the response to and overseeing the implementation of the Presidential Review Directive on the Government-University Research Partnership. He also served as Co-Chair of the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) Membership Committee for Phase III of the FDP and Co-Chair of the FDP Task Force on Cost Sharing and Effort Reporting. He was a founding member of the National Assistance Management Association (now NGMA) and has a number of publications on issues related to research and grants administration.