Pilot Megacities Program Announces Graduates
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Sept. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The IDB Megacities Strategic Broadening Seminar (SBS) honored its first class of graduates Friday, August 18, 2017, with a ceremony at Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn, New York. Ambassador David C. Litt (Ret.) was the graduation speaker.
The pilot Megacities SBS was administered by the Institute for Defense and Business as part of the U.S. Army's Strategic Broadening Seminar initiative and hosted at Fort Hamilton with the support of the U.S. Army Garrison there.
The IDB Megacities SBS program is a two week intensive educational and experiential learning opportunity for U.S. Army students to explore and understand the critical infrastructures and urban geography of cities, the technological and physical connectedness of city networks, and the culture and behavior of people and their environment in dense urban areas.
During this pilot Megacities SBS, the fifteen participants spent time in the classroom with some of the most renowned urban studies scholars from universities in New York City and North Carolina. Equally vital to their experience were off-site visits to major players in New York's emergency services "eco-system", such as FDNY, NYC Emergency Management, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and FEMA. These were complemented by meetings in Manhattan and Brooklyn with data and technology, banking, and cybersecurity experts.
The knowledge and skills gathered from the above experiences culminated in capstone projects presented on graduation day. Through an academic paper and a team presentation before a panel of esteemed guests, teams applied the curriculum and demonstrated how they themselves would approach scenarios in a "megacity" or dense urban area worldwide, including natural disasters.
Graduating Class:
LTC Andrew R. Brown, Strategist, HQDA
CPT Nicholas Globig, Operations Officer, Strategic Effects Directorate (FXD), USARPAC
Maj. John J. Gutierrez, Supply Officer, 4th Marine Logistics Group
1LT Christer Horstman, Executive Officer, 25th Infantry Division, US Army
CW4 Abdelkader N. Hosni, Master, Maritime Operations, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, USARPAC
MSG Tywan Jackson, Distribution Integration Branch NCOIC, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, USARPAC
CPT David P. Kearns, Civil Affairs Team Chief, 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, 1st Special Forces Command
MAJ Chin U Kim, Readiness Analyst, NGB HQ
1LT Connor D. Love, Special Projects Officer, USARPAC
MAJ John D. McRae II, State Partnership Program Manager, U.S. Army National Guard, USARPAC
MAJ Nicholas Nethery, Executive Officer, 79th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion
Ms. Shana Serrano, Theater Assessment Analyst, USARPAC/FXD
MAJ Randall T. Stanford, Brigade S3, HHC 2/34 IBCT, Iowa National Guard
CPT Morriz F. Velazquez, Civil Affairs Planner, 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group
SFC Idaya L. Waters-Mendes, 8th Theater Sustainment Command
About the IDB
The IDB is a nonprofit research and education institute formed in 1997 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the state of North Carolina. The Institute provides custom executive and degree-granting education programs for all career levels from the military and government, non-governmental organizations, private sector, and international organizations. IDB features curriculum in logistics and technology, life cycle systems, leadership and organizational transformation, strategic studies, and stabilization and economic reconstruction https://www.idb.org/
Media Contact: Magdalena Mysliwiec, Institute for Defense & Business, 919-969-8008, [email protected]
SOURCE Institute for Defense and Business
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