by Kristine Faria
Congratulations to the graduates of the fiscal year 2022 Inspiring and Developing Excellence in Acquisition Leaders (IDEAL) program. IDEAL is a developmental program for Army acquisition leaders at the GS-12 and GS-13, or broadband equivalent, level. Instruction is facilitated by the Army Acquisition Center of Excellence (AACoE).
The 2022 fiscal year marked the return of the popular residential program, following a one-year COVID-related hiatus. For 2022, the AACoE hosted two IDEAL cohorts, both at the AACoE facility in Huntsville, Alabama. Referred to as Cohort A and Cohort B, each group met in person for three separate weeks over a period of approximately five months. Cohort A held its in-person meetings in March, May and July, and Cohort B met in June, August and September. In between sessions, the participants returned to their individual workplaces, where they practiced the leadership skills and competencies that they had discussed and studied during the resident sessions.
You can learn more about the IDEAL program by visiting
https://asc.army.mil/web/career-development/programs/inspiring-and-developing-excellence-in-acquisition-leaders-ideal/.
The application period for the fiscal year 2024 IDEAL program is tentatively expected to open in May 2023.
The IDEAL graduates for fiscal year 2022 are:
Levi Alexis, U.S. Southern Command
Kevin Amaya, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC)
Antoinette Barnett, Joint Program Executive Office (JPEO) for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense
Amanda Bortak, JPEO Armaments & Ammunition
Kyle Brennan, Army Futures Command (AFC)
Nina Bushnell, U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC)
Forrest Bussler, AFC
Dennis Chapman, AFC
Rashawnda Coleman, U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM)
Erika Curry, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM)
Frances De Gori, ACC
Carson Dereski, U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM)
Alejandro Fernandez, ATEC
David Gannon, National Guard Bureau
Troy Heitzer, CECOM
Jenn Hyman, ACC
Napoleon Jones, TACOM
Steven Kashubara, Program Executive Office (PEO) for Ground Combat Systems
Joseph Kornhoff, PEO for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S)
Bryce Kuykendall, PEO for Aviation
Kristen Lawrence, AFC
Liane Leong, ACC
Jamaal Little, PEO IEW&S
Cheryl Marhevko-Kozera, TACOM
Jennifer McClure, ACC
Tirso McCoy, ACC
Danny Nease, AFC
Michael Nguyen, AFC
Tiffani Osborne, Army Materiel Command (AMC) Logistics Support Activity
Brian Palmer, PEO for Enterprise Information Systems (EIS)
Shauna Dorsey Parente, AFC
James Pauley, TACOM
Rocio Rangel, ATEC
Kimberly Ross, ACC
Jeananne Russell, ACC
Susan Ruzicka, ACC
Michael Scholl, AFC
Anthony Schrantz, PEO EIS
William Schwartz, ACC
Nicole Seaman, PEO Combat Support & Combat Service Support
Jacob Sisko, AFC
John Smith, U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command
April Stevenson, Headquarters AMC
Marc Tardiff, AFC
Armando Torres, PEO for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation
Lee Troope, ACC
Raymond Vazquez, AFC
Masao Williams, AMCOM
Jesse Wolfgang, AFC
Carla Wren, PEO EIS
Stasya Zarling Bejma, AFC
FY22 IDEAL COHORT A: The fiscal year 2022 IDEAL Cohort A participants gather for a photo at the AACoE facility on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville in July. (Photos by AACoE)
FY22 IDEAL COHORT B: Participants from Cohort B visited SCI Technology Inc. in Huntsville, Alabama in September. SCI was the site of an IDEAL field trip for both of the 2022 cohorts.
