THE RIGHT STUFF
day on, ballet and gymnastics were relegated to a distant second, and soccer took precedence over any other sport. She played competitive soccer all through her school years, and also became an accomplished sprinter, running track for her high school in New Jersey. “Soccer was everything, in our family,” she said. Both her mother and father had emigrated to the U.S. in their teens—she from Portu- gal and he from Croatia—and they brought with them their European passion for the sport.
W KRISTINA KOCH
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition, Project Manager Close Combat Systems
TITLE: Business management specialist YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 15
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Level III in acquisition, Level I in program manage- ment, Army Acquisition Corps certification
EDUCATION: Master of Administrative Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University; B.A. in organizational communication with busi- ness management studies, Fairfield University
AWARDS: Supervisory Acquisition Manager, Annual Performance Awards
Koch continued playing recreational soccer throughout her college days, even taking on practice games and scrimmages with the Division 1 men’s soccer team at her university. And it was around that time she found another right in her life— the Army. “I started as a summer and winter hire at Picatinny Arsenal [New Jersey] when I was in college,” she said. “During the summer breaks, when all of your friends get to go to Aruba and all those fun places, my parents were like, ‘We can’t afford to send you on spring break, so we’re going to have you work somewhere.’ ” Her father knew someone with an open intern position, and he encouraged her to apply, saying she could help with marketing and make use of some of the business classes she had taken. “I didn’t really want to take the job, but I’m so glad I did. It was so much more than I thought it would be.” Over that summer, she devel- oped a love for the Army. “I enjoyed learning about the different weapon systems and everything that Picatinny does for the Army. When I graduated, I knew I wanted to go back there,” and she has been at Picatinny Arsenal ever since. “I’m really grateful that my parents couldn’t send me off to an island.”
Today, Koch works under the Business Division as the lead procurement analyst for the Project Manager Close Combat Systems (PM CCS), Product Manager Terrain Shaping Obstacle (PDM TSO), within the Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition. In this role, she is responsible for generating acquisition and production documents, briefing her leaders on acquisition activi- ties, facilitating acquisition-related meetings and interacting with technical teams supporting the complex PDM TSO. “PDM TSO is responsible for the develop- ment of the Army’s next generation of terrain shaping obstacle capabilities that protect Soldiers and enable friendly maneuver across multidomain-influenced battlefields,” she said. “Aligned with Army modernization priorities and an Army Futures Command-approved Terrain Shaping Modernization plan, I have led the acquisition process for the XM204, a research and development [other-transaction authority] effort and for the Standoff Activated Volcano Obstacle program, one of the Army’s first approved Section 804, Middle Tier Acquisition rapid proto- typing and rapid fielding efforts.”
hen something is right, you just know it. Kristina Koch knew, from the first time she kicked around a soccer ball with her father, that she had found her talent. “It was so natural to me,” she recalled. “I’ve always had a nose for the goal.” From that
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Army AL&T Magazine
Summer 2021
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