People Category: AIAA Defense Forum 2023

Lisa R. Sanders

Ms. Lisa R. Sanders is the Director of Science and Technology for Special Operations Forces, Acquisition, Technology & Logistics (SOFAT&L), U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. She is responsible for all research and development funded activities. Ms. Sanders has over 30 years of civilian Federal service. Ms. Sanders entered Federal Service as an

Electronics Engineer at Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis, Indiana where she served in quality engineering, production engineeringand program management. In 1996, she transferred to Naval Air Warfare Center and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Patuxent River, MD, serving as an Electronics Engineer and Program Manager for the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft.

In 2003, she assumed responsibility for the production and modification of the CV-22. During her time at NAVAIR, she managed one of the first Multi- Year Procurements, and executed the modification and delivery of CV-22 production and developmental test aircraft.

Ms. Sanders transferred to USSOCOM in 2005, where she retained responsibility for CV-22 production and worked as the Systems Acquisition Manager for the C-130 program in Program Executive Office Fixed Wing managing all C-130 projects across the Special Operations Forces inventory. In 2010, Ms. Sanders was promoted to position of Deputy Director for the Science and Technology Directorate; and in 2011, was assigned to the position of Director, Science & Technology.

In 2014, Ms. Sanders left USSOCOM to attend the Defense Acquisition University Senior Service College Fellowship in Aberdeen MD. She graduated in 2015, and was assigned to Headquarters, Air Force serving as the chair of the Air Force Capability Development Working Group. In 2016, she was selected as a Defense Intelligence Senior Leader.

Ms. Sanders has two children and two grandchildren.

 

 

 

Donna Cowell Senft

Dr. Donna Cowell Senft, a Senior Level Executive, is Chief Scientist, Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. She serves as the AFGSC commander’s adviser on science, technology, technology transition and innovation on topics related to AFGSC core area programs. As Chief Scientist, she also engages subject area experts, conducts efforts leading to technological enhancement of AFGSC capabilities and advises on the status and scientific and technical quality of AFGSC, Air Force and Department of Defense programs and solutions to AFGSC needs.

Dr. Senft’s career has spanned both fundamental and applied research, technology transition to Air Force and DoD missions and scientific and technical management. Her previous position was Chief Scientist, Air Mobility Command. She has performed research in a number of technical fields and is the author of four patents and numerous technical articles in the areas of friction and wear, nanotechnology, spacecraft power and surface science. She served a postdoctoral appointment at Sandia National Laboratories in the Materials Performance and Reliability branch. At the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, she held positions as bench-level researcher, Advanced Space Power Program Manager, Chief of the Spacecraft Component Technologies Branch and Technical Area Lead for Responsive Space. Dr. Senft also served as AFRL Mission Area Lead for Space Communications, Positioning, Navigation and Timing, creating and managing a diverse portfolio that included technologies for next-generation space communications, GPS spacecraft and GPS-denied navigation.

Official Bio

Martin Lindsey

Dr Martin Lindsey is the Science & Technology (S&T) Advisor to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM).  His chief role is to provide technology expertise to Command leadership and staff and advocate within DoD for S&T activities that better enable USINDOPACOM warfighters to accomplish assigned missions.  To accomplish this, he leads a division of technology experts with operational experience that actively engage with service and agency laboratories, interagency S&T organizations, and industry partners and pursue relevant cooperative efforts with international partners and allies within the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to assuming his current duties, Dr. Lindsey completed 5 years as the Principal Aerospace Engineer within the USINDOPACOM S&T Division and prior to that retired from the Air Force with 20 years of service. His last military assignment was four years as the USPACOM Deputy S&T Advisor, where in addition to his aerospace specialty he focused on expeditionary energy, humanitarian assistance / disaster response and maritime domain awareness technologies. These technologies frequently had him engaging military counterparts throughout Southeast Asia. Before joining PACOM, he earned a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology with a follow-on tour as a Branch and Deputy Division Chief for hypersonic propulsion at the Air Force Research Laboratory. His military career also included Launch Crew Commander and Operations Flight Commander responsibilities for the Atlas II/III and Delta IV space launch systems and an assignment as a Minuteman III ICBM Maintenance Officer. In October 2018, Dr. Lindsey accepted a career tenured civil-service appointment with the Navy Information Warfare Command-Pacific, in their Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division, Pearl City, Hawaii. He has authored or co-authored more than 30 professional papers including peer-reviewed technical journals and is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Associate Fellow.

Thomas Browning

Thomas Browning serves as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Mission Capabilities (DCTO(MC)) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E).  In this role, he directs an organization whose mission is to accelerate the development and integration of new technology to maintain United States’ technological superiority. His responsibilities include identifying, incubating, and transitioning technologies, systems, and system of systems that close time-critical gaps in high-priority, multi-component missions. He is focused on driving down technical risk, gaining Warfighter feedback to better inform requirements, and ensuring that concepts transitioning into acquisition provide needed capability are timely and affordable.

Prior to assuming his current duties, Mr. Browning served as the Director of the Adaptive Capabilities Office (ACO), at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).  In this role, he worked to develop architectural solutions that combined new technologies with new warfighting constructs to address critical National Security challenges. He worked closely with the Services and employed Department of Defense (DoD) wide advanced research and development discoveries to enable joint lethality in contested environments.  He served as the DARPA lead representative for two multi-organization efforts: Assault Breaker II Initiative (ABII) and the Technology Development Working Group (TDWG).

Mr. Browning is a 30-year United States Air Force veteran, retiring at the rank of Colonel as Director of the Combat Air Force Special Access Programs Management Office (CAF SAPMO) – responsible for cradle-to-grave management and execution of the $25B+ CAF SAP portfolio.  He also was direct SAP representative to six United States Air Force Major Command commanders.  Prior to that, he accumulated over 3500 hours across numerous assignments in the F-15A/B/C/D and T-38 aircraft, and commanded at the Squadron and Group levels.  He supported Headquarters North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) as Chief of Battle Management Operations and Executive Officer, performing duties as Commander’s Battle Staff Executive during the events of 9/11. He also served as Deputy Commander for all United States Air Force Forces in Iraq (9 AETF-I) during the final year of OPERATION NEW DAWN.

Mr. Browning is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and holds a Master of Strategic Studies from the Air War College, a Master of Military Operational Art and Science from the Air Command and Staff College, and a Master of Aeronautical Science and Aerospace Management from Embry Riddle University.

Official Bio

Anthony Mitchell

Tony Mitchell joined CAES in June 2021 as Vice President, Advanced Technology and Strategy.

In this role, Tony will lead CAES’ cutting-edge innovation and technology development by supporting advanced future technologies that will leverage and extend CAES’ capabilities in Advanced RF Microelectronics and Space Power and Computing, along with winning positions on programs and platforms of significant future value. He will define and coordinate CAES’ overall IRAD projects; develop partnerships with U.S. government labs, defense primes and military end users and work cross-functionally with the business units to drive a new high level of technology expertise and discipline; strengthen relationships with the Tier 1 Prime community and expand CAES’ footprint, and execute strategic growth plans to identify new customers and expand business opportunities with current customers.

Tony comes to CAES with many years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry. Most recently, Anthony served as Vice President, Business Development and Strategy for Leidos Inc, Dynetics Group, a Fortune 500 company where he led a 30+ person team responsible for growing the company’s advanced research and development, advanced manufacturing and rapid prototyping group business. Prior to this, Tony spent two years at BAE Systems as the Director, Business Development and six years at Areté Associates in Business Development. Tony also served 20 years as a United States Air Force Officer, followed by two years as an Executive Director for the USAF Scientific Advisory Board.

Tony has obtained a number of advanced degrees including a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Highest Honors) from the University of Paris; Master’s Degree in Military Operational Art and Science from Air University; Master’s of Engineering Degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Florida; Master’s of Science Degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering with Japanese Minor (Distinguished Graduate) from the USAF Academy. In addition, he holds numerous certification, has published over 60 articles/conference papers, speaks fluent French and basic Japanese, is a member of multiple industry organizations and is an associate professor of aeronautical engineering and adjunct professor of French at the USAF Academy.

Timothy J. Bunning

Dr. Timothy J. Bunning, a member of the Scientific and Professional Cadre of Senior Executives, is Chief Technology Officer, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. As the primary science and technology advisor to the AFRL Commander, he is responsible for assisting with the planning and execution of an annual $2.8 billion Air Force science and technology program and considerable resources executed on behalf of a variety of customers. He serves as the corporate-level science and technology interface for a government workforce of nearly 6,000 people in the laboratory’s nine technology directorates and 711th Human Performance Wing.

Dr. Bunning joined AFRL in 1990 in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate as a Ph.D. student. His research was funded through an Air Force Office of Scientific Research doctoral fellowship and conducted on-site within the directorate. After earning his doctorate and conducting post-doctoral studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, he spent six years as an on-site contractor in the directorate before transitioning to civil service there in 1998. He has served in numerous positions including as a bench scientist/engineer, first- and second-level supervisor and research leadership positions within the directorate between 1998 and 2015 when he was selected to be the directorate’s Chief Scientist. He served in that position until his appointment as the AFRL Chief Technology Officer.

Dr. Bunning is active in numerous technical communities and is a Fellow of AFRL, the Optical Society of America, the Society of Optical Engineering, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Materials Research Society and the Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering Division of ACS. His research interests center on responsive optical, electro-optical and photo-optical structured organic and hybrid materials and approaches for utility in optical sensing, laser beam control and filtering (modulation) applications. He has co-authored more than 300 referred papers and more than 130 proceedings, has provided editorial in several books and holds 18 patents. He is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and is on the editorial boards of several materials-centric journals.

Official Bio

Mark Lewis

Dr. Mark J. Lewis is the Executive Director of NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute (NDIA ETI), a non-partisan think tank focused on technologies that are critical to the future of national defense. ETI provides research and analyses to inform the development and integration of emerging technologies into the defense industrial base.

Prior to this position, Dr. Lewis was the Director of Defense Research & Engineering in the Department of Defense (DoD), overseeing technology modernization for all Services and DoD Agencies, as well as the acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering. In that role, he was the Pentagon’s senior-most scientist, managing a $17B budget that included DARPA, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Innovation Unit, the Space Development Agency, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC), and the Department’s basic and applied research portfolio.

From 2012 to 2019, Dr. Lewis was the Director of the Science and Technology Policy Institute, an FFRDC that supported the Executive Office of the President and other Executive Branch agencies in the formulation of national science and technology policy. Dr. Lewis is a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, where he served as the Willis Young, Jr., Professor and Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering until 2012. A faculty member at Maryland for 25 years, Dr. Lewis taught and conducted basic and applied research in the fields of hypersonic aerodynamics, advanced propulsion, and space vehicle design and optimization. Best known for his work in hypersonics, Dr. Lewis’s research has spanned the aerospace flight spectrum from the analysis of conventional jet engines to entry into planetary atmospheres. From 2004 to 2008, Dr. Lewis was the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force, the principal scientific adviser to the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force. As the longest-serving Chief Scientist in Air Force history, his primary areas of focus included hypersonics, space launch, energy, sustainment, advanced propulsion, basic research, and workforce development. From 2010 to 2011, he was President of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Dr. Lewis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Bachelor of Science in Earth and Planetary Science (1984), and Master of Science (1985) and Doctor of Science (1988) in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is the author of more than 320 publications and has been an adviser to more than 60 graduate students. In addition, he has served on various boards for NASA and DoD, including two terms on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.

A recipient of the USAF Exemplary, Meritorious, and Exceptional Civilian Service Awards, and of the Secretary of Defense Outstanding Public Service Award, Dr. Lewis was also the 1994 AIAA National Capital Young Scientist/Engineer of the Year; received the IECEC/AIAA Lifetime Achievement Award, the AIAA Dryden Lectureship Award, and the AFA Theodore von Karman Award; and is an Aviation Week and Space Technology Laureate. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.