Speakers

Major General Jody J. Daniels is the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff G-2, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2. She most recently served as the Deputy Director and Director, Intelligence and Knowledge Development Directorate (J2) for U.S. Africa Command, Stuttgart, Germany. MG Daniels has over 32 years of active and reserve military service and previously was dual-hatted as the Commanding General, 87th Army Reserve Support Command (East), Birmingham, Alabama, and Deputy Commanding General, Support, for First Army Division East, Fort Meade, Maryland

Dr. Adler was the recipient of The Oliver Max Gardner Award for Service to Humanity from The University of North Carolina Board of Governors.  Technology developed in Dr. Adler’s laboratory has been the basis for 9 patents and the formation of the start-up biotech company, Biomarck, which has developed a drug based on Dr. Adler’s laboratory discoveries that has progressed to clinical trials in patients with chronic bronchitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and lung cancer. In 2014, Dr. Adler was the recipient of the Dr. John S. Risley “Entrepreneur of the Year” award from NCSU, and in 2017 received the Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award and admittance into the NCSU Research Leadership Academy. 

To become a SEAL requires one to pass one of (if not the) most difficult, grueling and selective training processes in the world. This includes a crucible called Hell Week where recruits face six torturous days of physical tests, no sleep, freezing cold water, hazardous elements and (for those who make it through) watching each day as most of your fellow classmates ultimately quit the process. The stresses and physiological impacts to the human body are very real, leaving many graduates presenting with the same signs and symptoms seen in POWs, or even victims of torture. It’s what we’re going to talk about today and who better to explore it with us than physician who went through it himself.

Kate Pearce is the Senior Planner for Dorothea Dix Park for the City of Raleigh.  As the project manager she is responsible for the stewardship, use and future planning of the park. Prior to joining the City she worked as both an urban planning and business management consultant.  Her consultant work took her across the country and around the globe.  Ms. Pearce has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a MBA from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and a Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is Texsippian-- Part Texan, part Mississippian but now calls Raleigh home!

Gupta joined CED after serving as president of Umicore USA. In that role since 2011, Gupta led the organization responsible for providing corporate services to all Umicore business units located in North America. She had previously served as Umicore USA’s legal counsel when she started at the company in 2008. Prior to Umicore, Gupta worked as a process/environmental engineer at government agencies and companies that included Tyco Electronics and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. After obtaining her Juris Doctor from North Carolina Central University, she began her professional career as an attorney for Ogletree Deakins in Raleigh.

Josh Stein was sworn in as North Carolina’s 50th Attorney General on January 1, 2017. The Attorney General is elected by the people of North Carolina every four years as the state’s top law enforcement officer and top lawyer. Attorney General Stein is focused on protecting North Carolina families from crime and consumer fraud. Attorney General Stein has also made combatting the opioid crisis a top priority.
 
As the head of the Department of Justice, the Attorney General oversees criminal appeals from state courts to ensure that criminals are kept behind bars and innocent people are not. Attorney General Stein also ensures that consumers are protected by going after scam artists and corporate bad actors. The Attorney General protects the taxpayers as well, by providing legal representation to state government agencies, departments and commissions, and by investigating and cracking down on Medicaid fraud.

Allen Thomas has a long history of service in eastern North Carolina including extensive experience in both the public and private sector. He most recently served for three-terms as mayor of the city of Greenville before becoming executive director of the North Carolina Global TransPark in June 2017.

With the rise of mobile technology in the 1990s, Thomas co-founded IQMax Healthcare Technologies, the first platform to enable doctors and medical professionals to securely manage their daily medical workflow by linking and interfacing multiple facilities through their mobile phones and smart devices.

While mayor of Greenville, Thomas launched Greenville's first office of economic development cohesive business strategy which resulted in more than $850 million in new development, jobs and public-private partnerships in a 36-month period and completely transformed commercial corridors and revitalized the city's center and riverfront.

Taking a regional approach, he helped lead in the creation of Quad East, an alliance of Eastern North Carolina cities and counties working together to leverage financial, corporate and transportation assets to form an economic cluster for future development.

Thomas also worked with North Carolina leaders, lawmakers and state government to close decades-old lingering transportation issues in eastern North Carolina. This included restoring $258 million in funding and construction of the Greenville Southwest Bypass and securing federal future interstate status (I-587) for U.S. Highway 264. The result: Better connecting eastern North Carolina to the national ground transportation grid.

As the N.C. Department of Transportation's deputy secretary for multimodal transportation, Julie White oversees the high-level operations of the Rail Division, Division of Public Transportation, Division of Aviation, Ferry Division and Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation.

White has a long history of public service in both state and local government. Over the past two decades, she has served in the Office of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor, the N.C. House of Representatives Majority Leader's Office, the N.C. Department of State Treasurer and most recently as executive director of the North Carolina Metropolitan Mayors Coalition.

White is the longest serving member of the Strategic Transportation Investment Workgroup and serves on the board of directors for NC Go!

White earned a Master of Public Administration from North Carolina State University and is a graduate of the Leadership North Carolina program

Colonel (Retired), United States Army, Judge Advocate General Corps

COL Warner retired from the United States Army in 2013 after 33 years of military service. He served as the Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon for three JCS Chairmen. In that role, he served on many Government Interagency Panels and Working Groups for Governmental Leaders and Deputies and as both an Advisor and an Investigating Officer for major National Security and Defense Department Inquiries, Events and Incidents.

He also served as the first Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment (LOD), Fort Bragg, North Carolina and as the Staff Judge Advocate of the Army’s Training Command. Deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), he became the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, Combined Joint Task Force-7 (Coalition Provisional Authority), Baghdad, Iraq immediately following the fall of Baghdad until September 2003 and was the Senior Judge Advocate in the Command Operations Center, Coalition Forces Land Component Command (U.S. Third Army), Camp Doha, Kuwait, during the march to Baghdad. He commanded the 12th JAG Detachment in OIF. COL Warner also served as a Team Chief, 12th Legal Support Organization and the Command Judge Advocate for the 171st Corps Support Group. He previously served as a Medical Service Corps Company Commander, Executive Officer and Department Chief for several hospital units. COL Warner is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the Joint Forces Staff College, and the U.S. Army War College. He has chaired Advisory Boards, Tiger Teams and Working Groups as a Senior Army and Joint Service JAG Leader.