Virginia Tech’s National Security Institute is engaging with national security leaders to form its inaugural advisory board.

This new advisory board was created with the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology advisory board as its foundation, combining the 10 existing members with 10 new members.

“We are extremely grateful for the enthusiastic support from both the returning and new board members,” said Eric Paterson, executive director of the Virginia Tech National Security Institute. “Many of the returning members have long experience advising the Hume Center and witnessed its remarkable growth over the past 15 years. The new members also bring a wealth of experience, especially looking through the lens of industry partners and government agencies who hire Virginia Tech students and look to us for our contributions to some of the most pressing issues facing our country today.”

The board, comprised of high-profile experts who represent government and higher education institutions, works with the institute’s team to gain new insights, anticipate opportunities and future challenges, forge new connections, explore sustainable growth strategies, and cement the institute as the destination for talent, research, and innovation in the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond.

“Over the next few years, advice from our advisory board will be critical as we scale up the vision so clearly defined by the founding of the Hume Center with an intentional focus on the intersection of research execution with student experiential learning,” said Paterson. “We endeavor to see our model deployed to thousands of Virginia Tech students. The guidance from our board will be very important to make sure we align our faculty expertise with critical and emerging technologies that serve the needs of industry and government.“

New advisory board members:

  • David Appel, vice president, national security division of Amazon Web Services
  • Timothy A. Barton, Dynetics Group chief technology officer, Leidos
  • Kenneth Bible, chief information security officer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • Valerie M. Browning, vice president for research and technology, corporate technology office of Lockheed Martin
  • Leanne Caret, executive vice president and senior advisor, The Boeing Company
  • Chris Cummisky, chief executive officer, Cummiskey Strategic Solutions LLC
  • Lisa Finneran, vice president of engineering, General Dynamics Mission Systems
  • Victor R. McCrary Jr., vice president for research, professor of chemistry, University of the District of Columbia
  • John Saad, partner, defense and security segment leader, Guidehouse
  • Robert Wilkie, former secretary of Veterans Affairs

Returning advisory board members, previously serving on the Hume board:

  • Charles Clancy, senior vice president, general manager, MITRE Labs and chief futurist, MITRE
  • Bob Flores, founder and chief executive officer, Applicology Incorporated
  • Ted Hume, retired, government
  • Glenn Kurowski, senior vice president, chief technology officer, CACI International Inc.
  • Fran Landolf, principal, Core Consulting LLC
  • Stephanie O’Sullivan, consultant and retired principal deputy director, national intelligence
  • Scott Stapp, chief technology officer, Northrop Grumman
  • Jeanne Tisinger, former deputy director for support, Central Intelligence Agency
  • John Treichler, chief technical officer, Raytheon Applied Signal Technology
  • B. Lynn Wright, independent consultant, T.S. Pilgrim  LLC

The mission of the National Security Institute is to meet the pressing needs of the defense and intelligence communities by developing their future workforce and advancing interdisciplinary research, technology, and policy.

Written by Isabella Rossi

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