**SPEAKER VITAE**

**David Bergeron** is the Director of Policy and Budget Development for
the Office of Postsecondary Education at the United States Department of
Education.  In this role, David works with Congressional members and
their staffs and the higher education community to develop legislative
proposals for the Department\'s postsecondary education programs. His
office is also responsible for developing regulations and other policy
guidance to implement enacted legislation. In that capacity, David has
worked on four reauthorizations of the Higher Education Act, the
Taxpayer -Teacher Relief Act, numerous Budget Reconciliation Acts.  Most
recently, David and his staff worked on the provisions of the Higher
Education Reconciliation Act that changed numerous financial aid
provisions, but in particular, created two new academic-based grants for
needy students, the Academic Competitiveness Grant and National SMART
Grant.

**Allison Brown** has been with the Department of Education for 23 years
and has been with the TCCU program for approximately 3 years.

**Sonia Feigenbaum** joined the Division of Education at the NEH in
2001. Since then, she has had the opportunity to help many applicants
secure funding in all grant categories available in the division of
Education Programs. She heads the Humanities Initiatives for Faculty at
Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving Institutions and
Historically Black Colleges and Universities cluster. Prior to joining
the NEH, she was on the faculty at Williams College and the University
of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

**Angel Figueroa** is the Natural Resources Conservation Service
National TSP Team Leader. Angel has been with USDA since 1989 having
served in Massachusetts, Ohio, North Dakota, and Maryland.

**Dennis Friday** is Chief Scientist of the Electromagnetics Division at
the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder Colorado.
He assumed this position in October, after having served as a Division
Chief for the past 10 years, and Deputy Chief for 5 years prior to that.
Dennis also served as a Program Analyst in NIST Director's Program
Office in Gaithersburg, MD, for a year; as Division Program Development
Coordinator; as Chairman of the NIST Research Advisory Committee; and as
the NIST Liaison to the DOD Calibration Coordination Group. Prior to
joining NIST, in late 1979, in the Center for Applied Mathematics, he
was a member of the technical staff in the Operations Research Center of
Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey; an electrical engineer with
Boeing in Seattle, WA, and at Cape Canaveral, FL; a consultant in signal
processing for Locus Inc. and the Applied Research Labs in State
College, PA; and a measurement systems design specialist at the GE Space
Technology Center in King of Prussia, PA. Dennis also served as a Peace
Corps Volunteer in Swaziland. He attended Drexel University, and holds a
BS and PhD from Pennsylvania State University.

**Ralph Hines** is Director of the U.S. Department of Education's
International Education Programs Service, which administers the
international education programs authorized under Title VI of the Higher
Education Act (HEA) and Section 102(b)(6) of the Fulbright-Hays Act. He
manages the major federal programs dedicated to the maintenance and
development of a national capacity in foreign language area studies and
international business. He has held a variety of administrative,
programmatic and management positions doing his 36-year tenure with the
Department's international education programs. Mr. Hines has served the
public well in a great variety of professional activities, including
work on inter-governmental advisory groups and task forces in the United
States and abroad that focused on the totality of the federal effort in
the field of international training and exchanges. His professional
activities have included travel and consultations in the Americas,
Africa, Asia, Middle East, and the Caribbean. He holds BA and MA degrees
from Norfolk State University and the George Washington University,
respectively and a Senior Executive Fellows certificate from the John F.
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

**Ron His Horse is Thunder** serves as Chair of the President's Board of
Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities. His Horse is Thunder, a
member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, was elected tribal chair in
2005. Prior to that time he served as president of Sitting Bull College
for eleven years, responsible for overall college operations, public
relations and liaison to tribal, state and federal governments. Ron His
Horse is Thunder has also served as president of Little Hoop Community
College, in Fort Totten, ND; and of Standing Rock Community College
before it was renamed Sitting Bull College. Ron His Horse is Thunder
earned a J.D. degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law
and a bachelor\'s degree in political science from Black Hills State
College.

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**Len Lintner** is the Acting Chief, State Administration Branch. Mr.
Lintner manages activities associated with the Perkins State Basic and
Tech Prep Grants. He provides leadership that includes oversight of all
programmatic issues related to career and technical education assistance
to the states, the monitoring process, and audit resolutions. Although
Mr. Lintner is not responsible for oversight of state accountability
under Perkins IV, the work that is accomplished by his monitoring teams
serves to support states in meeting performance goals.

**Dan Litynski** is currently serving with the National Science
Foundation (NSF) as Program Director (Physics) and has served as Acting
Division Director within the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
under the provisions of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA). He is
a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western Michigan
University (WMU) and completed five years of distinguished service as
Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Provost and Vice President for
Academic Affairs, and Interim President at WMU. Major initiatives
included strategic planning, implementation, and reorganization at
university and college level, and the planning and implementation of a
new 270 acre, over \$100 million, engineering campus collocated with a
Business Technology and Research Park. Brigadier General (retired)
Litynski served in the U.S. Army for over thirty years and completed
nine years as Head of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at
West Point before joining WMU in July 1999. Teaching, research, and
educational innovations in physics, optics, electrical engineering and
computer science are included in numerous publications, awards, and a
patent. Education includes Ph.D. and B.S. in Physics (Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute) and M.S. in Optics (University of Rochester)
degrees. National service education includes the Army Command and
General Staff College, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces of
the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. Military awards and
decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal and Bronze Star.
Appointed to six honor societies, is a member of seven professional
societies, and has several professional honors and awards. Senior member
of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and
President of the IEEE Education Society.

**Sylvia Lyles** is the Acting Director, Discretionary Programs and
Innovation Group (DPIG), Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE)
for the Department of Education. The DPIG is responsible for developing
policy and programmatic guidance and providing a broad range of services
to grantees in response to the mandates of Perkins IV. Ms. Lyles is
responsible for program implementation and management for the Native
American and Hawaiian grants under Perkins IV, Sections 115, 116, 117,
and 118. She will lead the discretionary grant competitions planned for
2006-2007.

**James Manning** serves as Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary
Education, advising the Secretary of Education on all matters related to
postsecondary education and administers programs that support students
and institutions of higher education nationwide. A native of Boston,
Massachusetts, Mr. Manning is a graduate of Northeastern University. In
2001, he became Chief of Staff in the Office of the Deputy Secretary. He
served as the principal advisor to the Deputy Secretary with
responsibility for budget, policy and program issues. Jim left the
Department in 2003 when the White House asked him to serve as the Acting
CEO and Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for National
Community Service. He directed Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and the Learn
and Serve programs, overseeing the grant-making process and the Office
of Development and Leadership Training. In February 2004, he returned to
the Department of Education as Chief of Staff in the Office of Federal
Student Aid, where he continues to serve in this position.

**Lara Moody** is a licensed Professional Engineer with Iowa State
University in the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department in
Ames, Iowa. Lara's office developed the TSP Core Curriculum that may be
adopted by other institutions.

# Randi Neff recently joined NRC's Office of Human Resources (HR), as a Training Program Specialist (grants) to expand the education grants program for institutions of higher education for the support of courses, studies, training, curricula, and disciplines pertaining to nuclear safety, security and environmental protection. Ms Neff has spent the last 5 years developing, administering and monitoring grant programs and activities at NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, NOAA's Office of Education and at NOAA's Grant Management Division.

**Jim O'Connor** is the Director of the Small Business Training Network
(SBTN) at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). He has been with
the SBA for over twelve years and has held various positions in program
management, policy formation and business development. As the director
of SBTN, he is responsible for the agency's online training environment.
More than 5,000 small business clients each week register for free SBTN
online courses. Jim is also an adjunct business professor at Anne
Arundel Community College and is on the school's Business Advisory
Board. He has over twenty years of experience in business and
government.

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**Van Pace** has worked in every level of grant management policy and
operation during her career. Before employment with the federal
government, she was a Director of a non-profit agency and worked as a
fiscal officer for several other non-profit agencies. She had
responsibility to research potential program eligibility criteria,
assess program feasibility, and produce documents to apply for funding,
in addition to providing supervision and training to in the
implementation of federal funded programs. She negotiated and executed
contracts, federal and state grant awards, cooperative agreements and
other types of assistance awards. She worked with the federal government
in both program and fiscal management of assistance programs both in
Washington, D. C. Headquarters offices and at Regional Offices. She
currently holds the position of Director, Grant Policy and Oversight
with the Department of Homeland Security.

**Jagadeesh Pamulapati** joined the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT)) as the
Deputy Director for Laboratory Management in June 2006. In this
position, Dr. Pamulapati serves as the Army's Chief Scientist's expert
advisor for all aspects related to the strategic planning, review and
oversight of Army laboratories and research personnel activities.
Specifically, he evaluates and oversees implementation of policies and
procedures for the Army's Laboratory Program. Additionally he oversees a
portion of the Applied Research Portfolio for the Chief Scientist. Dr.
Pamulapati received his B.S.E., M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Electrical
Engineering from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He holds eleven
patents and has contributed to more than 40 archival journal
publications and three books. On numerous occasions, he has been invited
to lecture at national and international fora for industry and academia.
Besides the Army War College in Carlisle, PA, he has been a visiting
lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Rutgers, The
State University of New Jersey, Piscataway. Since 1991, he has been an
active member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering.

**Laura Petonito** is Acting Director of University Programs and Chief,
Education Programs in the Department of Homeland Security's Office of
Research and Development. Ms. Petonito is responsible for DHS S&T
science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) education and
workforce development initiatives. Prior to joining University Programs,
Laura served as the Office of Naval Research Program Manager for STEM
education programs, including investing in and building research skills
for students attending TCUs, HBCUs, and HSIs and at the Department of
Veterans Affairs headquarters office evaluating the performance of
Veterans Health Administration. As a professional staff member of the
U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, she spent
over a decade serving as the Committee's expert in food and nutrition
health-related issues and commodity marketing programs. She has a
master's degree in Health Education and is a PhD candidate in Education.

**Michelle Rathbun** is the diversity outreach coordinator for the
Office of Workforce Development for Teachers & Scientists in the U.S.
Dept. of Energy's Office of Science. She coordinates publications and
outreach to support science education programs for teachers and
undergraduate students. The programs can be found on the Web at
[www.scied.science.doe.gov](http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/)

**Tuwanda M. Smith, ESQ.,** gained employment with NRC's Office of Small
Business and Civil Rights (SBCR), as Program Coordinator for MSIP, on
April 3, 2006. Upon her arrival, she was task with developing an
outreach partnership program with Minority-Serving Institutions. Ms.
Smith has received numerous citations for developing programs to assist
individuals pursue education, career, and life goals. In 2003, Ms. Smith
received a *Meritorious Service Award* for 13 years of outstanding
services to the citizens of Prince George's County in the field of civil
rights.

**Margaret Spellings** has served as Secretary of Education since
January 2005. Prior to her tenure as Education Secretary, Spellings
served as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, where she
helped create the *No Child Left Behind Act* and crafted policies on
education, immigration, health care, labor, transportation, justice,
housing, and other elements of the President's domestic agenda.
Previously, Spellings worked for six years as Senior Advisor to Governor
George W. Bush with responsibility for developing and implementing the
Governor's education reforms and policies. She graduated from the
University of Houston with a bachelor's degree in political science.

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