JUST KEEP MOVING
What’s that saying—when one lab door closes, another one opens? Such was Briana Kenerson’s experience. In late 2019, staff reductions at the U.S. Army Research Insti- tute for Infectious Diseases threatened to bring her work there to an end. But before that could happen, she was contacted by a recruiter who offered her a position with the Joint Project Manager (JPM) for CBRN Medical within the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND).
“I didn’t know anything about the work or what a bioengineer does. It sounded intim- idating to me,” she said. “However, when I spoke to the site lead, she talked me off the ledge and encouraged me to join.”
BRIANA KENERSON
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense, Joint Project Manager for CBRN Medical, Joint Product Manager for Chemical Defense Pharmaceuticals
TITLE: Assistant product manager YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 1
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Practitioner in program management
EDUCATION: M.S. in forensic science and B.S. in forensic chemistry, Towson University
AWARDS: JPEO-CBRND’s Employee of the Quarter; JPM CBRN Medical Special Act or Service Award; JPM CBRN Medical Certificate of Achievement
Tings ramped up quickly. Kenerson was only in the organization for six months before she was assigned to support JPEO-CBRND’s Joint Assisted Acquisition (JA2) for COVID-19 test kit efforts. JA2 organized and led the acquisition efforts for DOD’s assisted acquisition teams to procure and deliver medical countermeasures needed world- wide to combat the pandemic and to stand up a domestic medical countermeasure supply chain to protect the U.S. in the event of future public health emergencies. Overall, the JA2 team helped procure more than 2 billion vaccines and 1 billion test kits.
Te JA2 COVID work provided “amazing experiences in terms of what I was able to do and accomplish,” Kenerson said, including the opportunity to brief senior leadership at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has also briefed Jason Roos, the former joint program executive officer for JPEO-CBRND, other senior leaders and White House staffers. “I remember speaking to my manager afterward and I was abso- lutely star-struck at the names that I had the privilege to be on the call with. It really shows that our work is important and relevant.”
After the JA2 work was completed in 2022, Kenerson returned to JPM CBRN Medical and has been there ever since. She manages new start portfolio programs for the Reac- tivating Nerve Agent Treatment System (RNATS) and the Consolidated Nerve Agent Treatment System (CNATS)—“products that have the potential to save lives in case of a nerve agent attack,” she said.
“I enjoy the fast pace of the work, and there aren’t many boundaries in my current role,” she added. “Te number of people I get to speak with and the operations tempo where I get to do something different every day—it’s impossible to get bored.”
Te goal of the RNATS effort is to increase survivability against chemical threats through development and delivery of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medical countermeasures. Te CNATS program aims to increase survivability by delivering a medical countermeasure that integrates multiple therapeutics in a modernized multi- drug auto-injector, providing greater defense against chemical warfare nerve agent threats without adding to the warfighter’s load.
14
Army AL&T Magazine
Spring 2025
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