Speakers

Mike Allison currently serves as the Senior Intelligence Analyst for Army Futures Command, a position he assumed 1 March 2021. He has served in a variety of senior national-level intelligence positions as part of an over ten-and-a-half-year career with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) from July 2010 thru February 2021. Prior to entering on duty as a Federal Civilian, Mike served in the United States Army for just over 20 years, retiring in 2010. Before joining Army Futures Command, Mike briefly served as Intelligence Community Historian with the Center for the Study of Intelligence, a joint duty assignment with the Central Intelligence Agency, from September 2020 to February 2021. While with ODNI, Mike held the position of Principal Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Military Issues with the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from May 2016 to September 2020. In that role, he led analytic production and policy support for global military issues. Prior to that, he served as a Senior Foreign Engagement Officer for the Foreign Partnerships team at ODNI from March 2015 to May 2016. He specialized in building foreign partnerships for East Asia, India, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. Previously, Mike served as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Europe at the NIC from July 2010 to March 2015 where he specialized in Aegean Security Issues, Islam in Europe, Energy, European/Middle East issues and counter-terrorism efforts on behalf of the NIO/Europe office. Prior to joining the NIC in July of 2010, he served as Division Chief for the Latin America/Europe/Eurasia/Africa division of the J-2, Joint Chiefs of Staff’s analytical support office. A 20-year retired veteran of the US Army, Mike graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point in 1990 and spent half of his career as an Infantry officer (1990-1999) and the other half as a Foreign Area Officer (1999-2010) for both the Middle East as well as Europe. He has served in a variety of analytical positions that include the Army Staff’s Foreign Intelligence Directorate (2002-2005) and the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Latin America/Europe/Eurasia Africa Directorate (2006-2008). He holds an M.A. in Middle East Studies and is fluent in Turkish.

Colonel Nathan P. Diller is the Director of AFWERX. Colonel Diller received his commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2000. After simultaneous Masters’ at Harvard and MIT, he attended Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training and flew F-16s for two Combat Air Force assignments, becoming an instructor pilot. He was selected for the French Test Pilot school and then completed his first test tour at Edwards AFB, supporting B-1, B-2, F-16, F-22 and F-35 flight test and instructing at the Test Pilot School. He served as an Executive Officer to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and as a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency Service Chiefs Fellow. Upon completing a program management tour at the Space and Missile Center, he took command of the 586th Flight Test Squadron, supervising classified flight test for joint, interagency and international clients. After graduating from the National Defense University, Eisenhower School Senior Acquisition Course, Colonel Diller served as the Chief of the Air and Space Branch, Force Application Division, then Chief of the Joint Force Integration Cell, Joint Staff J8. Following that assignment, he was the Air Force Advisor to Office of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Capabilities and Rapid Capabilities Office. Additionally, he was detailed as the Assistant Director of Aeronautics at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Colonel Diller is a member of the Acquisition Corps and is certified as a Level III Program Manager and Test professional. He is a senior pilot with over 2,700 hours in more than 60 aircraft.

Congressman Ruben Gallego represents the 7th District of Arizona, including parts of Phoenix, Glendale, and Tolleson, in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was first elected in 2014. Representative Gallego is a Marine Corps combat veteran, a lifelong community leader, and the son of Hispanic immigrants. He was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Harvard University. Congressman Gallego enlisted in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an infantryman, serving with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. His Company saw some of the worst fighting of the Iraq War, losing 22 Marines and a Navy Corpsman to enemy action in eight months. Following his experience in Iraq, Congressman Gallego committed to ensuring that servicemen and –women are never sent into harm’s way without a plan for winning the fight, securing the peace, and providing post-conflict medical, psychological and familial care. Representative Gallego has largely focused on U.S. national security in his time in Washington. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, he has led the response to Russia’s attack on NATO, maintaining the European Deterrence Initiative following President Trump’s efforts to cut the vital defense program. He has led the effort to support front line allies like the Baltic States and protect our forces in Germany and across Europe. He has ensured that U.S. Forces Korea – the front line of our defense against North Korea – remains a credible deterrent force. He has led the response to companies like Huawei and ZTE, criminal state-directed organizations that threaten our national security and our next generation infrastructure. He believes in retaining the United States’ qualitative military edge and in employing U.S. military power only when necessary. Representative Gallego believes in improving the health and welfare of veterans by first working to prevent unnecessary wars. When the fighting starts, he believes in providing them with the equipment and training to win. After combat, he believes in supporting veterans and their families to treat acute and chronic health issues, continue their education, and continue to serve as private citizens. Congressman Gallego was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2010 and served until 2014. As a state legislator, Congressman Gallego became known for his tough stand against extreme legislation pushed by Republicans in the state legislature. He also led the push for Medicaid expansion and to secure in-state tuition for veterans. Congressman Gallego is also a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States, a position from which he fights tirelessly to uphold Tribal sovereignty and our federal trust responsibility to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. As Chairman, he held the first-ever House hearing on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, oversaw the House passage of Carcieri fix legislation affirming Tribal Nations’ right to sovereign homelands, and championed investment in broadband and other critical infrastructure on Tribal land. He has advocated for cornerstone federal land and wildlife conservation laws and worked to improve public access to America’s iconic public lands. Congressman Gallego is an Assistant Whip for the Democratic Caucus, First Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chair and Tribal Liaison of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Vice Chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus.

Dr. Nelson Lim is director of the Workforce, Development, and Health program in RAND Project AIR FORCE, and a senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation. Lim has worked with federal and local government agencies to improve their human resource management (HRM) practices for close to two decades. His clients include the Department of Defense, the United States Armed Forces, the United States Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service, the United States Coast Guard, National Security Agency, the Department of Justice, the City of Los Angeles, and the City of San Diego, as well as several large corporations. He applies rigorous quantitative as well as qualitative methods to uncover root causes of HRM challenges ranging from outreach, recruiting, talent management, workforce development, and retention. In 2009, Lim led the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC), a congressionally mandated commission to improve the diversity of top military leaders as the research director. The MLDC provided 20 specific recommendations to the United States Congress and the President of the United States. Congress has adopted the MLDC recommendations in a series of National Defense Authorization Acts, and DoD accepted and implemented the MLDC recommendations. In addition to working with federal agencies and large corporations, Lim has worked with cities specifically to assist police and fire departments with their recruiting. He assisted the Los Angeles Police Department and the San Diego Police Department to identify potential barriers for minorities and women to complete the recruiting process and improve the recruiting and diversity of their recruits. Lim earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mr. Edacheril “E.P.” Mathew was selected as the Deputy CIO of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2021, after previously serving as the Chief of Operations for CIO. Mr. Mathew was promoted to the Senior National Intelligence Service in 2019.

As Chief of Operations, Mr. Mathew led a vast geographically-dispersed team of over 1,000 civilians, joint military, and contractors to operate and sustain Information Technology (IT) services on behalf of DIA and its mission partners—providing network capabilities and IT services of various classifications to over 250,000 users at over 600 global sites.

Prior to serving as Chief of Operations, Mr. Mathew served as the Chief of Corporate Engagement for CIO, where he functioned as the CIO representative to Agency directorates, combatant command J2s, operational commanders, and Intelligence Community (IC) senior leaders—enabling mission success through the provision of IT capabilities for over 50,000 users.

Mr. Mathew’s previous leadership assignments within the Defense Intelligence Agency include serving as the Chief of Applications and Infrastructure, where he led software engineers responsible for supporting over 200 mission and business applications. He oversaw cloud migration efforts, resulting in the Agency being the first in the IC to put a system in production on the IC cloud. Mr. Mathew also worked for the Chief of Staff on process improvement efforts within multiple directorates, leading an effort to increase female retention in DIA under the auspices of the Deputy Director. Additionally, Mr. Mathew completed his Joint Duty Assignment at the National Security Agency, where oversaw the production of over 180 analytic products for the Enterprise Analytics division, one of which enabled POTUS to make a data- driven decision with national security ramifications.

Mr. Mathew currently resides in Gambrills, Maryland with his wife, Reena and their children Andrew, Hannah, Micah, and Kayla.

 

In October 2020, Michael E. Waschull was selected as the Deputy Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer  (IC CIO) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Prior to this evolution, Mike served as Senior  Advisor to the IC CIO for two years. The role of the IC CIO is to set conditions to improve and accelerate intelligence  integration, maximize cost-effective acquisition of critical capabilities, and enhance cooperation between and  among IC elements. As Deputy IC CIO, Mr. Waschull’s duties include leading modernization efforts to transform  the IC Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) and other areas of the IC Information Environment (IC IE) through  foundational cloud capabilities, data sharing, and cybersecurity. Mr. Waschull is a Defense Acquisition Workforce  Improvement Act (DAWIA) Level III Certified Acquisition Professional. 

Before joining IC CIO, Mr. Waschull completed a one-year detail assignment to the National Counterproliferation  Center, serving as both the Director for Intelligence Integration (II) and as the Deputy National Intelligence Manager  for Counterproliferation. 

Mr. Waschull also served for six years as the Deputy Commander and Senior Civilian Official at the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), which is the preeminent provider of all-source intelligence associated  with adversary Space, Air, Surface, and Subsurface warfare. Among his responsibilities was serving as Milestone  Decision Authority for several high-end Naval Intelligence capability upgrades. 

Prior to ONI, Mr. Waschull served with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, where he was dual-hatted as Director of  Intelligence and Security, and one of three Deputy Directors for Engineering. He was the focal point for integrating  intelligence requirements and managing the relationship with the Intelligence Community to achieve the highest  level of responsive collection and analysis support to meet research and development, acquisition, command  element, and warfighter operational needs.  

Mr. Waschull also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the Director of Intelligence Policy. In that  position, he led a team of senior policymakers setting the strategic direction for defense intelligence. Before joining  OSD, Mr. Waschull was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as Chief of the Program Management  Division where he was responsible for multiple major systems development projects in DIA’s Systems Group. 

During this period, he served as the founding Program Manager for the Joint Worldwide Intelligence  Communications System (JWICS). 

Mr. Waschull is a retired Air Force intelligence officer. During his 20-year military career, he served in a variety of  leadership assignments, developing and fielding technical capabilities for the operations and intelligence  communities.

Sherri Goodman is an experienced leader and senior executive, lawyer and director in the fields of national security, energy, science, oceans and environment. She is a Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and CNA, and the Senior Strategist at the Center for Climate and Security. Previously, she served as the President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership.

Goodman served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of CNA (Center for Naval Analyses) where she was also the founder and Executive Director of the CNA Military Advisory Board, whose landmark reports include National Security and the Threat of Climate Change(2007), and National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change (2014), Advanced
Energy and US National Security (2017), and The Role of Water Stress in Instability and Conflict(2017) among others. The film The Age of Consequences in which Goodman is featured, is based on the work of the CNA Military Advisory Board.

Goodman served as the first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security) from 1993-2001. 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% 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.

Goodman has served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee for Committee Chairman Senator Sam Nunn. She has practiced law at Goodwin Procter, as both a litigator and environmental attorney, and has worked at RAND and SAIC.

Goodman serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council and its Resilience Center, the Council on Strategic Risk, the Joint Ocean Commission Leadership Council, the Marshall Legacy Institute,Marstel-Day LLC, the National Executive Committee of the US Water Partnership, the Advisory Committee of the US Global Change Research Program and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, served on its Arctic Task Force in 2016 and on the Board of its Center for Preventive Action.

Previously, she served on the Boards of Blue Star Families, the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the National Academy of Sciences’ Boards on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES) and Environmental Systems and Toxicology (BEST), and the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board.

She has also served on the Responsibility to Protect Working Group co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In 2010, Goodman served on the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel co-chaired by former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry.

Goodman has testified before numerous committees of the U.S. Congress, and conducted interviews with print, television, radio and online media. She has published widely in various print and on line 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.

The daughter of Holocaust refugees who arrived in New York in the late 1930s, she was born in Queens.

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center, having served until July 2019 as Director of the Center's Intelligence Project. Prior to that he was also a Senior Fellow. Before coming to the Belfer Center, Mowatt-Larssen served over three years as the Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy. Prior to this, he served for 23 years as a CIA intelligence officer in various domestic and international posts, to include Chief of the Europe Division in the Directorate of Operations, Chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Department, Counterterrorist Center, and Deputy Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. Prior to his career in intelligence, Mr. Mowatt-Larssen served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. He is married to Roswitha and has three children. He is a recipient of the CIA Director's Award, the George W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism, the Secretary of Energy's Exceptional Service Medal, the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, Secretary of Defense Civilian Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Intelligence Superior Performance Medal, among others.

Lindsay L. Rodman is the Executive Director of LCWINS. She began her career as an associate at Arnold & Porter LLP. She then joined the Marine Corps and served as a judge advocate for eight years on active duty in various assignments including deployment to Afghanistan, serving as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and selection as a White House Fellow, placed at the National Security Council. After transitioning into the Reserves, Lindsay became a political appointee in the Pentagon, serving first as the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness and then as the Senior Advisor, International Humanitarian Policy in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Prior to joining LCWINS, Lindsay was selected as the Council on Foreign Relations' inaugural International Affairs Fellow in Canada, where she lived for two years, and then served as Executive Vice President for Communications and Legal Strategy at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Lindsay remains an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School, and Duke University.

Erin Sikorsky is Director of the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), and the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS). Previously, she served as the Deputy Director of CCS. Prior to her service with the organization, Erin served as Deputy Director of the Strategic Futures Group on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in the US, where she co-authored the quadrennial Global Trends report and led the US intelligence community’s environmental and climate security analysis. She is also the founding chair of the Climate Security Advisory Council, a Congressionally mandated group designed to facilitate coordination between the intelligence community and US government scientific agencies. Ms. Sikorsky worked in the US intelligence community for over a decade. Prior to joining the NIC, she led teams covering a range of issues related to the Middle East and Africa.

Ms. Sikorsky is an adjunct professor at George Mason University, a visiting fellow at University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, and serves on the advisory board of the Smith College Center for Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability. She is a frequent commentator in print, on radio, and on television. She has published articles in a range of outlets, including War on the Rocks, The Hill, Just Security, and The Cipher Brief. Ms. Sikorsky earned a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University, and a B.A. in government from Smith College.

Aaron Boyd is an award-winning journalist currently serving as senior editor for technology and events at Nextgov. He primarily covers federal government IT contracting and cybersecurity issues affecting both civilian and defense agencies. As a lifelong nerd and policy wonk, he feels right at home covering the intersection of technology and policy in the nation's capital.

Tara Copp is senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense One. Copp has reported through the Middle East, Asia and Europe to cover defense policy and its impact on the lives of service members. Her investigative reporting on military aviation accidents and on skyrocketing veteran cancer rates drove Congressional hearings and legislation. Before returning to journalism, she worked as a senior defense analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, focused on readiness and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is a Plan II graduate of the University of Texas and earned her masters in Security Studies at Georgetown University.

Jacqueline Feldscher is senior national security correspondent at Defense One. Previously, she was national security and space reporter at Politico. Before that, Feldscher covered defense issues in Congress and at the Pentagon for the Washington Examiner, the Washington Times, and Navy Times, covering the Navy and Coast Guard. She’s a graduate of Boston University, and holds a master’s in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Director of Events, GovExec

Frank Konkel is Nextgov’s executive editor. He writes about the intersection of government and technology. Frank began covering tech in 2013 upon moving to the Washington, D.C. area after getting his start in journalism working at local and state issues at daily newspapers in his home state of Michigan. Frank was born and raised on a dairy farm and graduated from Michigan State University.

Technology Editor, Defense One

Suzanne Wilson Heckenberg became president of INSA and INSF (501c3) on December 1, 2019. As president, Suzanne oversees INSA’s finances, strategic planning, marketing, events, and corporate partnerships. She leads strategic initiatives across the organization focused on building the association’s brand, strengthening member value, and growing and diversifying member ranks. Since 2010, Suzanne has held various leadership positions at INSA, most recently serving as the organization’s first Chief Operating Officer. She was the driving force behind INSA’s expansion into markets outside the Washington, DC region, as well as its popular, The New IC symposium, which focuses on diversity with inclusion in the intelligence community. Suzanne works closely with the executive leadership team, advisory committee, and members of the board of directors to coordinate policy initiatives and programs on issues that are key to the intelligence and national security community. Prior to INSA, she served as Vice President of Marketing for Ripple Communications, a woman-owned strategic communications firm.

Bill Vass is Vice President of Engineering at Amazon Web Services. In this role, Bill oversees more than 42 cloud and edge technologies that allow AWS’ customers to store, analyze, manage, and retrieve information quickly and efficiently. Bill’s teams deploy, manage, and monitor the cloud. They provide large scale storage; support gaming, large scale simulations, and studio rendering; provide data transfer and real time streaming services; lead AWS’ product development into the Internet of Things (IoT); create robotics and autonomous systems; support the Snowball Edge processing device systems; and lead AWS’ research and development into quantum computing. In short, his teams develop and operate the largest software defined storage, streaming, IoT, automated management, and monitoring systems in the world, used by web-based companies, consumer companies, enterprises, and governments. Before joining AWS, Mr. Vass was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Robotics, Inc., a pioneering Data as a Service, cloud-based solutions company that designs and builds autonomous robots that serve a wide range of customers in the energy, shipping, defense, communications, scientific, intelligence, and environmental markets. Prior to that, Mr. Vass was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems Federal, an independent subsidiary of Sun Microsystems with its own board of directors, where he was responsible for growing over $1.4B of revenue. His responsibilities spanned Product Development, Sales and Business Development, Marketing, Partner Management, and Service Delivery. Before his role leading Sun Microsystems Federal, Mr. Vass served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Sun, where he defined and delivered the technology vision and architecture while he managed global deployments in support of Sun’s 50K business users. During his time as CIO, Mr. Vass significantly improved security, availability, and application delivery while reducing the overall operations cost of IT from $880M to $360M. Mr. Vass had a lengthy public service career. Working for the Secretary of Defense in the Office of the CIO, he was on a team responsible the for oversight of a $35.5B budget, as well as system and software acquisition, research, development, and integration standards for over 6,800 IT systems. His organization managed networks, servers and applications across the Pentagon’s defense networks. Prior to joining the Office of the CIO, Mr. Vass was CTO and technical lead for the U.S. Army’s personnel systems worldwide. Before his work at the DoD, Mr. Vass developed large-scale commercial Information Technology engineering and business systems solutions for defense system integrators, as well as the oil and gas and ocean engineering industries.