Project AIR FORCE Management

Vice President and Director

Edward (Ted) Harshberger is Vice President and Director of Project AIR FORCE at the RAND Corporation, where he has held several different management positions at RAND, including director of the Aerospace Force Development Program in PAF; director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program in PAF; and associate director, Operations and Planning, in the RAND National Security Research Division. Under the Intergovernment Personnel Act (IPA), Ted served from 1993 to 1995 as special assistant to the director of Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis for the U.S. Air Force. Before rejoining RAND in May 2012 as vice president and director of PAF, he was senior director of global operations for Harman International and corporate director for strategic development at Northrop Grumman Corporation. He received his B.A. in economics and chemistry from Williams College and his Ph.D. from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Associate Director and Research Quality Assurance Manager

Lara Schmidt is a senior statistician and defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, having joined RAND in 2003. Her areas of research include the analysis of national security space and cyber systems, threats to these systems, and the associated risk to the warfighter. She has also led assessments of Air Force special operations and irregular warfare operations. She leads research projects in RAND’s Project AIR FORCE FFRDC and serves as the RAND liaison to Air Force Space Command.

» Lara Schmidt Profile

Air Staff Liaison

Rich Moore joined the RAND Corporation as a Senior Engineer in 1999, where his research focused primarily on the U.S. Air Force’s development and employment of advanced technologies and weapon systems. During his Air Force career, he served as a Program Element Monitor, directed flight test programs for air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, and was the Director of Research and Associate Professor in the Air Force Academy’s Department of Aeronautics. Also, as the Chief of the Advanced Propulsion Division, he led Wright Laboratory’s high-Mach jet engine technology development activities. Rich earned a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Academy; an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology; and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. He is also a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College’s Advanced Program Management Course.

» Rich Moore Profile

Director of Unit Operations

Michael Neumann joined RAND in 2007 as a Communications Analyst working primarily in support of Project AIR FORCE. In his current role, he oversees the unit’s internal financial, administrative, and other business management functions. Before joining RAND, Mike was as a senior associate with DFI Government Services where he specialized in strategic communications and security policy analysis for a variety of defense sector clients including the US Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, and other Department of Defense agencies. Prior to his tenure at DFI, Mike served for 12 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a public affairs officer at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and at Headquarters Marine Corps. Mike earned an M.A. in national security studies from Georgetown University and a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University with a secondary major in political science.

» Michael Neumann Profile

Director of Staff Development and Intra-RAND Research Coordination

Michael Kennedy is a senior economist who has been with RAND since 1977. He has served as the Project AIR FORCE Program Director for Resource Management and System Acquisition, as Associate Program Director for Aerospace Force Development, and as the RAND-wide Group Manager for Economics and Statistics. In his current PAF management position, he addresses issues of identifying and implementing career-development opportunities for PAF staff. He also contributes to the integration of RAND’s Air Force Fellows, Pardee RAND Graduate School Fellows, and Summer Associates into PAF research activities. His recent research has included Analyses of Alternatives or similar assessments of U.S. Air Force unmanned aerial systems, intratheater airlift, aerial refueling, gunship, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. Michael holds a Ph.D. (1974) in economics from Harvard University.

» Michael Kennedy Profile

Paula G. Thornhill: Program Director

Paula Thornhill joined RAND in September 2009. She directs the PAF Strategy and Doctrine Program. Dr. Thornhill retired from the US Air Force in 2009. Her last assignment was as the Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (2006-09). In addition, she has taught at the Air Force Academy and been assigned to the Air Staff, the Joint Staff, the U.S. Strategic Command, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She served as the Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the National War College, and she was special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Just prior to her time as Commandant, she served as the Principal Director for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She has a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy, an M.A. in history from Stanford University, and a D.Phil. in history from Oxford University.

» Paula G. Thornhill Profile

David T. Orletsky: Associate Director

David Orletsky has done a variety of operational airlift analyses for projects sponsored by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), U.S. Army, and Office of the Secretary of Defense. The primary focus of his work over the last few years has been on cost-effectiveness analysis of potential aircraft alternatives to meet a specified need. This includes his most recent study on nonstandard rotary wing aircraft for partner nations, a variety of fixed-wing airlift studies sponsored by USAF, and the KC-135 recapitalization analysis of alternatives (AoA). He has also written on joint air–naval operations, improving air–ground integration, vulnerability of airbases to attack, the Air Force role in homeland security and air defense of the United States, implications of Chinese military modernization, and implications of Army transformation for the USAF. Orletsky has a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an S.M. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

» David T. Orletsky Profile

Donald Stevens: Program Director

Donald Stevens leads a research program within Project AIR FORCE that examines force modernization, recapitalization, and force employment issues. This program examines the modernization and employment of combat systems, uninhabited aircraft, mobility assets, ISR systems, space capabilities, and cyber systems. In his 23 year career at RAND he has led research in the areas of force sizing, force mix, combat aircraft force employment, avionics requirements, electronic warfare, and aircraft survivability. In 2004, Don led a study examining options for improving security at Los Angeles International Airport against terrorist attacks. Prior to RAND, Don worked for ten years as a Senior Engineer for Northrop Corporation. Don received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

» Donald Stevens Profile

Brien Alkire: Associate Director

Brien Alkire is a senior operations researcher who has been a member of the RAND research staff since 2002. He has led and worked on studies of unmanned systems, communications, sensors, and cyber technologies. Prior to joining RAND, Brien was a senior engineer at Northrop Corporation. Brien received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

» Brian Alkire Profile

Carl Rhodes: Program Director

Carl Rhodes is the Associate Director of Project Air Force and the Program Director of the PAF Manpower, Personnel and Training program. As Associate Director, his primary responsibility is overseeing the PAF quality assurance process. Carl joined RAND in 1997. During his tenure, he has performed work for clients including the Air Force, Army, and Joint Staff. His research spans a wide range of topics in force development and employment. Carl has participated in projects examining the interdiction of armored ground forces, long-range strike, anti-access strategies, lessons learned from Operations Allied Force, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and the military use of commercial space services and assets. Carl has led research examining the implications of the global war on terrorism for Air Force mobility forces and the Air Force deployment experience in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Most recently, he led projects examining current and future USAF intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and the processes involved with planning, executing, and assessing those operations. Carl received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, where his thesis work examined the modeling of nonlinear systems for process control.

» Carl Rhodes Profile

Raymond Conley: Associate Director

Raymond Conley is a senior management scientist who has been a member of the RAND research staff since 2001. He has worked on a variety of policy studies, concentrating primarily on Air Force and Department of Defense human resources and organizational issues. He has investigated sustaining human capital for the Air Force nuclear enterprise; estimating low observable aircraft maintenance manpower requirements; maintaining the balance between manpower, skill levels, and operations tempo; and many other topics. Prior to joining RAND, Ray was chief, Manpower Requirements and Utilizations, Headquarters, United States Air Force. He received his doctorate from the University of Alabama.

» Raymond Conley Profile

Laura Baldwin: Program Director

Laura Baldwin joined RAND in 1994 after completing a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University. Her research has addressed a variety of Air Force logistics and acquisition challenges associated with System Program Office (SPO) staffing, the structure of transfer prices for reparable aircraft components, growth in aircraft heavy maintenance costs as aircraft age, public/private competitions for provision of services, implementation of best commercial purchasing and supply management practices, and provision of combat support activities in a joint contingency environment. She helped evaluate the option of using commercial sources for CONUS aerial refueling as part of the recent analysis of alternatives for recapitalizing the U.S. Air Force KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet. In addition to her program management and research responsibilities, Laura is a co-organizer of RAND's Defense Economics sessions at the annual Western Economic Association International professional meetings.

» Laura Baldwin Profile

Sean Bednarz: Associate Director

Engineer Sean Bednarz joined RAND in in 2007 after serving as a senior member of the Technical Staff at The Aerospace Corporation. At RAND, his research has focused on air mobility force modernization; communication, navigation, and surveillance for air traffic management; Afghanistan village stability operations; and other topics. Sean received his M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004.

» Sean Bednarz Profile