/
Gene Dodaro Announces New Appointments to Health Information Technology Advisory Committee
Published on
Gene Dodaro Announces New Appointments to Health Information Technology Advisory Committee

Seven health information technology experts have been appointed to serve on the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, which offers policy and strategic recommendations to the Government Accountability Office.

Gene Dodaro, U.S. comptroller general and head of GAO, announced the new members of the committee, who will provide advice on the implementation of an infrastructure designed to advance electronic health information sharing, the organization said on Monday. 

“HITAC is composed of individuals committed to improving the electronic access, exchange, and use of health information. Each year, many outstanding candidates express an interest in serving on the committee,” Dodaro said.

The new HITAC members are:

  • Dr. Kikelomo Belizaire, chief medical officer at Pegasystems
  • Shila Blend, health information technology director of the North Dakota Health Information Network
  • Dr. Hannah Galvin, chief medical information officer of Cambridge Health Alliance
  • Dr. Bryant Thomas Karras, chief medical informatics officer and senior epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health
  • Anna McCollister, health technology adviser
  • Deven McGraw, lead for data stewardship and data sharing at Invitae Corporation
  • Naresh Sundar Rajan, chief data officer at CyncHealth

 

Each appointee will serve the committee for three years and may be reappointed for another three-year term.

/
Perpetua Resources Wins DOD Award to Provide Mineral Resources; Halimah Najieb-Locke Quoted
Published on
Perpetua Resources Wins DOD Award to Provide Mineral Resources; Halimah Najieb-Locke Quoted

Perpetua Resources, an Idaho-based mining company, has won a $24.8 million award from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Policy as part of its effort to obtain an American source of critical minerals for missiles and munitions.

The award will enable Perpetua to conduct environmental and engineering studies required to receive a Final Environmental Impact Statement, a Final Record of Decision and other necessary permits, the Department of Defense announced on Monday.

“The Department’s DPA Investments Program is delivering on its core mission to restore domestic industrial capabilities essential to the national defense by enabling the warfighter,” emphasized Halimah Najieb-Locke, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience.

Issued through the office’s Defense Production Act Investments Program and Air Force Executive Agent, Perpetua’s win represents the first award under the Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Fund.

The investment is necessary for the rapid development of a domestic source of antimony trisulfide for manufacturing small arms and medium caliber cartridges along with other missile and munition products.

“This action reinforces the Administration’s goals to increase the resilience of our critical mineral supply chains while deterring adversarial aggression,” Najieb-Locke added.

Perpetua has provided the federal government with mineral resources for decades. The company’s Stibnite-Gold Project supplied antimony trisulfide for the U.S. ammunition industrial base during both World War II and the Korean War. The project is the single domestic geologic reserve of antimony able to meet Department of Defense needs.

Currently, the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Perpetua’s Stibnite-Gold Project is in a 75-day public comment period that will end on January 10.

To support national defense and homeland security initiatives, the DPA Investments Program aims to ensure the present and future availability of domestic industrial resources. In collaboration with the military, other federal agencies and the private sector, the program is intended to determine areas in which critical industrial capacity is underperforming and provide grants, purchase commitments, loans or loan guarantees to promote the industrial development of these areas.

/
DOD Pilot Program to Use Private Investment to Advance Dual-Use Tech Projects; Halimah Najieb-Locke Quoted
Published on
DOD Pilot Program to Use Private Investment to Advance Dual-Use Tech Projects; Halimah Najieb-Locke Quoted

A two-year pilot program launched in August by the Department of Defense in partnership with the Austin Center for Manufacturing and Innovation in Texas will use private funding to accelerate the development of products with defense and commercial applications, Federal News Network reported Monday.

ACMI will fund production work as part of the pilot program and bolster producers of inert chemicals that could have applications in the military and agricultural industry.

According to the report, the DOD is slated to issue funding through the Defense Production Act Title III Program to help speed up the production of non-fossil fuel energy.

“So once the pilot is complete, as far as the grouping of new products that come from that, and if they’re identical to their legacy critical chemical material, then we can try to scale that to other manufacturing sectors,” commented Halimah Najieb-Locke, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience.

Najieb-Locke said DOD could see more private investments to support production of dual-use technology platforms if the pilot program goes well. She noted that the initiative is one of the department’s efforts to attract new commercial partners and mitigate the effects of industry consolidation on competition.

“Since the early 1990s, the defense sector consolidated substantially; we know we transitioned from 51 aerospace and defense prime contractors down to five. But as a result, DoD is increasingly reliant on a smaller number of prime contractors for these critical defense capabilities,” Najieb-Locke continued.

/
Col. Elliott Leigh Instated as New Director of AFWERX
Published on
Col. Elliott Leigh Instated as New Director of AFWERX

Col. Elliott Leigh has assumed leadership of AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force. A change of leadership ceremony was held at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

He succeeds Col. Nathan Diller, who is retiring after 22 years of service with the U.S. Air Force, and will lead AFWERX as it prepares to embark on a new approach to spur innovation across the service branch, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Monday. 

Leigh joined the AFRL directorate in September as its military deputy. During his two-decade career in the Air Force, Leigh held various test and evaluation and program management positions, including chief of the B-21 Raider developmental test program.

AFWERX is releasing transitioning to an upgraded innovation approach that represents its updated priorities aimed at expanding technology, workforce and capabilities.

The AFWERX 3.0 evolution focuses on five specific lines of effort and aims to address the Secretary of the Air Force’s Operational Imperatives.

Space Operations Command Stands Up Office for Acquisition, Integration Efforts
Published on
Space Operations Command Stands Up Office for Acquisition, Integration Efforts

Space Operations Command has launched an office tasked with improving the procurement and integration of new technologies and capabilities into space operations.

SpOC said Monday that the Space Acquisition and Integration Office was formally activated at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado to supply the U.S. Space Force with new warfighting capabilities.

Katharine Weimer, director of SAIO, said the office not only supports acquisition and integration efforts but also provides integrated program, contracting and quality management services in support of SpOC-assigned missions.

SAIO also supports two combatant commands and the USSF’s Space Training and Readiness Command as they build up their own procurement capability.

“We are proud of the speed we executed the acquisition by condensing a normal 14–18-month timeline to six months and being at the forefront of helping STARCOM establish its training model,” shared Weimer.

SpOC informally activated SAIO on June 18, 2021, through the merger of three legacy organizations and two contracting flights.

/
Technology Modernization Fund Invests in USAID, Railroad Retirement Board; Clare Martorana Quoted
Published on
Technology Modernization Fund Invests in USAID, Railroad Retirement Board; Clare Martorana Quoted

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Railroad Retirement Board have been selected to receive investments through the Technology Modernization Fund so that they may build digital platforms meant to improve customer experiences.

“With our investments in USAID and RRB, the Federal Government is signaling a shift to a product mindset, one where we put our customers at the center of everything we do and use technology and design to deliver a better customer experience,” Clare Martorana, federal chief information officer, chair of the TMF Board and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said in a statement published Monday.

USAID will use a TMF investment of $5.9 million to develop an enterprise-wide customer relationship management platform to facilitate and coordinate the agency’s work with companies, academic and research institutions and other organizations.

RRB will receive an investment of $8.7 million from the fund to help implement online self-service systems meant to speed up response to railroad retirees seeking to access services and benefits from the agency.

/
Jay Turner Joins Sigma Defense as COO; Matt Jones Quoted
Published on
Jay Turner Joins Sigma Defense as COO; Matt Jones Quoted

Jay Turner has been named chief operating officer of Sigma Defense Systems, a role in which he will lead operations and business execution of the Sigma Defense portfolio surrounding JADC2, DevSecOps and C5ISR.

Reporting to CEO Matt Jones, Turner will lead the integration of numerous business units into one organization able to seek out and conduct defense work, the Perry, Georgia-based company announced on Tuesday.

“Jay is a great addition to the Sigma Defense leadership team. He not only has expansive knowledge of the C5ISR, signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber markets, he is a driven business leader who knows how to get great results. I am very excited to have him on our team,” Jones emphasized.

Turner holds three decades of leadership experience in the areas of engineering, business development and operations.

Prior to joining Sigma Defense, Turner served as president of Digital Receiver Technology, a radio frequency company focused on designing, manufacturing, integrating and supporting signal exploitation equipment. While occupying this role, he supervised operations and performance for the defense company.

Before his time at DRT, he spent two decades at Argon ST, where he held multiple positions across engineering, program management and business development including lead system and lead engineering roles on the majority of COMINT sensors developed by the company. He also led the enterprise’s business unit and carried profit and loss responsibility for its contracts at the National Security Agency.

Sigma Defense has recently undergone other changes in leadership. Earlier this month, David Huisenga was appointed to the chief strategy officer position to oversee the organization’s go-to-market strategies for JADC2, DevSecOps and C5ISR.

/
Cyber National Mission Force Becomes Sub-Unified Command; Paul Nakasone & William Hartman Quoted
Published on
Cyber National Mission Force Becomes Sub-Unified Command; Paul Nakasone & William Hartman Quoted

Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, designated the Cyber National Mission Force as a new subordinate unified command of the Department of Defense during a ceremony held Monday at Fort Meade in Maryland.

CNMF serves as the joint cyber force of the U.S. military responsible for safeguarding the U.S. from cyberthreats through defensive, offensive and information strategies and activities, USCYBERCOM said Monday.

The new sub-unified command is composed of 39 joint cyber teams with over 2,000 service and civilian personnel who help ensure election security, counter cyber espionage, ransomware and other threats and support contingency operations.

Nakasone, a six-time Wash100 awardee, said CNMF “has always taken that first step forward” as part of USCYBERCOM.

“This has been a command that has understood from Day One, that our strength comes from a series of partnerships,” he added.

Maj. Gen. William Hartman, commander of CNMF, said the designation seeks to recognize the evolution of CNMF into a “forward-looking organization.”

“It’s about building a sustained readiness model that enables us to stay in a fight. It’s about our people: how we develop a dynamic model to recruit, assess, train and retain the world’s most talented cyber force,” Hartman noted.

Erv Koehler: GSA, DOD Collaboration Helps Simplify Sustainable Product Acquisition in Federal Marketplace
Published on
Erv Koehler: GSA, DOD Collaboration Helps Simplify Sustainable Product Acquisition in Federal Marketplace

The General Services Administration is working with the Department of Defense in an effort to simplify the process for federal agencies to buy environment-friendly products.

Erv Koehler, assistant commissioner of the GSA Office of General Supplies and Services, wrote in a blog post published Thursday that DOD’s Sustainable Technology Evaluation and Demonstration program STED endorses manufacturers of sustainable offerings to military installations so that their innovations may be tested for performance and market demand.

The evaluation results are sent by STED to acquisition professionals at the GSA who will determine the companies’ eligibility for the Multiple Award Schedule program. The innovators may also be given a national stock number to expedite future orders, Koehler noted.

He added that the program has led to the discovery and fast-track introduction of nature-friendly commodities to the federal marketplace.

David Asiello, a director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy Installations and Environment, oversees STED.

Laura Stanton: GSA to Grant EIS Transition Extension to DOJ, DHS
Published on
Laura Stanton: GSA to Grant EIS Transition Extension to DOJ, DHS

The General Services Administration is planning to give the departments of Homeland Security and Justice a two-year extension to complete their transitions to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract vehicle.

Laura Stanton, the assistant commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service’s Office of Information Technology Category, said in a blog post published Friday that DHS and DOJ will have until May 31, 2026 to finalize their EIS transition plans.

Stanton said that both agencies have requested the extensions, citing multiple factors including disruptions in the global supply chain and challenges brought by the pandemic.

GSA has agreed to create the extensions to help the departments carry out their plans without disrupting the delivery of critical services.

The agency expects there are more than 60 contracts that will need extensions after the May 31, 2024 deadline. 

“GSA will execute modifications to extend each contract. The justification for these modifications will detail the current status, the delays and obstacles agencies have faced in their transitions, and the timeline in which they expect to have their transitions completed,” Stanton said.

1 … 667 668 669 670 671 … 2,624