Bruce E. Vargo | David F. Musel | Scott Stermer | James D. Hall | Katherine Day | John Scalia, Jr.

Bruce E. Vargo assumed the duties of the Deputy Federal Detention Trustee on April 25, 2011. He previously served in the U.S. Army for 26 years as a Military Police Officer.

While in the Army, Mr. Vargo served in a variety of positions in Europe, Southwest Asia, the Far East, and the Caribbean. His command tours include Commander, 55th Military Police Company in Bubyong, Korea; Commander, 5th Military Police Battalion (CID) in Kaiserslautern, Germany; and Commander, Joint Detention Group, Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mr. Vargo holds a Master of Science degree in Administration from Central Michigan University, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.

Mr. Vargo has received numerous awards and decorations to include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star.

David (Dave) F. Musel was appointed the Director, Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) on December 7, 2009. JPATS provides effective scheduling and safe/reliable transportation of federal, state, and local prisoners and aliens. The Director is an employee of the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT), which is responsible for the management and regulation of the Federal detention programs and JPATS.

As Director, Mr. Musel serves as the principal advisor to the Federal Detention Trustee, the Director of the United States Marshals Service (USMS), and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons on matters pertaining to the transportation of prisoners.

Mr. Musel spent ten years in the United States Army serving as an Air Defense Artillery officer in Germany, an Infantry company commander in the Iowa National Guard and in the Judge Advocate General Corps in the Republic of Korea and Washington D.C.

In 1997, Mr. Musel joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency as trial counsel and in 1998 accepted a position as trial counsel in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice.

In 2000, Mr. Musel became the USMS Chief of Staff and then served as the Deputy Federal Detention Trustee for OFDT from July 2004 to December 2009.

Mr. Musel received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Communication from Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska in 1983, and his Juris Doctor degree from Creighton University School of Law in 1993.

Mr. Musel is the recipient of numerous military and civilian awards and honors, including the 2005 Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Information Technology. He is a member of the District of Columbia and State of Iowa Bar, along with the Army Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He is also a member of the American Corrections Association.

Scott Stermer joined OFDT in February 2004. Mr. Stermer advises the Federal Detention Trustee and Deputy Federal Detention Trustee on all detention program matters that relate to the area of acquisition. He makes recommendations for changes or revisions in policies and practices or other matters required to produce the most effective management of detention resources. Additionally, he assists in establishing requirements and general planning objectives for meeting federal detention resource needs and coordinates procurement actions required to meet current or future needs. He provides advice to officials of the components in the solution of operational or policy problems relating to acquisition of detention services from non-federal providers (private, state and local).

Since joining the Department of Justice in 1986, Mr. Stermer has gained expertise in the financial management and contracting arena. His assignments have been located at several federal correctional institutions in various positions ranging from Correctional Officer to Assistant Chief, Privatized Corrections Contracting Section for the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

In his career, Mr. Stermer’s responsibilities included policy development and oversight management of nationwide contracting and procurement operations for the Bureau, managing several contracts for construction of detention and correctional facilities. In his last assignment, he was responsible for the BOP’s contractual agreements relating to private sector detention and correctional service contracts for federal prisoners.

In 2000, Mr. Stermer participated in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s Acquisition Exchange Program. He was detailed to OMB to inventory and evaluate all federal agencies’ policies and guidelines pertaining to the use of Performance-Based Service Contracting. He received high praise from the Executive Office of the President on his ability to manage a government-wide policy program.

Mr. Stermer is a former member of the United States Air Force, and is currently pursuing a Bachelors Degree in area of Business Law and Public Policy through the University of Maryland. He has attended over 600 hours of specialized Federal Government contract training.

James (Jim) Hall joined OFDT in March 2012.  Previously, Mr. Hall served with the Department of Interior Office of the Secretary as a member of the Chief Information Officers Program Management Office.  As a program manger and the DOI representative for the Federal CIO’s TechStat Working Committee, Mr. Hall planned and executed the implementation of enterprise program review and analysis services, managed deployment of security management and compliance reporting systems addressing fourteen bureaus and some 60,000 end users throughout the United States, and managed IT transformation planning for the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).

For more than a decade in private industry, Mr. Hall managed industrial IT services as an IT Program Manager for vehicle production plants throughout Mexico and as the global planning estimator for manufacturing IT supporting many of the best known cars and truck in use today.  He also served as an Executive Director for a national industrial consulting firm and the President of consumer products manufacturing company.

Mr. Hall holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from University of Maryland and a Master of Science in Information Technology / Program Management from Walsh College in Troy Michigan. Before developing a career in Information Technology, Mr. Hall was proud to serve as an enlisted member of Navy Special Forces and earn a commission to retire as a United States Naval Officer.

Katherine (Kathy) Day joined OFDT in February 2004. Previously, Ms. Day served as Senior Counsel in the Bureau of Prisons’ Office of General Counsel and as Senior Counsel to the Legal Services Corporation. She also served as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and, before that, as a law clerk to the Chief Administrative Judge of the U.S. Department of Energy Board of Contract Appeals.

In private practice, Ms. Day was a partner specializing in commercial law with the Washington, D.C., firm of Wyatt & Salzstein. She also worked as an associate with the New York law firm of Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker.

Ms. Day is a 1979 graduate of Vassar College and a 1983 graduate of the Albany Law School of Union University, where she was Articles Editor for the Albany Law Review. Before entering law school, Ms. Day was a News Editor for several trade publications at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

John Scalia, Jr., joined OFDT in January 2002. Mr. Scalia collects and analyzes data on persons detained by federal authorities and on federal detention programs and develops mathematical and statistical models to forecast future populations of criminal detainees. While at OFDT, he managed the development of the National Repository for Detention Space Availability, an Internet-based database of non-federal detention facilities available for use by federal law enforcement to house federal prisoners.

Previously, Mr. Scalia served as a statistician at the Bureau of Justice Statistics, where he authored 14 agency reports addressing various aspects of the federal criminal justice system. Prior to that, he served at the United States Sentencing Commission, where his responsibilities included the development of a methodology to assess the impact of amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines on the federal prison population.

Mr. Scalia received a Master of Science in Forensic Sciences in 1992 from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1989.