Mr. Douglas Dawson
Mr. Doug Dawson graduated Magna cum Laude from Spring Garden College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He holds a master's in engineering from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in management from Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island; a master’s in homeland security/crisis management from American Military University, and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Management Development Program and the Naval War College Command and Staff College.
Dawson began his career in research, development, test, evaluation and acquisition of naval aviation systems in 1980 as a draftsman for a Navy consulting firm. In 1984, he joined the civil service at the Naval Air Development Center, Warminster, Pennsylvania. He served in various engineering positions within NAVAIR including head of NAVAIR’s Aircrew Personal Protection Systems Branch.
In 2001 Dawson became the head of the Acquisition Policy and Process Department to the Deputy Commander for Acquisition, where he was responsible for providing the policy, tools, training, and processes necessary for use by Acquisition Program Management (AIR-1.0), the Naval Aviation Program Executive Officers and their integrated program teams. He was also principal acquisition adviser to AIR-1.0, focal point for NAVAIR acquisition reform initiatives, working board representative to the Joint Aeronautical Commanders Group, and executive secretariat to the Acquisition Oversight Council.
Dawson moved on to serve as Principal Deputy Program Manager for Air Traffic Control and Combat Identification Systems (CID) as the senior civilian program manager responsible for managing the acquisition and life-cycle support for all U.S. Navy and Marine Corps ATC and CID including the Joint Precision Aircraft Landing Systems, the National Aerospace Modernization program, Mode 5, shipboard ATC radar systems, and Marine Corps expeditionary radar systems.
Dawson was assigned Principal Deputy Program Manager, PMA-207 in 2005 and was then assigned as the Program Manager in April 2014.
Dawson is a also a Captain with U.S. Coast Guard Reserve currently serving as Deputy Senior Reserve Officer Coast Guard Atlantic Area; the second most senior reserve officer for all Coast Guard operations from the Rocky Mountains to the Arabian Gulf. He is a member of the Acquisition Professional Community, Level III-certified in Systems Engineering, Program Management and Test and Evaluation.