Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Professional Engineers (PEs)
Carl DeFranco
Carl DeFranco
Systems Engineering and Acquisition, Civil and Electrical Engineering
Mr. DeFranco is currently supporting a range of studies for the DoD and DoE in the areas of systems engineering and logistics. He also develops advanced training courses for acquisition and logistics as well as systems engineering. He is an expert database developer for RAMC analyses. In this capacity he developed the RAMC analysis dashboard for the Army’s FLIR system under the Persistent Surveillance Systems – Ground (PSS-G) program. Mr. DeFranco was also involved in the preparation of the Logistics Demo and testing of troubleshooting procedures for SRCTec’s Lightweight Counter Mortar Radar (LCMR) V3 program.
Terry McCoy
Terry McCoy
Acquisition and Logistics, Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Mr. McCoy is a proven business leader with extensive corporate and managerial experience to contribute to organization strategic and tactical goals. He possesses excellent oral and written communication skills, broad business acumen, and demonstrated success in building and leading diverse program teams. Mr.McCoy is a driven performer passionate about successful outcomes, relationships, mentoring and teambuilding. Mr. McCoy is currently consulting with firms working within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DoE) markets to establish and advance their internal total life cycle management and systems engineering capabilities.
Discipline Specific
Discipline Specific
Rich Genninger
Rich Genninger
Sustainment Architect and Corporate Strategist
Mr. Genninger is a hands-on manager with a proven ability to grow logistics organizations, as well as senior and junior personnel into functional/program lead positions. Mr. Genninger has functional management skills along with Line of Business (LOB) commitment management, program planning and implementation (proven program management skills); results-oriented; excellent problem determination and resolution skills; he has excellent communication and presentation skills, is computer literate and interfaces comfortably at all customer technical and management levels.
Mr. Genninger has supported and/or written more than 50 proposals for various businesses across the corporation in Supportability and Technology Refresh/Technology Insertion. He was a technical writer in the development of a PBL Working Guide for a DoD corporation. He participated with various community of practices and supportability engineering groups, and served as one of the lead developers for a newly formed logistics and sustainment institute.
Mr. Genninger’s papers include Embedded Adaptive Training (1996). He was the speaker at numerous conferences throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and the lead developer of several unique TOC trade space models.
Alena Jeffery
Alena Jeffery
Senior Program Manager
Alena is a motivated and pro-active PMP certified Agile manager, military spouse, first-generation immigrant and graduate with honors from a HBCU with comprehensive education and subject matter expertise in supporting large scale Government and Military contracts, projects and programs, leading cross-cultural teams, managing client and stakeholder relationships, and working as a liaison between the delivery teams and various management layers, seeks position within the qualifying field to become a valuable member of the team. She has a steadfast work ethic and pays meticulous attention to detail, She brings diversity, perspective, unique capability to AAC.
Wayne Johnson
Wayne Johnson
Director of Intercultural Communication, Senior Instructional Systems Designer & Practice Leader for Cross-Cultural Understanding & Linguistics
Mr. Johnson possesses more than 30 years of experience in higher education leadership, intercultural communication, and Instructional Systems Design (ISD). He has worked and researched worldwide and has taught in several international settings, including the UK, Poland, and Japan.
As a recognized expert in Cross-Cultural Understanding, Mr. Johnson's skillset includes multi-regional expertise, supported by political, cultural, sociological, economic, and geographic awareness. He directly supports the Defense Language Institute's Foreign Area Officers (FAO) language development program engaged in regionally focused political-military operations to advise senior leaders and support deployed commanders throughout military operations.
Mr. Johnson is widely published, including five textbooks on teaching culture and language, and more than 30 publications in international academic journals. He is a sought-after presenter at many international conferences. He specializes in multiple Eastern and Romance languages.
Mr. Johnson holds an MA in Teaching and Education from the School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont. He also holds a BS in Sociology and Health Science from the State University of New York, Brockport, New York. In addition, Mr. Johnson was a tenured Professor at Ryukoku University, Faculty of Intercultural Communication in Kyoto, Japan.
Dustin LeClair, PMP
Dustin LeClair, PMP
Program Manager
Mr. LeClair’s wide-ranging background from university nuclear operations through policy analysis and development and program management provide him with a breadth of experience in nuclear strategy and program development and execution. He brings a combined understanding of strategic approaches to policy application and the execution of specific programs and projects that directly support national goals in the control of and maintenance of U.S. nuclear capability. His educational achievements and certifications enable him to effectively plan, manage and execute complex activities in support of that goal.
Experience: Mr. LeClair’s career includes experience as a Deputy Nuclear Reactor Supervisor at the Texas A&M Nuclear Science Center where he supervised production of radioisotopes for medical and commercial uses and as an Energy Security Policy analyst at the George C. Marshall Institute providing analysis for the formulation of DoD energy policies and technical directions and participating in conference events and activities on topics of interest. While at SAIC, he led a team of researchers in evaluating strategic weapons verification, negotiated with other Federal agencies on investment alignment for radiological detection technologies for national security. He also authored guidance for USAF implementation of the US-IAEA Integrated Safeguards and Additional Protocol agreements. As an R&D Program Manager for Schafer Corp., he performed major program management tasks including managing an R&D portfolio, developing and maintaining project plans, working with operational users to develop well-defined requirements for prevention of radiological and nuclear smuggling, developing program documents including acquisition plans, SOWs and related documents for executing contracts, interagency agreements, and similar agreements. As a Federal program manager for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), he performed oversight of design and construction of line item construction projects, developed strategic plans to guide a $400M annual investment baseline, managed support contracts as the Contracting Officer’s Representative, and directed a project to increase the efficiency of the Earned Value Management process across multiple programs.
Dalton Lorenz
Dalton Lorenz
Mechanical Engineer
Mr. Lorenz earned a bachelors degree in mechanical aeronautical engineering from Clarkson University, located Potsdam, NY. He is currently in the process of earning his masters degree in analytics, with a focus on business analytics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, located in Atlanta, GA. Mr. Lorenz has relevant coursework experience in financial modeling, data visualization, regression, machine learning, time-series modeling and optimization.
Past Experience: From 2017 to 2020, Mr. Lorenz served as a Mechanical Engineer for Pratt & Whitney, located in Middletown, CT. In this role, he obtained systems-level engineering insights through the engineering development program as a static structures, kinematic design and rotating structures engineer for the A320 NEO PIP High Pressure Compressor (HPC) commercial aircraft engine. He integrated innovative solutions through design, structural analysis and engine program reviews for the HPC Split Case, Stator Vane Actuation System, and three stages of integrally bladed rotors. He ensured parts met program requirements while also minimizing the weight through design iterations to hit key durability metrics. Mr. Lorenz created automation routines for structural analyses using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) and MATLAB to improve solution turnaround times as much as 80 percent. He developed a tool for the preliminary design phase using Python which reduces the iterative design feedback loop as much as 50 percent, while sacrificing about 10 percent in accuracy, for faster parts development, Additionally, Mr. Lorenz oversaw, mentored and aligned engineers as a team lead to ensure deadlines were met.
In the fall of 2014 and the summer of 2015, Mr. Lorenz served as Product Engineer Co-Op for Moog Space and Defense, located in East Aurora, NY. In this role, he designed, fabricated and assembled an orbital weld purge gas delivery stand and a hot water flush system, to progress the manufacturing capabilities of space products, He also conducted failure prevention via fault tree analysis for the EM Hellfire Missile and aided in failure investigations for critical space hardware.
Additionally, from 2019 to the present time, as an extracurricular activity, Mr. Lorenz has been working on a business valuation and screener tool. He developed web scraping tools to pull financial data from all S&P 500 companies back to their inception. He also implemented valuation strategies such as discounted cash flow analysis by using regression and exponential smoothing models to determine probable long-term growth rates.
Chad Lowry
Chad Lowry
Director of Crane Operations
Chad is currently assigned to a persistent surveillance system ground (PSS-G) US Army contract. He oversees refurbishment and upgrade activities of surveillance trailers for the US Army. His duties include maintaining staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees and developing personal growth opportunities. His staff job is to improve results by coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; conducting training, implementing enforcing systems, policies, and procedures. He is in charge of complete operations by developing schedules; assigning and monitoring work, gathering resources, implementing productivity standards, resolving operations problems, maintaining reference manuals and implementing new procedures. He ensures quality service by enforcing quality and customer service standards. Mr. Lowry has a Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Computer Technology from Indiana State University.
Brenton Manweiler
Brenton Manweiler
Director of Systems Engineering
Mr. Manweiler is currently a Systems Engineering Director and Project Area Manager for AAC. In this role, he is responsible for providing Total Lifecycle Systems Engineering support for AAC Prime contractor customers such as Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) and Alion Science and Technology. With his tenure at AAC Brenton has managed multiple programs delivering RAM-C and life cycle cost analyses for CNS. Through the trained use of advanced analytics software, he had provided valuable information to our prime customer and advanced the quality and methodology of product AAC delivers on its contracts. He is certified in ITIL Foundations and has completed his six-sigma green belt training.
Mr. Manweiler holds a Masters in Systems Engineering from the College of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, George Washington University, Washington DC (2017). He also holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration, Computer Information Systems and Management Concentrations from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO in 2013.
Eric Mazin
Eric Mazin
Systems Engineering and Configuration Management (CM) SME, AAC Fellow
Most recently, Mr. Mazin has been working as a consultant to CNS specializing in Change Management and Requirements Management Tooling. In late 2019, Mr. Mazin took on the challenge of implementing a requirements change management workflow in DOORS using DOORS eXtended Language (DXL). This includes creating a user interface as well as database transaction processing scripts in DOORS. It is expected that this prototype will be the foundation for future interfaces with other CNS tools used by engineering such as Active Risk Management and SAP HANA. Mr. Mazin has also been a contributor to the Mission Engineering Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP), Requirements Engineering Management Plan (REMP) and the Requirements Management System Database Design Document (DBDD).
Denise Miles
Denise Miles
Accounting Manager
As the Accounting Manager, Ms. Miles is responsible for all accounting operations including but not limited to AP, AR, PR, project billing & reporting, cash flow, and producing monthly and yearly financial statements. She takes an important role in maintaining accounting compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) as well as government taxing agencies. She interfaces with AAC’s outside CPA firm to facilitate year-end financial statements. Ms. Miles is also responsible to train and supervise newly hired accountants.
Prior to joining AAC, Ms. Miles worked at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, NY where she had increasing responsibilities over 21 years with the most recent being Manager of Budget & Decision Support. Prior to the hospital, she worked for D’Arcangelo & Co., LLP in Rome NY. While there she performed Audits and obtained her CPA.
Ms. Miles Graduated from Utica College of Syracuse University with a BS degree in accounting. She is a Licensed CPA in the State of New York.
Ross Nichols
Ross Nichols
Senior Leadership Consultant
Mr. Nichols serves AAC as a senior consultant for a variety of projects. He brings more than 30 years of proven leadership and management experience in a variety of military and civilian roles.
Mr. Nichols worked more than 25 years in industry in various leadership roles within maintenance and operations organizations where he was a certified reliability engineer. He worked to improve asset reliability through asset strategy implementations and predictive and preventative maintenance measures. Mr. Nichols served as the operational excellence leader, where he led manufacturing excellence initiatives. His results earned him a reputation as an inspirational leader known and trusted for achieving excellent results, building cohesive teams, and affecting positive organizational change.
Building upon his leadership experience in military, civilian, maintenance, and operations, Mr. Nichols now serves as a Vice President for an educational non-profit organization where he teaches the language, literature, and lands of the Bible. He is an internationally known speaker on topics related to the Bible, and his popular talks are streamed on social media to a growing global audience. He frequently travels to Israel and leads several Holy Land Tours each year. Mr. Nichols is also a show host for Israel News Talk Radio. He is knowledgeable of the modern-day realities involved in past and present pursuits for peace in the Middle East. Mr. Nichols recently attended a course in Israel on Counterterrorism and Cyber Security and is actively engaged in countering antisemitism in every form.
Jeff Owens
Jeff Owens
Director of Linguistics, Senior Instructional Systems Designer & Practice Leader for Learning Systems & Training
Mr. Owens possesses more than 20 years of experience in foreign language course development and instruction. He has superior foreign language proficiency and provides hands-on instruction for AAC’s public sector clients.
As a linguistics expert, Mr. Owens manages course development for AAC’s foreign language sustainment program at the Defense Language Institute’s Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). He also manages AAC’s Translation Team, providing diverse translations in more than 140 languages.
Mr. Owens is AAC's Program Manager for the Defense Language Institute's Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) Foreign Area Officer (FAO) and Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS) Programs. He leads AAC's Training Center, designing training courses on linguistic and intercultural competencies.
Mr. Owens holds an MA in Multicultural Education and Educational Theory from Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY. Additionally, he holds an MS in Computer Science from the State University of New York (SUNY) Polytechnic Institute. He holds a BA in Romance languages from Niagara University.
Steve Ross
Steve Ross
Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Quality and Logistics SME
Mr. Ross is currently a Senior Staff Engineer for AAC. In this role, he is responsible for providing systems engineering support for Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) located at Oak Ridge, TN and Pantex, TX. Additional tasks on other programs and proposal efforts may be required.
Mr. Ross worked for KA Hamilton and Associates and Sub Contract by Ansaldo Signal He was a consulting engineer for new product manufacturing and a construction contractor for manufacturing operations. As a consulting engineer, Mr. Ross provided on-site factory support for the first 80 units of Car-borne Controller for Communication Based Train Control (CBTC), built in Shenyang, China. He facilitated design changes, correct specifications, troubleshooting, quality audit, and LEAN introduction. As construction contractor, Mr. Ross was responsible for light commercial renovation projects in support of LEAN objectives, including systems wiring area, surface mount assembly expansion, vital relay encapsulation relocation, and to service and repair the facility.
Mr. Ross worked for Ansaldo Signal (formerly Union Switch & Signal), Railway Signaling and Train Control Systems, located in Batesburg, SC. Mr. Ross was a Quality Manager for manufacturing and global supply chain.
Mr. Ross worked for General Electric Company (currently Lockheed Martin), located in Syracuse, NY from 1984 to 1989 and again from 1990 to 1992 as part of the Aerospace Group: Ocean and Radar Systems Division. From 1990 to 1992, Mr. Ross was a component/hardware design engineer for product engineering.
Ron Sutphin
Ron Sutphin
Small Arms SME and NRA Certified Teacher and tactics Expert
Mr. Sutphin supports the business development efforts of Advanced Automation Corporation (AAC) and performs research in to a wide variety of technical subject matter in support of proposal creation. He is an experienced technical writer and aptly expresses his knowledge of many years working as a military officer in the acquisition fields of systems engineering and program management.
Mr. Sutphin has an extensive background in all aspects of firearms; firearms support technology, and explosives. Mr. Sutphin is an adjunct law enforcement training officer with the local sheriff’s office. Mr. Sutphin is certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a first responder instructor in counter-terrorism/counter-improvised explosive device (IED) and radiation HAZMAT awareness, and is certified as an emergency management, firearms and explosives training facilitator by local and federal public safety agencies.
Jeremy Tyler
Jeremy Tyler
Business Strategist, Logistics Analyst and Mobile Apps Developer
In his informatics and logistics role for AAC, Mr. Tyler is leading the development of streamlined, agile sustainment application technologies for mobile phones. Mr. Tyler also actively teaches across the U.S. in the areas of systems engineering, program acquisition, production, quality, and manufacturing and logistics all in the context of long term sustainment. His DoD Secret clearance is currently pending.
Mr. Tyler has more than 10 years of experience in the sustainment and depot support for military systems fields. He has been at the technician level to help maintain and sustain systems for more than 8 years.
Corporate Administration
Corporate Administration
Tracy Armstrong
Tracy Armstrong
Facility Security Officer and Senior Administrator
Ms. Armstrong has a history of military experience and administration which she brings to Advanced Automation Corporation (AAC). Under Ms. Armstrong’s direction, AAC was registered as an Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) and obtained its Department of Defense (DoD) Facility Clearance. Ms. Armstrong has eight years of experience as the FSO/security specialist for AAC. All personnel requiring security clearances are cleared through her. Ms. Armstrong also deals with ITAR and foreign employment and tax issues for AAC’s outside the continental United States (OCONUS) efforts. Additionally, Ms. Armstron provides project management duties, to include tracking contract requirements deliverable lists (CRDL) and management of deliverables. She also provides research and assistance with certificates need for the growth and development of the company.
Jolene Miller
Jolene Miller
Office Manager and Accounting Associate
As Office Manager, Ms. Miller is responsible for inter office communication and coordination. This includes processing of all incoming and outgoing employees and their associated human resources (HR) issues. In that role she also coordinates many purchases and shipping and receiving processes. Jolene is also an Accounting Associate making sure all income and expenses are entered correctly into the accounting system. Ms. Miller is a licensed Notary Public in the state of New York.