Captain Mark Adamshick, USN (Ret), Ph.D. is the Class of 1969 Chair for the Study of Officership at the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. From 2007 to 2011 he was the Director, Division of Leadership Education and Development and senior military professor of leadership and ethics at the United States Naval Academy. A graduate of the Naval Academy class of 1981, he was a commissioned officer in the United States Navy for thirty years. He is a resident of Cornwall-On-Hudson, New York along with his wife and three children.

Captain Adamshick is a Naval Flight Officer and Naval Test Pilot School graduate (Class of 1993) and has accumulated over 3,000 flight hours in over 25 different aircraft. A “TOPGUN” graduate, he has over 1,000 carrier arrested landings in fighter aircraft and has flown over 100 combat missions over Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. He has commanded an F-14D “Tomcat” squadron (VF-213) and an F-18E/F “Super Hornet” squadron (VFA-122) and was the operations officer of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-70). He has served in a variety of high level staff positions including the deputy flag officer assignment officer to the Chief of Naval Personnel and the head aviation warfare policy officer to the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon. Captain Adamshick has a Masters degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and earned his Ph.D. in policy studies, specializing in management, finance and leadership, from the University of Maryland, School of Public Policy.

Commander (Ret.) Patrick Dwyer graduated with honors in 1984 from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy. After graduation he was assigned aboard the USCG Cutter Bittersweet home ported in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In 1986 he attended Naval Flight Training was selected in 1990 as a USCG Aeronautical Engineer. He served tours at Coast Guard Air Stations Miami and Savannah flying the HH-65 helicopter as a duty standing and instructor pilot. In 1995, Dwyer was selected and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, where he completed his masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Upon graduation in 1997, Dwyer was assigned to the Coast Guard’s Aviation Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. During his tenure at the ALC, Dwyer was one of seven finalists selected by the Coast Guard for NASA’s Astronaut Selection Program in 2000. He was also the Coast Guard Aeronautical Community’s nominee for the Coast Guard Engineer of the Year in 2000.

Commander Dwyer retired from active duty on August 1, 2004 amassing nearly 4,000 flight hours in both the HH-65 and HC-130. He now is a civilian contractor with Technical Data Analysis Incorporated as a Senior Aerospace Engineer supporting the Coast Guard, DoD and the aerospace community. He has been a keynote speaker on aviation ethics at several annual USCG Academy Ethics Forums, Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) facilitator training sessions, aerospace conferences and annual Student Aeronautical Engineering ALC orientation training sessions. During both his active duty and contractor career he has supported six Class A Mishap investigations and several probes into component failures to include serving as the Salvage Officer in 1992 for the open ocean recovery of a downed HH-65 helicopter (CG6536) and supporting other USCG salvage operations. He served as a key principle engineering investigator on behalf of the Mishap Analysis Board (MAB) to determine the root cause for the loss of aircraft and crew from CG6505 Barbers Point, Hawaii in September 2008 and most recently supported the MAB with the loss of CG6017 and three of four crewmembers which crashed on 7 July 2010. Commander Dwyer, his wife Deanne and his three daughters reside in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Chad Grills is from Frederick, Maryland. He joined Alpha Company 1-175th Infantry Battalion, completing basic training and Infantry school. After finishing, he prepared to contract into an ROTC program. Within days, he learned the Infantry unit he joined would be deploying to Iraq in weeks. He could choose to begin ROTC, and be exempt from deployment, or Iraq. Chad spent 2007 through 2008 in northern Iraq.

He finished his bachelors degree in Economics in 2009. Also that year, Chad provided security for the 56th Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C.

He has received numerous military recognition and awards. Among them: he was the 1-175th Infantry Non-Commissioned Officer of the year in 2010. In 2011, he was one of 31 guardsmen selected for the Guard’s 2011-2012 Defining Moments National Advertising Campaign. He also directly recruited 13 soldiers for enlisted and officer positions in the Army.

In 2011, riots began in Egypt, and Chad’s unit was called to deploy. He completed a 12-month rotation as an Infantry Squad Leader in the Sinai.

Chad’s military contract ended in August 2012. After the military, Chad started a mobile technology business with his good friend Dr. Dustin Chambers. Their first app, Majors, helps students make higher education choices based on empirical data and results. They also publish a monthly Apple Newsstand magazine, the Educationist.

They have three apps in their development pipeline, including an application that calculates actuarially accurate economic damages for attorneys.

Chad is passionate about self-directed learning in technology and entrepreneurship. He maintains that the mobile technology revolution will be the largest creation and transfer of wealth during this decade. This is an opportunity for the U.S. to strengthen its economic footing, and will require tenacious, ethical leadership.

Captain Herbert is a 1983 graduate of Davidson College. He holds a Master of Arts (with Distinction) in National Security Affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School (1992) and a Master of Science (Distinguished Graduate) in National Security Studies from the National War College (2005).

Captain Herbert received his commission through Officer Candidate School in July 1984. He graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Class 131 in February 1985 and reported to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team TWO for his first operational assignment in Naval Special Warfare.

His operational tours include SEAL Platoon Commander assignments at SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team TWO, SEAL Team SIX, and SEAL Team EIGHT. He served as Operations Officer of SEAL Team EIGHT, Executive Officer of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team TWO, and Naval Special Warfare Task Unit Commander at SEAL Team TWO. Captain Herbert was privileged to serve as Commanding Officer of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team TWO, Naval Special Warfare Unit THREE (Bahrain), and the Naval Special Warfare Center, Naval Special Warfare’s basic and advanced training command.

Shore Assignments include Executive Assistant to Deputy Commander, United States Naval Forces Europe, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director for Information Operations, the Joint Staff, and United States Special Operations Command’s liaison to the United States Coast Guard.

Personal decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (two awards), Defense Meritorious Service Medal and various personal and unit awards.

Captain Herbert retired in September 2010 to pursue a Ph.D. in International Relations and Political Theory at the University of Virginia’s Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics.

LTC (Ret.) Dave Jones, originally from Southern California, graduated from West Point in 1985, and was commissioned into the Infantry. He then completed the Basic Course, Ranger School and the Mortar Platoon Leaders Course, and was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in Germany where he served as a rifle platoon leader, 4.2 mm mortar platoon leader, and HHC Executive Officer.

Following the Infantry Officers Advanced Course, LTC (R) Jones served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) as a Brigade Planner, Rifle Company Commander and HHC Company Commander. While with the 101st, LTC (R) Jones deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. After Command, LTC Jones served at West Point as a Tactical Officer at West Point, and a Special Assistant to the Commandant. Following the Command and General Staff College, LTC (R) Jones was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, as a Battalion Executive Officer, which included a deployment to Kuwait as a Task Force Executive Officer, guarding the Kuwait/Iraq boarder during Intrinsic Action. Following his assignment at Fort Hood, he served as a Leadership Instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, where he authored and taught Core Leadership, Leadership in Battle, Leadership and Ethics, and Critical Thinking Courses. While serving at Fort Leavenworth, LTC (R) Jones was selected as the USCGSC Leadership Instructor of the Year. LTC (R) Jones returned to West Point, to serve as the Character Education Officer, with the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic, briefly serving as Special Assistant to the Commandant for both the Honor and Respect Programs, and then later as the Special Assistant to the Commandant as the Strategic Planner.

LTC (R) Jones recently returned from a one year deployment to Afghanistan where he served as the Senior Mentor/Team Chief to the Superintendent at the National Military Academy in Afghanistan (NMAA) which graduated its first officers into the Afghan National Army in January 2009. Since 2003, West Point has assisted Afghan leaders in developing NMAA. NMAA has been referred to as the Crown Jewel of Afghanistan by the President of Afghanistan. Throughout the entire deployment, Jones and his U.S. mentor team had daily interaction with the entire NMAA staff of over 250 Afghan officers, and roughly 1,200 NMAA cadets. Upon return from Afghanistan, LTC (R) Jones served as the Academy’s Cadet Leader Development Integration Officer and the USMA Strategic Planner. Recently retired, after 28 years of active duty service in the Army, LTC (R) Dave Jones currently serves as the Chair for Character Development, at the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic (SCPME) at West Point.

He has earned the Airborne and Air Assault wings, Ranger Tab, the Expert Infantryman’s Badge and Combat Infantryman’s Badge and been awarded the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Defense Joint Meritorious Service Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal (5 OLC), Joint Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (4 OLC), Army Achievement Medal (5 OLC), and NATO Medal. He has earned both a Master of Science in Leadership and Counseling from Long Island University, and a Military Master of Arts and Sciences in Leadership from the Command and General Staff College.

Captain C. Barkley Lloyd, USCG, (Retired) joined Alaska Clean Seas (ACS) as President and General Manager on 2 July 2012. He oversees a world-class, not-for-profit oil spill response cooperative located on Alaska’s North Slope with a business office in Anchorage. ACS provides spill response personnel on shore and off shore with $50 million dollars of specialized equipment including a fleet of 100 vessels to support member companies that engage in oil and gas exploration, development, and production or pipeline transport activities. Prior to Alaska Clean Seas, Captain Lloyd completed 28 years of military service as the Coast Guard’s Chief of Operations for Alaska - responsible for 3.8 million square miles of ocean and 44,000 miles of coastline, including some of the most treacherous waters in the world.

During his military service, Captain Lloyd served both nationally and internationally in the widest variety of assignments. His first command assignment was aboard a patrol boat in Key West, Florida, where he conducted migrant interdiction, search and rescue, and drug enforcement operations throughout the Caribbean. His leadership actions during Desert Shield/Desert Storm earned him a Navy Commendation Medal and Combat Action Ribbon for front-line maritime combat search and rescue operations. Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, he served in downtown New Orleans as the Incident Command Deputy Chief of Staff to coordinate the Federal, Military, State, and Non-Governmental response. On staff at the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, he developed policies and procedures for the Joint Operations Center and led multiple African nations on transformation strategies for maritime operations. He has operated ships from the Antarctic to the Arctic, patrolled the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, as well as Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Peru, and Central America. Captain Lloyd was the on-scene commander leading the largest cold-water rescue in Coast Guard history, when the 189-foot fishing vessel Alaska Ranger quickly sank during a fierce Bering Sea winter storm forcing the 47 person crew to abandon ship. Prior to his transition to Alaska Clean Seas, Captain Lloyd repeatedly represented the United States in Russia, Europe, and domestically, as an expert on Arctic oil spill response and search and rescue. He also orchestrated a historic maritime operation employing a Coast Guard icebreaker and Russian fuel tanker to deliver 1.3 million gallons of fuel through hundreds of miles of sea ice to resupply the City of Nome, Alaska.

A native of Severna Park, Maryland, Captain Lloyd graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1984 prior to attending Officer Candidate School. He holds two masters degrees in National Strategic Studies and Organizational Management. His wife Mari, also a Maryland native, is a recently retired Coast Guard Reserve Captain. They have three grown children: Matthew, Emily, and Bridget, two Golden Retrievers, and reside in Anchorage, Alaska.

Claire Parkinson is a climatologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where she has worked since 1978. Her research focuses on sea ice and climate change and has involved computer modeling, field work in both the Arctic and the Antarctic, work with polar bear and penguin experts, and especially satellite data analysis. Since 1993, she has also served as the Project Scientist for the Earth-observing Aqua satellite, which is collecting data on a wide variety of atmospheric, ocean, land, and ice variables.

Dr. Parkinson has written books on satellite Earth observations, climate change, and the history of science, and has additionally co-written or co-edited books on sea ice, climate modeling, satellite data, and the careers of the women of Goddard. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society, and Phi Beta Kappa, and is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the first female recipient of the Goldthwait Polar Medal from the Byrd Polar Research Center and has received Exceptional Service and Outstanding Leadership medals from NASA. She obtained a B.A. degree from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. She feels tremendously privileged to be a part of NASA.

Chris begins his 11th season as head soccer coach at Coast Guard.

Parsons has an 10-year record of 83-80-21 and has led the Bears to postseason play in five of his 10 seasons (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008), including the ECAC Division III New England Championship in 2008. Prior to 2003, Coast Guard had not played in the postseason since 1998. He was named NEWMAC Coach of the Year in 2007.

Parsons, who has 123 collegiate wins, was the head coach at Vassar College for five years (1997-2001) where he compiled a 40-37-5 record including back-to-back ECAC Tournament berths in 1997 and 1998 and a berth to the NCAA Tournament in 1999.

Prior to Vassar, Parsons was the head coach at Champlain College, a junior college in Vermont from 1993-1996. His team won the 1996 NJCAA Region III Championship. In 1995, he was named the NJCAA Region III Coach of the Year as his team was the Region III runners-up. He had a four-year record of 44-20-4 at Champlain College.

Chris was an NSCAA first-team All-America at Middlebury College where he earned a degree in Economics. He earned a Master’s Degree in Sports Management at UMass in 1990. Parsons holds NSCAA Advanced National, National and Professional Diplomas.

Captain Rick Rubel, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972. In his initial sea tours, he served as Gunnery Officer, Damage Control Assistant, Weapons and Operations Officer on DDGs.

In 1980 he was the Deputy Maintenance Officer for Aircraft Carriers on the Staff of Commander Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

As the AEGIS Cruiser Post Delivery Manager, he was directly involved with repairs of USS PRINCETON after battle damage was incurred from hitting an Iraqi mine during Desert Storm in Bahrain and Dubai.

Captain Rubel has had two commands. Most recently, he commanded the AEGIS Shipbuilding Program - the largest program in the Department of the Navy. With an overall program budget of $54 Billion, he delivered 23 Aegis Destroyers to the Navy during his tour as Program Manager.

While at the Naval Academy, he taught the Core Course of Ethics for Military Officers for 14 years while serving as the Chairman of the Admissions Board.

In 2002, he was appointed to be the first Distinguished Military Professor of Ethics at the Naval Academy. Since that time he has served as the Course Program Director of the Core Ethics Course for the past 10 years.

In this capacity he has co-authored and co-edited the two text books and has published several articles in Journals. His text books and class notes are being used by all of the 59 NROTC universities in the country to teach the Ethics Course. He trains all of the new NROTC Professors of Naval Science around the country each summer, and he conducts a 3-week summer seminar for all of the 41 Captains and Commanders at USNA who teach the course. He also is the Senior Training Officer at the Naval Academy for Honor Remediation.

For two years, the Chief of Navy Chaplains asked him to travel around the world with a team of Ethicists to train the Navy Chaplain Corps in Military Ethics. He is currently teaching seminars to the Navy Chaplain School, and the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG), Navy Supply School, Officer Candidate School (OCS), Command Leadership School, and Naval Air Forces and Surface Forces Symposiums.

He has served on the Maryland State Board for Character Education the past 8 years, and takes Midshipmen out to Maryland schools to give talks on Character to students. He teaches a Character Workshop for the seniors at the Naval Academy several times a week.

Working for a small company in California, he has written 12 Children’s books for Moral and Character Development including activity books on character. His writings have been published in the National Schools of Character Education Partnership newsletters.

In his spare time, he is working on his Ph.D. from the University of London.

Dean Joan Vestrand is the Associate Dean of Cooley Law School’s Ann Arbor campus and teaches Professional Responsibility. Dean Vestrand formerly served as the Assistant Dean of the school’s Auburn Hills campus. Dean Vestrand is the immediate past chair of the law school’s Department of Professional Responsibility. Upon her hire at Cooley in 2002 Dean Vestrand revamped the law school legal ethics curriculum and assisted in the development and implementation of numerous professionalism initiatives and programs there. In 2006, Cooley was awarded the American Bar Association’s E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award for its outstanding professionalism programs.

Dean Vestrand is a former ethics prosecutor having worked at both the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission and the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission. Over a period that spanned more than a decade, she investigated and prosecuted hundreds of ethical violations against lawyers and judges throughout the state. After leaving ethics prosecution, Dean Vestrand became a partner and shareholder in the law firm Moore Vestrand and Pozehl, P.C. which concentrated its practice on defending lawyers in disciplinary matters, representing law students in state bar character and fitness proceedings, and the provision of expert testimony in legal malpractice cases.

Dean Vestrand is a former member of the State Bar of Michigan Representative Assembly and past chair of both the State Bar Special Committee on Grievances and the State Bar Law Practice Management section. Presently, Dean Vestrand serves on the State Bar Character and Fitness Committee. She is past chair of the Oakland County Bar Association (OCBA) Professionalism Committee and its Law Related Education Committee.

Dean Vestrand is a named Fellow of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism and was one of three national finalists for the 2006 Teaching Excellence Award sponsored by the ABA Center for Professionalism and the Commission on Chief Justices. Other fellowships include the American Bar Foundation, the Michigan Bar Foundation and the Oakland County Bar Foundation. In 2007, Dean Vestrand was awarded the OCBA’s Frances R. Avendenka Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Legal Profession and the Community. In 2008, Dean Vestrand received the State Bar of Michigan’s prestigious Champion of Justice Award in recognition of her work in the field of legal ethics and her programs to benefit underprivileged youth. Dean Vestrand, a graduate of the University of Detroit School of Law, is a frequent author and lecturer on legal ethics and ethical behavior at both the state and national level. She has been interviewed on the radio and on television including a guest appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Gary Williams was born in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The oldest of five children, his father Richard was a decorated Korean War combat veteran. Gary and his four siblings were raised with a near reverent respect for those who wear our nation’s uniform. He graduated from Upper Sandusky High School in 1974 and the Tri-Rivers-Marion General Hospital School of Practical Nursing in 1978. Elected to the Pleasant Township Board of Trustees in Marion County, Ohio in 1984, he became the youngest serving township official in Ohio.

A career public employee, he transferred to the Marion Correctional Institution in 1985 and promoted to the Corrections Training Academy in Orient, Ohio as a Training Officer in 1995. A member of the adjunct faculty of Marion Technical College, he completed his paralegal training in 1997 before transferring to the Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio in 2002 as the Training Officer.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resource Management and Leadership from Franklin University in 2003 and his Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Dayton in 2005. Having previously served as a member of the faculty of Southwest College in Cincinnati and Sinclair Community College in Dayton, he has lectured at numerous colleges, universities, military academies, Navy League Councils, as well as military and veteran organizations throughout the country. The author of three books and his SEAL of Honor: Operation Red Wings and the Life of LT Michael P. Murphy, USN was recently named by the Chief of Naval Operations, upon recommendation of the Naval War College faculty, to the Navy’s Professional Reading Program – Essential Reading and a publisher’s best-seller in hardcover, softcover and e-formats.

His latest work, Heart of a Lion: The Leadership of LT Michael P. Murphy, U.S. Navy SEAL is used in numerous Sea Cadet, NJROTC, and NROTC program throughout the country.

He and his wife have six children and two grandchildren and live just north of Cincinnati.