JGES Panel Bios

Warfighting Panel

Col. Kevin Golinghorst, P.E., USA (Moderator)
Kevin has served nearly 27 years in the U.S. Army as an Engineer Officer. He studied Civil Engineering at West Point, NY to focus on construction but also did a lot of ‘destruction with explosives’ as a young combat engineer leader. He has primarily been a user of Geospatial products - from hard- copy maps, to digital data to include high resolution imagery, and eventually advanced GIS analysis - but he wanted to know and do more for the Engineer Regiment.

He sought advanced schooling to learn more and contribute to the Geospatial community and capabilities of the U.S. Army by obtaining a Masters in Defence Geographic Information (DGI) from the Royal School of Military Survey in England, and serving a utilization tour with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) at Fort Belvoir, VA.

Kevin later served as the Army Capability Manager – Geospatial (ACM-Geo) for the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and Maneuver Support Center of Excellence at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. He is currently the Commander and District Engineer of the St. Louis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) where geospatial capabilities are critical for navigation on inland waterways, flood risk management in the region, and emergency response across the Mississippi Valley.

He is a Professional Engineer (P.E.) and has a Masters in Military Arts and Science (MMAS) and National Security and Strategic Studies. He has deployed to both Iraq and tour separate tours to Afghanistan.


Master Sgt. Scott Ensign, GISP,  USAF (Ret.)
Scott spent 20 years as an Air Force (AF) 3E5-Engineering (Surveying, Drafting/ Design, Geospatial, and Project Management). While serving he deployed multiple times, a majority of which were in support of U.S. Army and Joint missions providing expeditionary bed down planning and operational support in austere environments.

Upon retirement from Active duty in 2010 he became a Department of the AF (DAF) civilian serving with the AF Property Agency (AFRPA) before it was consolidated into the new AF Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC). Within AFCEC he was assigned to the Planning and Integration Directorate responsible for integrating and analyzing diverse sets of engineering data supporting Enterprise investments.

In 2013, he was appointed AFCEC’s Geospatial Integration Officer (GIO), in 2014 he was given the additional responsibility as the DAF GeoBase Program Manager. The DAF GeoBase Program is the primary manifestation of DAF Geospatial Engineering responsible for built and natural infrastructure location data and analysis providing the foundation for planning, resourcing, and executing in support of missions around the globe.

In 2022, he was selected as the first ever DAF Civil Engineering Geospatial Subject Matter Expert (SME), a singular position serving as the DAF’s authority in geospatial engineering.  As the geospatial SME he provides continuity assuring AF civil engineering geospatial “know-how” keeps pace with lessons learned, changing technology, federal guidance, and industry standards. He is a certified GIS Professional (GISP), has a B.S. in Geography, and represented the DAF while attending the Royal School of Military Survey in England.


CW4 Jason Feser, USA (Ret.)
Jason joined the U.S. Army in 1992 as a Combat Medic but soon reclassified to become an 81Q, Terrain Analyst. His early experience included brigade assignments in 2nd, 3rd, and 1st Infantry Divisions. This time assigned as an analyst in these Engineer Brigades gave him the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of tactical requirements necessary to support a Brigade Combat Team with terrain analysis and a subsequent assignment to the Army Geospatial Center (AGC) as a Staff Sergeant, Jason developed his technical understanding of emerging geospatial technologies.

He received his appointment as a Warrant Officer in 2003 and was assigned to the Army’s second Stryker Brigade Combat Team – 1st Brigade 25th Infantry Division (1/25 SBCT). Subsequent assignments included the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Joint Analysis Center RAF Molesworth, NATO Special Operations Intel Brach at the NATO Intel Fusion Center, 512th Engineer Detachment at U.S. Army South, and a return to AGC as the Military Advisor to the AGC Director. Jason has deployed to Macedonia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan in over 27 years of uniformed service.

Jason obtained a Bachelor of Science in Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) from Wayland Baptist University. He was selected for promotion to Chief Warrant Officer Five but instead chose to retire from the Army in 2019 as a Chief Warrant Officer Four and started a small business where he is current the President & CEO Perigean Inc. in Manassas, VA, that specializes in geospatial data production, geospatial systems integration, and consulting.


Col. Chad Ramskugler, USA
Chad commissioned from West Point in 1998 as an Engineer Officer. He served in 8th Engineer Battalion (EN BN) & 20th EN BN with the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft Hood, TX until 2002. He served with 9th EN BN in 1st Infantry Division until 2008, during which he deployed to Iraq as a Mechanized Engineer Company Commander in 2004.

He was an Observer/Controller-Trainer (O/C-T) at the National Training Center (NTC) at Ft Irwin, CA until 2010. He served at Ft Bragg, NC with 2BCT, 82nd Airborne Division until 2013 during which he deployed to Iraq in 2012. From 2013-2017 he served with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) near Fort Belvoir, VA in multiple roles and deployed to Afghanistan in 2015.

Chad commanded the 11th EN BN at Camp Humphreys, Korea from 2017-2019 under the 2nd Infantry Division, served as the Professor of Military Science at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh 2019-2020, and attended the Army War College 2020-21.

He served as the 8th Army Engineer in Korea 2021-22, and he currently serves as the Director of the TRADOC Proponent Office – Geospatial (TPO-Geo) at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, advocating for 1,400 Geospatial Engineers across the Total Army and leading integration of Geospatial capabilities into the Army’s Doctrine, Organizations, Training, Materiel, Leader Development and Education, Personnel, Facilities, and Policy (DOTMLPF-P).
 

Contingency Operations Panel

Col. William (Bill) Haight, III, P.E., F.SAME, USA (Ret.) (Moderator)
Bill joined WSP in 2010 after retiring as a Colonel in the Corps of Engineers with 29 years’ service. He is a 1981 West Point graduate and holds a MSME from the University of Washington, and a MA in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. He is a registered PE in Virginia.

In the military, Bill served in multiple commands, including operational and US and NATO overseas tours in Bosnia, Iraq, Germany, and Turkey. Bill’s last military assignments included Multinational Corps Iraq C7, Engineer; Director of the Office of the Chief of Engineers (OCE), Army Staff; and J4 Division Engineer, The Joint Staff.  

After transitioning from the military, Bill led the $1.4B Afghanistan Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program in Kabul, Afghanistan, USAID’s major infrastructure program, from 2010 to 2012. In July 2016, Bill was promoted to Senior Vice President with oversight for overseas international development projects. He added oversight of the company’s Risk Management program in 2018, Quality in 2020, and Project Delivery in 2022. He continues to actively support USAID and DOD projects.   

Bill served as the SAME Chair for the Joint Engineer Contingency Operations COI (JECO) from 2014 to 2019 and was named a SAME Fellow in 2020. Bill sits on the Board of the Construction Engineering Institute (CEI) at George Mason University and is also an adjunct faculty member teaching engineering ethics.


Carter Christopher, Ph.D.
Dr. Carter Christopher is Section Head for Human Dynamics R&D in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Geospatial Science and Human Security Division. Dr. Christopher leads the Human Geography, Location Intelligence, Built Environment Characterization, and Geoinformatics Engineering research groups at the lab, to solve national- and global-scale challenges for Energy Security and National Security. 

He is also the Principal Investigator and/or Program Manager for a diverse portfolio of projects, ranging from hazardous material routing and risk characterization to large-scale human mobility modeling, to alternative PNT solutions for the electric grid. Prior to joining ORNL, Dr. Christopher was Head of Geospatial at an aerospace start-up, and he had a distinguished 12-year career in the Intelligence Community. 

He spent more than 10 years at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency where he led a range of geospatial modernization programs, including ML/AI-driven object detection and mapping, cloud modernization and geospatial software-as-a-service provisioning for the IC, data science and advanced geospatial analysis, and global GIS training. Dr. Christopher closed his Federal career at the US State Department as Deputy to the Geographer of the United States, where he helped stand up the Department’s enterprise GIS and led human geography and humanitarian mapping initiatives. 

Prior to Federal service, Dr. Christopher held analyst and project management roles in the geospatial private sector. He has a PhD in Earth Systems and Geoinformation Science, a MS in Geography and Remote Sensing, and a BA in Government.


George Ohanian

George H. Ohanian is the Directorate Chief for the Warfighter Support and Production Directorate within the U.S. Army Geospatial Center (AGC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Mr. Ohanian’s responsibilities include oversight and management of multiple fixed wing aircraft that perform wide area high altitude mapping, Army-specific geospatial information and services production and support including terrain analysis, digital mapping, crisis response, content management and a variety of geospatial engineering reach-back support, training, and domain expertise from Theater through Brigade/Battalion levels. 

Previously, Mr. Ohanian served as the Military and Civilian Engineering Support Branch Chief within AGC and was responsible for the overall programmatic, engineering, technical, business, and human resource functions to develop, manage, field, maintain and modernize combat engineer and surveyor capabilities. 

As the Program Manager (PM) Strategic and National Command, Control Computers, and Intelligence (SNC3I) Joint Systems Engineering and Integration Office (JSEIO) within DISA, Mr. Ohanian oversaw the execution of a diverse portfolio of complex technical activities that supported national level command and control capabilities.


Lt. Col. Shannon McDonald, USAF (Ret.)
Shannon McDonald spent 26 years as an Air Force Preventive Medicine Bioenvironmental Engineer. As a Bioenvironmental Engineer, Mr. McDonald gained vast experience in industrial hygiene, radiation safety, disaster response, and environmental health hazard assessments. 

Mr. McDonald graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, and from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences with a Master of Science in Public Health. Upon retirement from active duty in 2020, he became a Department of the AF (DAF) civilian serving as the Chief, Environmental Health Policy in the Office of the Surgeon General under the director of Medical Operations. Mr. McDonald is responsible for DAF Environmental Health Risk Management policy and planning.  

In the geospatial world, Mr. McDonald is currently working to advance the geospatial capabilities in support of occupational and environmental health surveillance and health risk assessment. As a key member of the Department of Defense Environmental Health Working Group, Mr. McDonald is pressing joint acceptance of geospatial capacities to visualize health exposure data to optimize health risk assessment and hazard control.

 

Installation Management Panel

Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Durnan, P.E., USN (Moderator)
Lt. Cdr. Durnan currently serves as Base Operating Support and Joint Basing Action Officer for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics, Installations Division (OPNAV N4I). He recently served as Facility Engineering and Acquisition Division Director for Public Works Department Monterey from May 2017-July 2020 where he oversaw the acquisition of construction and services in support of operations at Naval Postgraduate School and Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Command.  

Prior to earning a Masters in Engineering Management from University of Colorado - Boulder, he reported to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 3 in September 2014, where he served as Company Commander, Assistant Operations Officer, Officer-in-Charge Detail Cambodia, and Assistant Training Officer. In July 2012, he reported to Officer-In-Charge-of-Construction Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, where he served as Construction Manager for over $100M worth of MILCON projects. His first assignment was to NMCB 11 in Gulfport, Mississippi, where he served as Communications Officer in Okinawa, Japan, Platoon Commander and CBR Officer in homeport, and JSOC Support Detachment Operations Officer deployed to Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan. 

Lt. Cdr. Durnan is Seabee Combat Warfare qualified, PW Level III qualified, JPME I qualified, DAWIA Level III certified, a member of the Defense Acquisition Corps, and previously held a $10M Construction and Services Contract Warrant. He holds a Professional Engineer license in Civil Engineering from the State of Oregon.


Justin Goering, GISP
Justin Goering assumed his duties as the Facilities Enterprise Integration Branch Head at Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC) Installations and Logistics, Marine Corps Installations Command on December 8, 2019.

He leads the alignment of internal tools, business processes, people, systems, and enterprise-wide data governance for global facilities support to the USMC supporting establishment across 25 installation commands and executing $1.5B annually. He serves as the facilities community of interest action officer supporting the talent management of 1,900 civilian employees across 59 facility-related occupational series.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Goering served as the MCICOM Geospatial Information Officer and Installation Geospatial Information and Services (IGI&S) Program Manager from 2015-2019, US European Command Theater Geospatial Database Manager and Supervisory Cartographer, US Army Europe from 2011-2015, and as the IGI&S Manager at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona from 2010-2011.

Mr. Goering began his Marine Corps career as a logistics officer with Combat Service Support Group 3 in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. He later served as an engineer officer in Operation Iraqi Freedom and transitioned from military service at the rank of captain in 2003. He graduated from Tulane University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Evolutionary Biology, Arizona State University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and a Master of Advanced Study in Geographic Information Systems in 2006. He received the Department of the Army Superior Civilian Service Award in 2015. He is a member of the Army Engineer Association and the Society of American Military Engineers.


David LaBranche, P.E.
David LaBranche has served as the Defense Installations Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) program manager and Geospatial Information Officer (GIO) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment since 2008. Prior to that he served for twenty years as an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers. 

He is a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia and also passed the Fundamentals of Surveying exam in 2004. His geospatial credentials include three years teaching geospatial science and geography at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. 

He is the author of a DoD policy titled “Installation Geospatial Information and Services,” first published in April, 2015. He currently chairs the Department-wide governance group for installation geospatial information and services (aka IGI&S), and his office provides geospatial support to many missions within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.


David O'Brien
David O'Brien is a co-founder and president of SurvTech Solutions, Inc., and has over twenty-five (25) years of experience in the surveying profession. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Surveying Engineering from the University of Maine in 1993. Mr. O’Brien is a licensed surveyor and mapper in eleven (11) states, a Certified Federal Surveyor, and a Certified Floodplain Surveyor. As president of SurvTech, he has overseen the expansion of SurvTech from a land surveying firm into a complete geospatial firm.