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Brigadier General John W. Weidner assumed the duties as Deputy Director, Plans and Policy, United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), on May 4, 2020. General Weidner was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1991 upon graduation from the Army ROTC program at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics.

He completed a Ph.D. in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012, and holds Master of Science degrees in medical physics, nuclear engineering, engineering management, and strategic studies. His military education includes the Engineer Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Combined Arms Services Staff School, the Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College. He is also a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Wisconsin. General Weidner most recently served as the Director of the US Army Nuclear and Countering WMD Agency at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he led the Army's capability to integrate nuclear weapon effects into conventional operations, and supported Army service component commands with nuclear and countering WMD expertise.

General Weidner previously served as the Director of the USSTRATCOM Commander Action Group; Director for Strategic Capabilities Policy in the Defense Policy and Strategy Directorate on the National Security Council staff; Executive Director for the Office of Major Modernization Programs, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy; assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at the Air Force Institute of Technology; stockpile associate for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; consequence management advisory team leader for DTRA at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the United States Military Academy at West Point; and Deputy District Engineer for the St. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He commanded B Company, 52nd Engineer Battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado and served as an Engineer Platoon Leader at Fort Riley, Kansas and in the Republic of Korea.

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Christine is a fellow with the National Institute for Deterrence Studies. She has worked in government, she was a visiting fellow at CISS Pakistan, a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Grand Strategy Program at Yale University, a Stanton Postdoctoral Fellow in Nuclear Security at MIT, a visiting fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a journalist for Karen News on the Thai-Burma border, a summer research fellow at RAND, and a research intern at IISS-Asia, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and IISS-London.

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Eric Wollerman is President of Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T). FM&T manages and operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC). With nearly 6,500 employees in Kansas City and Albuquerque, the KCNSC provides national security through their diverse engineering, manufacturing, and secure supply chain management activities.

As Honeywell FM&T president, Wollerman is responsible for applying best-in-class commercial standards in managing operations and delivering outstanding mission results with a $1.8B annual operations budget. Since joining FM&T in April 2020,

Wollerman has been leading KCNSC’s strategies, including: delivering operational excellence in nuclear weapons and national security missions with a focus on quality, early design engagement and delivery requirements; embracing digital transformation tools and technologies to enhance our mission; strategic planning for KCNSC’s infrastructure; supply base and workforce needs for today and the future; and, unlocking the value of our people and processes while enhancing the organization’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Acceptance (IDEA) strategies.

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Retired in 2018 from a career in the U.S. Department of State and the Defense Department, where he was primarily responsible for nuclear weapons policy and nonproliferation issues. During his career, he negotiated nuclear arms control agreements with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, he participated in several inspections of Russian nuclear weapon facilities, and was the State Department’s representative to the ABM Treaty commission when the U.S. withdrew from that treaty.

Dr. Kartchner led the team that drafted the 2004 joint Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense statement on the need for strategic nuclear modernization. He was the State Department representative to the 2009 congressionally charted Strategic Posture Review Commission, chaired by former Secretaries of Defense William J. Perry and James R. Schlesinger. As senior foreign policy advisor at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, he organized and participated in nuclear dialogues with numerous countries.

He is the co-editor and contributor to several books on U.S. national security. His co-edited 2014 book, On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century is widely read today in the strategic nuclear community, and has been translated into Korean for use in the South Korean senior officer’s education program. His MA and PhD in international relations are from the University of Southern California, and his BA is from Brigham Young University.

Mark C. Herrmann, Ph.D. Program Director for the Weapon Physics and Design within Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Herrmann leads LLNL’s efforts to strengthen our nation’s nuclear deterrent by advancing our understanding of nuclear weapons physics and design. This includes the physics design, assessment, and certification efforts for the enduring LLNL systems (W80, B83, W87), the W80-4 Life Extension Program, and the W87-1 Modification program. He also leads weapon science research and development, including focused experiments, integral hydrodynamic and subcritical experiments, high-energy-density (HED) experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and modeling and simulation using NNSA’s high performance computing capabilities. Dr. Herrmann has been in this role since January 2022.

Charles W. Nakhleh, Ph.D. Associate Laboratory Director for Weapons Physics (ALDX) Los Alamos National Laboratory. In this role, Dr. Nakhleh has line responsibility for the nuclear weapons designers and simulation code architects at the Laboratory, as well as program responsibility for the NA-11 weapons science, computing, and technology maturation portfolio. Prior to taking on his current role, he was the Executive Officer to the Deputy Director for Weapons (DDW), where he was responsible to the DDW for integrating and aligning activities across the weapons program.

Dr. Blank is an internationally recognized expert on Russian foreign and defense policies and international relations across the former Soviet Union. He is also a leading expert on European and Asian security, including energy issues.

Since 2020 he has been a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In 2020-21 he also was a Senior Expert for Russia at the U.S. Institute of Peace and Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. From 1989-2013 he was a Professor of Russian National Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Blank has consulted for the CIA, major think tanks and foundations, chaired major international conferences in the USA and abroad In Florence, Prague, and London, and has been a commentator on foreign affairs in the media in the United States and abroad. He has also advised major corporations on investing in Russia and is a consultant for the Gerson Lehrmann Group.

He has published over 1300 articles and monographs on Soviet/Russian, U.S., Asian, and European military and foreign policies, including publishing or editing 15 books, testified frequently before Congress on Russia, China, and Central Asia for business, government, and professional think tanks here and abroad on these issues. He has also appeared on CNN, BBC, Deutsche Welle, CNBC Asia, and is a regular guest on VOA.Prior to his appointment at the Army War College in 1989 Dr. Blank was Associate Professor for Soviet Studies at the Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education of Air University at Maxwell AFB. He also held the position of 1980-86: Assistant Professor of Russian History, University of Texas, San Antonio, 1980-86, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian history, University of California, Riverside, 1979-80.

Lt Col Derek Williams is the Commander of the 803d Operations Support Squadron. He received his commission through the ROTC program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2005. Following completion of Combat System Officer and B-52 Initial Qualification Training as a Distinguished Graduate,

He began his career as a B-52 Navigator with the 23d Bomb Squadron at Minot AFB, North Dakota. During his time at Minot, he upgraded to Radar Navigator, Instructor and Evaluator along with deploying twice in support of the Pacific Continuous Bomber Presencemission. In 2011, he transitioned to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, to attend the United States Air Force Weapons School.

Upon graduation, Lieutenant Colonel Williams served as the Flight Commander for the Conventional and Nuclear Operations and Plans Flights in the 2d Operations Support Squadron. Later, he served as the Chief of Bomber Operations and Programs at Headquarter Air Force Global Strike Command where he advised both the Commander and Vice Commander on nuclear force improvement issues and programs with Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Air Force visibility.

He also authored the curriculum and founded the School of Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies. Lieutenant Colonel Williams is a graduated Air Force Fellow from Sandia National Laboratories, where he completed their Weapon Intern Program, studying the historical development of nuclear weapons technologies to inform current and future stockpile activities, deterrence strategies, and the growing body of work on United States nuclear policy.

After completing his time as an Air Force Fellow, he served as the Deputy Branch Chief for International Treaties and Agreements, as a Speechwriter to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, and as the Branch Chief for Stockpile Science and Technology on the Air Staff.

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