Professional Ponderings
Almost all of my daily work intersects with my course of study intentionally. For instances where a particularly poignant intersection occurs , a running diary of the bi-directional influence of one upon the other will be journaled about here.
To maintain the focus for this section, only eminent work experiences which directly relate to this intersection will be presented. A more holistic approach tying my research interests, this section, and life in general will be the subject of my Analytic Synthesis tab.
My present professional passion was birthed in early 2005 when I was faced with (largely voluntarily) making a massive career switch between what I had known and done for 16 years running and a new direction in my vocation. Having successfully navigated to the ranks of mid-senior management in the 
military in 2004 (Active Duty Coast Guard Commander – O5) and having completed my latest “standard” 4-year tour of duty (i.e., time to move again!), I was faced with stepping out in a new direction which would combine the managerial and leadership skills developed over 4000 hours of flying helicopters and leading various divisions of men and women in service to our country with the newest wealth of knowledge I had gained from completing a graduate degree in Adult Education. Combined with a desire to return to the location of my youth, the Metropolitan Washington D.C. area, I found myself blessed to find an open position as the E-Learning Program Manager for the Coast Guard at Coast Guard Headquarters. A relatively new position designed to instantiate the foundation and further the use of technology in support of Coast Guard learning and development initiatives, the position afforded me the opportunity to “cut my teeth” (or get my teeth cut!) in this industry. Little did I know that, just one year later, my “uplink” to the Department of Homeland Security (the Coast Guard being one of the Components of DHS) would take new employment and afford me the opportunity to serve in an even greater capacity. Approaching my Coast Guard supervisor, I explained that this now-gapped position was too critical to DHS and the Coast Guard to leave empty any length of time and inquired as to whether he would support a “detail” to DHS HQ. His response…”Fine,…as long as you do BOTH jobs equally well!”
And so it was, that I came to be most fortunate to work four blocks from the White House helping to facilitate the establishment of a foundation and the use of technology to support learning and development activity across the entire Department as a Policy Advisor to the DHS Chief Learning Officer. It was during this tenure that I, miraculously, surpassed 20 years of honorable service and became eligible (can you believe it) for retirement! Successfully competing for the position I had held as a volunteer, I entered full-time public service on April 2, 2007 as the E-Training Program Manager for DHS.
The exposure the Coast Guard had afforded was immeasurable in terms of establishing a vital connection with the Department of Defense. With the (likely $billions) amount that the DOD spends on preparing soldiers, airmen, and sailors for conflict in support of defending freedom, Executive Order 13111 set the stage for formalizing “Using Technology to Improve Training Opportunities for Federal Government Employees.” It was through this exposure that I came to know and love the Advanced Distributed Learning Collaboration Laboratory (ADL Co-Lab) and its leadership regarding the Federal government’s efforts in this area. This leadership has led to such advances as the development of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) and its adoption and application. It has afforded opportunity to integrate my former life and the present.
What do I mean by that? Well, I could not have been nearly as proficient in what I used to do (and what countless aircrews do today) without the use of technology-enabled learning experiences. Whether basic Computer-Based Training (CBT) or experiencing the robustness of full-motion flight simulation, the use of digitally-based learning experiences have been core to learning in my adult life. So how happy was I when an opportunity to also coordinate DHS Modeling and Simulation (M&S) came knocking at my door! I had initiated similar collaboration in the Coast Guard using the annual Interservice/Industry Training, Education and Simulation Conference as the venue to bring like-minded individuals and divisions together to brainstorm organizational vision.