The Backstory
After finishing graduate school I discovered that the life of an Electrical Engineer was not as interesting as I thought it would be! I was at that time employed by the nation’s first gas utility (Baltimore Gas and Electric Company) which fortunately had a diverse technical portfolio. So I found myself jumping into software development on power flow simulation programs and, like many before me, discovered that an EE education was a great foundation for moving into the computer and information management field.
I remember having to download a TCP/IP stack for your operating system, the excitement of browsing the web with NSCA Mosaic, and the first piece of spam that was sent. The possibilities were exciting and I taught myself internet protocols, “HTML Programming”, web server setup/configuration/hosting and some modicum of graphic design skills. I also started a web consulting company to service the needs of small businesses. This allowed me to have the skills to make the formal transition to IT when BGE started an in-house “Web Team”.
During a career that spanned more than a decade, I gained extensive hands-on experience at the network, host and application levels as well as the breadth and depth from architecture to implementation. I have been a system administrator and infrastructure architect who built and secured scalable, fault-tolerant, load balanced, multi-tiered web farms, to a software engineer who has developed everything from shell scripts to complex, distributed, internet facing systems and services.
I was then a successful independent consultant providing technical expertise on enterprise architecture, service orientation and secure software development.
The inflection point in my professional career was a question posed to me by my, then seven year old, daughter:
“Daddy, what do you do?”
The only answer that I could think of (which I did not share with her) was “Daddy makes money”.
It was a sobering wakeup call for me. It resulted in a serious reflection on who I was, how I wanted to live my life, how I wanted to be known by my family, and what I could contribute to leave the world a bit better than I found it.
That man is successful who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of the intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
After much thought, I joined the staff of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), a non-profit university affiliated research center, who offered me the opportunity to contribute to public service. I worked in a variety of roles and eventually became a member of their Principal Professional Staff with a specialty in identity, credential and access management, service oriented architecture and digital security.
I worked on multiple projects for a variety of U.S. Government sponsors including the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Intelligence Community and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In particular, I was the Technical Lead for the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate's Identity Management Testbed.
During this time, I was also on the adjunct faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, and taught a graduate-level course on Service Oriented Architecture in the University's computer science program.
I was then offered the opportunity to join U.S. Federal Government Service, and spent three years at the General Service Administration's Office of Government-wide Policy working on government-wide identity, credential and access management initiatives that impact the security and privacy of Citizen-to-Government, Business-to-Government and Government-to-Government digital interactions.
I moved on from that role to manage three programs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate (S&T)- The Identity and Data Privacy Research, Development & Transition Programs in the Cyber Security Division, as well as the Identity and Access Management Engine (IDAM-E) in the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA).
All three programs had a common goal -- Help government program managers within DHS and across the U.S. Government, easily connect with the public and private sector U.S. and international research and development expertise and resources, needed to enhance the security and trustworthiness of their programs.
I then became the first Technical Director of the DHS S&T Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP), which works with innovation communities across the nation and around the world to adapt, develop and harness cutting-edge technologies and capabilities that are commercially sustainable while simultaneously meeting government needs.
In this role, I identified and conducted due diligence on technologies, companies, products and capabilities that could be adapted to meet Homeland Security operational needs, advised startups and small businesses to ensure that they are commercially successful, and verified that their products and services are secure and trustworthy through rigorous testing.
Now
When I joined the U.S. civil service from the private sector more than a decade ago, I thought I would be there for the rest of my career. Nevertheless, while I do not consider my public service career to be over, I recently resigned from my position at DHS and will be on leave until formal separation at the end of the summer.
I remain engaged with the global innovation ecosystem including startups, accelerators, incubators, venture capital, SDOs, and industry organizations to encourage and support the creation of both incremental and disruptive technologies, and to help develop policies and global standards that ensure that technical implementations are interoperable, secure, and implement the appropriate privacy safeguards.
I continue to struggle with answering the question my daughter asked me back then, but it keeps getting easier every day!
