Board Members

Robert Lightfoot is currently Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Lockheed and the Chair of the ASGC Industrial Advisory Board. Mr. Lightfoot received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1986 from the University of Alabama. In October 2007, he was named Distinguished Departmental Fellow for the University of Alabama, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was selected as a University of Alabama College of Engineering fellow in 2009. Lightfoot serves on the University of Alabama Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board. In 2010, he was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.

Lightfoot has received numerous awards during his NASA career, including a NASA Outstanding Leadership medal in 2007 for exemplary leadership of the Shuttle Propulsion Office, assuring safety for the return to flight of the space shuttle. In 2006, he was awarded the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives, and in 2010 he received the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executives - the highest honors attainable for federal government work. In 2000, Mr. Lightfoot received a Spaceflight Leadership Recognition Award, which recognizes leaders who exemplify characteristics necessary for success. In 1999, NASA's astronaut corps presented him with a Silver Snoopy Award, which honors individuals who have made key contributions to the success of human spaceflight missions. He also received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 1996 for significant contributions to NASA's mission.

Mark Becnel is currently President of Radiobro Corporation.

Miranda Frost is the President and CEO of LogiCore Corporation.

Steve Cash is the Vice President of the Advanced Space Systems Division of QuantiTech.  He has over 35 years of experience in Human Space flight and NASA Programs.  After the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, Mr. Cash was named the Manager of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office and Deputy Program Manager for the Space Shuttle Program.  As the Manager of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office, he was responsible for an annual budget of $1.5B and ensured the design, development, test, and safe flight of the Space Shuttle propulsion elements.  With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, Mr. Cash was named the Director of the Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Directorate at the MSFC, where he was responsible for leading the SMA Directorate providing executive guidance, technical resources, and oversight necessary to ensure safe and successful execution of the MSFC programs/projects, and to sustain an industrial safety program that ensures the safety and well-being of the MSFC Contractor and Civil Servant workforce.  Mr. Cash holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

Kimberly B. (Kim) Doering is the Space Division Vice President for Dynetics, responsible for managing advanced space projects for NASA, the Department of Defense, and commercial customers. Doering is a 33-year aerospace veteran with 13 years' experience at NASA, including serving as deputy program manager of the Space Shuttle Program.

Doering came to Dynetics in April 2012 from United Space Alliance (USA) where she was vice president of Business Development and Huntsville Site Manager, leading USA's support of NASA's Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Constellation Program work in Alabama. Prior to joining USA in 2001, Doering served as NASA's deputy manager of the Space Shuttle Program, where she was responsible for the overall management, integration and operation of the program, including establishing and implementing program policy, directing and controlling scheduling, and directing the activities of a multidisciplinary workforce of more than 18,000 civil servants and contractors in the planning and execution of the Space Shuttle Program.

Before joining NASA, Doering worked as an aerospace engineer for Rockwell International, Hernandez Engineering, and Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Doering has received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Superior Achievement Award, the Team Excellence Award, and the Group Achievement Award, as well as the Rotary Club Stellar Award. She earned a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. James has 13 years of professional engineering experience. He has supported a wide variety of technologies and customers. Over the years, Dr. James has made significant technical contributions in the areas of microelectronics (Hi-k Dielectrics for Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Structures), wireless communications (Adaptive Multiresolution Modulation, Beam Space MIMO, Coherent Beamforming, and cross-layer link adaptation strategies), satellite communications (MUOS UHF Terminal Interoperability, Layered Multicast/Broadcast using IBS/GBS, and cubesat crosslinking/crossbanding for polar coverage), and ballistic missile defense / space situational awareness (sensor resource management, multiple object detection, battle management communications, and radar characterization/modeling). In the past, he has also performed research in the areas of Software Defined Radio (SDR), waveform porting, RF-over-Networks, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Hierarchical Modulation, Unmanned Systems, and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). One of Dr. James’ prior R&D efforts resulted in a new protected wireless communications waveform which is scheduled to be deployed on every US naval combat ship in the near future. Dr. James has 6 technical publications and over 10+ years of experience in multi life cycle R&D, project management, test plan development, modeling and simulation (M&S), test and evaluation (T&E), programming, and developing CONOPS for advanced systems. He has initiated, led, and contributed to over 10 R&D efforts which range from basic research and prototyping to applied research, technology transition, acquisition, and deployment. In the past 2 years, Dr. James has filed 5 patent disclosures through the US Naval Patent Office. In 2017, he received a national honor (Black Engineer of the Year Award, Most Promising Engineer – Government) for the implementation of an Adaptive Multiresolution Modulation Modem which improves the ability of nearly all radios to communicate in extremely low signal to noise power ratio environments. Dr. James’ has also been recognized as a DoD STEM Role Model and member of the Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering) Honor Society, Beta Kappa Chi (Scientific) Honor Society, and IEEE. Currently, Dr. James is currently developing a system which employs machine learning techniques for wireless communications signal identification, pattern recognition, and anomaly detection.

Todd May is Senior Vice President of Space and Mission Solutions at KBR, Inc.

Dr. Kenneth Sartor is an Associate Professor in the School of Technology, Engineering and Physical Sciences at Alabama A&M University.

Charles Scales is currently Director of Business Development at Sierra Lobo, Inc.

Dr. Daniel M. Schumacher currently is a Senior Manager at Torch Technologies, providing leadership for Applied Engineering and Test. He retired after 28 years of government service in 2016. His last position was the Director of the Science & Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The organization was charged with pursuing basic and applied research to achieve NASA’s science and exploration objectives, and management and development of new technologies for exploration. Schumacher was appointed in 2008 to the Senior Executive Service and was the recipient of the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award. He is also an Alumni of Achievement at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Schumacher has degrees from Texas A&M University and UAH and the Senior Executives Fellows program at Harvard University.

Dr. Joey Shelton is Senior Vice President of Defense Systems at TriVector Services, Inc.

Dr. Raymond Thompson is the CEO of Vista Engineering. He has 35 years of experience in engineering design, engineering mechanics, failure analysis, and materials testing. He received a BSE in general engineering in 1974 and a MSE in materials engineering in 1975 from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He received a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1979. Dr. Thompson taught in the Ceramics Engineering Department at Clemson University from 1978-1981, and taught at UAB in the Department of Materials Engineering from 1981-2002, and Department of Civil Engineering beginning in 2008. While in these positions, he taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in engineering design, fracture mechanics, strength of materials, materials testing, mechanics of materials and manufacturing practice. He has also conducted award winning research in materials science and manufacturing processing and presently continues research in these areas. Dr. Thompson has led various national and international committees in these areas.

David Trent is currently the Site Director of the Mobile Engineering Center at Airbus Americas, Inc.