Kenneth BERNARD, MD | Ronald K. HANN, Jr., PhD | Meg L. FLANAGAN, PhD
Rear Admiral Kenneth Bernard (USPHS, Ret.) served at the White House from 2002 to 2005 as Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense and as Assistant Surgeon General. From 2001 to 2003 he was head of the US delegation negotiating the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. From 1998 to 2001 he was Senior Adviser for Security and Health on President Clinton’s National Security Council staff. His other positions have included Senior Political Adviser to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (2005-2007); Senior Adviser for Security, Defense and Intelligence to Health Secretary Tommy Thompson; International Health Attaché at the US Mission to the UN in Geneva; Associate Director for Medical and Scientific Affairs in the Office of International Health, Department of Health and Human Services; and International Health Policy Adviser to the Director of the US Peace Corps. Early in his career, he spent 3 years as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Bernard has an MD from the University of California, Davis, a DTM&H from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is board certified in internal medicine, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Ron Hann, a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), is the Director, Chemical/Biological Technologies Department (J9CB) for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the USSTRATCOM Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (SCC-WMD), located on Fort Belvoir, Va. DTRA/SCC-WMD safeguards America and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, along with mitigating its effects.
Dr. Hann oversees a vibrant science and technology department that works with industry, research universities, other agencies within the Department of Defense and the U.S. government to research, develop and field revolutionary technologies that address the threats posed by chemical and biological weapons, materials, agents and emerging diseases to our warfighters; J9CB also includes the Joint Science and Technology Office, a member of the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP). This office, established in 2003 by Congress, is tasked to develop, coordinate, integrate, execute, and transition DoD CB S&T medical and nonmedical programs in response to Joint Requirements Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense requirements, the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical Biological Defense programs, and Chemical and Biological Defense Program Test and Evaluation technology needs.
Dr. Hann was promoted to the SES in April 2014 following his retirement from the U.S. Army Chemical Corps after almost 27 years of active duty. Prior to his current assignment, he was the Acting Director of J9CB. His first military tour with DTRA/SCC-WMD was in 2002 where he was assigned as a Mission Commander to the Chemical and Biological Division, On-Site Inspection Directorate. As mission commander, he led over 20 sensitive inspections at US chemical storage and destruction facilities in cooperation with the OPCW. While in that tour, he helped train, equip, deploy and led site exploitation teams in Iraq in the search for evidence of Saddam Hussein’s WMD program. Following that tour, he earned a doctorate in Organic Synthesis from the University of Virginia; then taught Organic Chemistry at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he was promoted to assistant professor of chemistry. While there, his research efforts in “green” chemistry with the Pyrotechnics Pilot Plant at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., earned him a co-patent for barium free white light signals and several co-authored papers published in peer reviewed journals.
In addition to Dr. Hann’s Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Virginia, he holds both B.S. and M.A. degrees in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. His military awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the National Defense Service Medal with Service Star, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal with two campaign stars, the Iraqi Campaign Medal with two service stars, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the NATO Service Medal, Liberations of Kuwait Service Medals and other service ribbons.
Dr. Flanagan is a microbiologist at the US Department of State, where she serves as the scientific expert on the Department of State’s Biological Policy Staff, which leads U.S. participation in the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
Dr. Flanagan received her PhD in Pathobiology from the University of Southern California and her BA in Biological Sciences from Smith College.
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