Provide best military advice to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by evaluating and developing force structure requirements, enhancing the models, techniques, and capabilities used by the Joint Staff and combatant commands to conduct studies and analyses for resourcing recommendations and coordinate joint, bilateral, and multilateral war games.

While serving aboard USS LOUISVILLE, a Los Angeles class attack submarine, I was charged with the leadership and management for a six intermediate manager and 45 technician department tasked with maintenance, repair and operation of critical electronics, mechanical, and explosive systems. My responsibilities included developing and executing training plans, mentoring and professional development of subordinates, and troubleshooting, repair and maintenance planning oversight. My team earned the weapons ‘W’ for best Combat Systems Department of the 9 submarines in squadron seven. We were the first of 77 submarines to implement the latest version in ordinance certification, providing critical fleet feedback, resulting in an urgent change to improve the Navy wide policy.

The Executive Officer (XO) of a submarine fills several roles:-The XO is the second in command of the boat, and as such, the only other officer aboard who has gone through the submarine Prospective Commanding Officer course, and is fully qualified for command should something happen to the Commanding Officer (CO).-The XO is the second most experienced officer, so when the captain must take some rest in stressful tactical situations (the captain can’t be awake 24/7), he assigns the XO as “Command Duty Officer,” with authority to make some of the decisions normally reserved for the captain.-The XO is the Fire Control Officer or Assistant Approach Officer during battlestations, whose responsibility it is to advise the captain when the “solution” is sufficient to conduct an attack on a ship, submarine, or land-based target.-The XO is the ship’s Training Officer, responsible to the captain to make sure drills and training events are sufficient to ensure the crew is adequately trained for the breadth of required mission sets.-The XO is the primary Man-in-Charge for all shipboard casualties, responsible to take charge at the scene of a casualty (fire, flooding, etc.) while the captain remains in the Control Room, and to advise the captain on how to proceed. Every crew member serves as the damage control party as the ship at sea can’t call the fire department.-The XO is the department head of the administrative and medical departments, responsible for all human resources-related and medical issues for all embarked personnel.-The XO serves as the radiation health officer, responsible for accurate tracking of all radiation exposure for the entire crew, including investigations of any anomalous radiological reports. -The XO serves as part of the command triad, along with the Commanding Officer and Chief of the Boat, responsible to make sure the Commanding Officer has the best possible advice in all matters and to ensure unity of effort throughout the submarine.

I served as a cultural Intelligence facilitator for study abroad program at Seattle University. In this role I planned, coordinated, and executed a 4 week course at the Seattle University campus as well as a 10 day course of instruction in Guatemala for 25 Seattle University undergraduate and graduate students. The focus of the course was to prepare, practice, overcome and reflect on the challenges faced in creating business relationships across language and cultural barriers.

I led Naval Recruiting District Seattle’s Metro division to find the best and brightest to join the United States Navy. In this role I developed partnerships with the engineering departments of every western Washington university, Northwest Nuclear Consortium. I was responsible for 4 recruiting stations, nuclear officer recruiting for Montana, Alaska, Idaho and Washington, and the personal and professional development of 3 intermediate supervisors, 15 recruiters and over 100 future sailors.

Assigned to the USS HAWAII, a Virginia class attack submarine, I led a 5 member team in the operational control of all reactor water chemistry, the monitoring of reactor plant radiological controls, and the regulatory compliance for personnel exposure. My duties included the creation and implementation of a comprehensive audit and surveillance program to drive self-improvement and regulatory compliance. A cornerstone of the officers onboard, I was selected as Submarine Squadron One Junior Officer of the Year in 2011 from a peer group of over 60 individuals. For two of my three years onboard, USS HAWAII earned the Battle Efficiency ‘E’ for overall best performance over nine other submarines in our squadron.