ITEA 2017 T&E Professional Awardees Recognized

ITEA 2017 T&E Professional Awardees Recognized

2017 TEST AND EVALUATION PROFESSIONAL AWARD RECIPIENTS RECOGNIZED
Special awards luncheon honors individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to advancing the Test and Evaluation (T&E) profession. 


The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) annually presents six (6) Professional T&E Awards to individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to advancing the test and evaluation profession. In addition, ITEA also presents the Board of Directors’ Award, the President’s Award, Energizer Award, the Chapter of Excellence Awards, and the Chapter of the Year Award to recognize individuals and Chapters for their significant contributions to the Association. The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) Board of Directors and Committee Chair, Stephanie Clewer, relies on ITEA members and T&E leaders to identify and submit nominations of individuals and teams worthy of recognition by the 2017 ITEA T&E Professional Awards Program.

The following individuals and teams will be recognized at the 2017 Awards Luncheon, which will be held on Wednesday, October 4, 2017, during the 34th Annual Symposium at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Virginia.


ALLEN R. MATTHEWS AWARD – David W. Duma 

The 2017 Allen R. Matthews Award is presented to David W. Duma, Principal Deputy Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, in recognition of his outstanding professional career spanning more than 45 years of service to the U.S. Navy, government and industry. Throughout his career, his many lasting contributions to the practice of test and evaluation have been the defining thread to his service. On three separate occasions, Dave stepped up without hesitation to serve as the Acting Director for Operational Test and Evaluation. Dave has been awarded the Presidential Executive Rank Award on two occasions; the Meritorious Executive Award; and the Distinguished Executive Rank award. Dave was also presented the National Order of Merit award by the President of the French Republic in recognition of his outstanding role in developing ties between the test and evaluation centers of the two nations. As an ITEA member for over 21 years, Dave Duma has helped guide the Association by example and practice: Advancing the state of the art of Operational Test and Evaluation and its role in DoD acquisition through his role as a DoD thought leader; Authoring countless articles in The ITEA Journal of Test and Evaluation; and, Speaking at ITEA Workshops and Symposia. Beyond ITEA, Dave Duma regularly lectures at Defense Acquisition University promoting improvement of the test and evaluation workforce. In recognition of his many contributions and his lifetime of invaluable service to test and evaluation that have advanced our testing capabilities and benefited our warfighters, ITEA is pleased to recognize David W. Duma as the 2017 recipient of the Allen R. Matthews Award.

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Jaco Loubser

The ITEA Special Achievement Award is presented to Jaco Loubser for his exemplary performance and untiring dedication to the planning, management and execution of the test and evaluation program for the Thales Hawkei vehicle during the period July 2016 through June 2017. The Hawkei vehicle is a light 4×4 protected mobility vehicle designed to meet demanding Australian Defence Force requirements for a light armoured patrol vehicle that can be lifted by a Chinook helicopter. Jaco was instrumental during the airlift testing having to engage and coordinate across the full complement of design engineers, project management, vehicle operators, helicopter operators and specialist external airlift personnel to deal with the multitude of details necessary to ensure the safe, effective and efficient testing. Jaco combined his aerospace testing experience with his newly acquired vehicle testing knowledge, he delivered a very successful result within the projects very challenging timeframes.

 

RICHARD G. CROSS AWARD – Mark Kiemele, PhD

This year the recipient of the Richard G. Cross award is Dr. Mark Kiemele, Co-Founder and President of Air Academy Associates. For over thirty years, Dr. Mark Kiemele has pioneered fact-based mathematical tools, techniques, rules-of-thumb, and methodologies that have fundamentally helped test and evaluation in academic, industrial, governmental and professional organizations around the world. He has personally instructed over 30,000 leaders, scientists, engineers and managers, in all seven continents. For the past ten years, Mark has authored and personally taught T&E tutorials that have consistently received the very highest ratings. The subjects have included Design of Experiments (DOE) as a powerful data collection strategy, Historical Data Analysis, High Throughput Testing, Measure Systems Analysis, Operational Capability as part of T&E, and Primers in Scientific Test and Analysis Techniques (STAT). Mark is also a well-published author in T&E. His tutorials, well-vetted articles and speaking events at T&E conferences have always been at no cost because of Mark’s passion and commitment to T&E, and to the soldier, sailor and airman. The ability to anticipate T&E’s future requirements with the latest tools and methods remains one of Mark’s many contributions. Throughout his illustrious and unprecedented career, Mark maintains the character and values he had since being commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force: modesty, humility, honesty, hard work, loyalty to family, colleagues, customers and friends, and absolute integrity. ITEA is pleased to present this well-deserved award to Dr. Mark Kiemele.

PUBLICATIONS AWARD – Paola Pringle, Hank Steinfeld, Patrick Lardieri, Michael Lilienthal, and David Brown

The 2017 ITEA Publications Award is presented to the team who made significant contributions to the Cybersecurity Table Top (CTT) process and who developed and authored the technical article “Table Top Wargaming: Cost Effective Planning for Cybersecurity Test and Evaluation; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Six-Phase Cybersecurity T&E Process,” appearing in the September 2016 Issue of The ITEA Journal of Test and Evaluation. This outstanding and timely article has been instrumental in socializing the concept of how to get started in designing effective, efficient T&E for cybersecurity, with early evaluations to collect data and answer key questions in the initial steps of the cybersecurity six-phase process. The CTT process is widely used, indicating the impact of this process.

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Command and Control Integration (C2I) Team, Joint Staff J6, C4 Assessments Division

The team provided cutting edge broadband cellular communications to the tactical edge and integrated applications that made the technology useful to the Warfighter. The C2I Team’s effort aided in ground breaking security measures to protect this tactical capability. In the process, critical and enduring partnerships were forged between offices within the Joint Staff J6, the National Security Agency, Defense Information Systems Agency, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, U.S. Navy Air Systems Command, and major acquisition program offices such as U.S. Army Project Manager Warfighter Information Network – Tactical and U.S. Army Program Executive Office Soldier. Their efforts have led to the benefit of the service men and women putting themselves in harm’s way in defense of our freedoms.

JUNIOR ACHIEVER AWARD – Tiana Freericks

Ms. Tiana Freericks is presented the 2017 International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) Junior Achiever Award in recognition of her outstanding service as the Probability of Raid Annihilation (PRA) Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Testbed Project Lead for NSWC Corona. Ms. Freericks led development of automated data processing, event reconstruction, metric calculation, statistical methods, and reporting for Navy M&S. A new Navy capability now exists to support timely analysis of thousands of Testbed trials, with streamlined identification of outliers and anomalies via metrics-based analysis. The innovations have significantly reduced T&E labor hours and have made the Navy T&E processes substantially more efficient and powerful. Ms. Freericks groundbreaking strategies, improvements and innovations have led to new Navy best practices and demonstrate significant investment in, and enhancement of the T&E profession.

ENERGIZER AWARD – Chris L. Susman

The 2017 ITEA Energizer Award is presented to Ms. Chris Susman for her dedicated effort and unwavering leadership in the advancement of the ITEA Francis Scott Key (FSK) Chapter and ITEA’s Cyber Security Workshop: Challenges Facing Test & Evaluation. Her efforts to support ITEA at both the International and Chapter Level have resulted in increased membership for the Chapter and a re-invigoration of ITEA’s Cyber Security Workshop—providing quality professional development opportunities for ITEA Members and non-Members alike. Chris has served at various positions within the FSK Chapter, currently serves as the Chapter President, and has volunteered her time, talents, and energy to the FSK Chapter to conduct the vitally important Cyber Security Workshop for Test & Evaluation for several years. It is with great pleasure that the 2017 ITEA Energizer Award is presented to Ms. Chris Susman.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ AWARD – Steven “Flash” C. Gordon, Ph.D.

The 2017 ITEA Board of Directors Award is reserved for an individual who has contributed to the growth, development, goals, and mission of the Association. The ITEA Board of Directors has the pleasure of presenting the 2017 ITEA Board of Directors’ Award to Dr. Steve “Flash” Gordon. Flash serves as the Editor-in-Chief of The ITEA Journal of Test and Evaluation and as Chair of the ITEA Publications Committee – developing the themes for The ITEA Journal, soliciting and editing articles, soliciting advertisers, and publishing the Association and ITEA Chapter News. The ITEA Journal is the test community’s premier technical publication and ITEA members’ most valued benefit of their membership. Flash continually publishes The ITEA Journal and steers the Publications Committee with unparalleled leadership, vision, and technical acumen. The Board has received numerous and unsolicited compliments on the quality and value of The ITEA Journal from many ITEA members and non-members alike. The ITEA Journal continues to tackle the hot topics and issues that affect our T&E community, such as: “Unmanned and Autonomous Vehicle Testing”; “Test and Evaluation of Hypersonic Systems”; and, “T&E for Cyber Security and Readiness.” When Flash is not working on The ITEA Journal, he is leading the revitalization of the Central Florida Chapter of the Association. Flash has often volunteered to serve as the International Symposium Tutorial Chair, Technical Chair, and Panel Chair. It is with great pleasure that the ITEA Board of Directors takes this opportunity to formally thank and recognize Flash for his hard work, and the leadership he has shown to the ITEA membership and the T&E community.

PRESIDENT’S AWARD – Edward Greer

The 2017 ITEA President’s Award is reserved for an individual who selflessly steps up to assist the president in the execution of the organization’s goals and missions. As ITEA President, I am proud to present the 2017 ITEA President’s Award to Mr. Edward Greer. Everyone is familiar with Ed’s stellar T&E career with DT&E, TRMC, and the Atlantic Test Range. But, I want to tell you about his contributions to ITEA. Ed currently serves on the ITEA Board of Directors, he is an active member of the Symposium Planning Committee, he is the President of the Southern Maryland Chapter of ITEA, and he is actively leading a group for the ITEA Web site upgrade. Ed is an ITEA Life Member, having been a member of ITEA since 1992, and served as President of the Southern Maryland Chapter—ITEA’s original Chapter—from 1995 through 1998. While away, the Southern Maryland Chapter became inactive but upon Ed’s return, he has been instrumental in reactivating the chapter and holding numerous chapter engagements. Ed is a primary member of the Symposium Planning Committee, and is always present on our weekly calls to make speaker recommendations. At the helm of the ITEA Web site upgrade, Ed has become proficient on the tools and technical capabilities of web site management and development, reviewed many proposals, selected a vendor based on budget and capability, and continually meets with the team to assure we get a web site environment our association needs. It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to formally thank and recognize Ed Greer for his hard work and the leadership he has given to the ITEA membership and community.