The Hoover Institution’s participants in its National Security Affairs Fellows (NSAF) Program for the 2009–10 academic year have been announced by John Raisian, the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution.
The NSAF program offers representatives of the U.S. military and government agencies the opportunity to conduct independent research on topics relevant to their respective branches of government and to the practice of diplomacy. Admission to the program is based on direct nominations from each governmental branch. Since the program began in 1969, more than 130 people have participated in it.
Hoover deputy director David Brady, who serves as the program’s executive secretary, assisted by Cheryl Weissbart, administers the program.
This year’s participants are
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Almand, U.S. Air Force
Almand holds a bachelor of science degree in the social sciences from the United States Air Force Academy, a master of arts degree in human resources management from Webster University, and a master of arts degree in military operational art and science from the Air Command and Staff College, Air University, Alabama. He is a mobility pilot with more than four thousand flight hours in C-17, C-141, and C-12 aircraft. His most recent assignment was as commander, 517th Airlift Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. Almand has supported operations in Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan in a variety of assignments. Before commanding the 517th, he served as the executive officer to the commander, Pacific Air Forces, Hickham Air Force Base, Hawaii. His research will focus on officer professional development. Almand is one of two officers representing the air force in the 2009–10 class.
Lieutenant Colonel Don Chipman, U.S. Marine Corps
Chipman is a 1991 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and has a master of science degree in management from Troy State University. He is a graduate of the Joint Forces Staff College. An aircraft maintenance officer by trade, he has supported nearly every platform in Marine aviation. He has deployed with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, as part of the Unit Deployment Program in the Western Pacific, and in support of Operations Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom. Other recent assignments include action officer at U.S. Strategic Command, aviation logistics strategy and plans officer at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, and commanding officer of Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 11, 3rd Marine Air Wing. His research at Hoover will focus on current and future national security issues.
Lieutenant Colonel Sam Grable, U.S. Air Force
A native of Belfair, Washington, Grable graduated from Pepperdine University with a bachelor of science in accounting (1990). His specialty is U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense financial management; his assignments have included staff tours with the Air Staff and Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, a stint with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducting weapon system acquisition, and commanding a squadron. He served overseas in the United Kingdom and Italy, deployed to Baghdad in support of the Eighteenth Airborne Corps, and acted as air force liaison to the House and Senate Appropriation Committees. Grable holds masters’ degrees in organizational management from George Washington University (1998), international relations from Troy State University (1999), and military operational art and science from the Air Command and Staff College (2004). His research will focus on issues concerning resourcing ongoing and future contingency operations.
Commander Scott Hielen, U.S. Navy
Hielen earned his bachelor’s in international affairs from the University of Nebraska and holds a master’s in information technology management from Carnegie Mellon University. He comes to Hoover from Headquarters, United States European Command, in Stuttgart, Germany. He has deployed four times on aircraft carriers to the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, and the global war on terrorism. His most recent deployment took him over the skies of Iraq, coordinating on-scene Medivac and fire support for army, marine, and coalition convoys and ground forces. A career naval flight officer, he has accumulated more than 1,700 flight hours and 469 carrier-arrested landings in the E-2C Hawkeye; he has another 200 flight hours in more than ten different tactical and support aircraft. Hielen is a graduate of both marine and naval aviation weapons and tactics instructor training courses and served as an instructor at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, where he trained command and control aircrews for the navy's ten carrier air wings in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He has been an aviation department head and served as the executive officer to the director of Command, Control, Communications and Warfighting Integration at the U.S. European Command.
Anastasia Nichols, U.S. Department of State
Nichols is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a career member of the United States Foreign Service. She is a political officer, having served most recently at the U.S. embassies in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Islamabad, Pakistan, from 2008 to 2009 and 2007 to 2008, respectively. Her other overseas tours include Sweden, Kosovo, Bosnia, Egypt, the United Kingdom, and Israel. Nichol’s domestic tours include the State Department Operations Center, the Foreign Service Institute, and, as a liaison detail, NORAD/USNORTHCOM.
Colonel Dino Pick, U.S. Army
Dino received a BA from the University of Washington, an MM.A from the Marine Corps University, and an MA in Near Eastern studies from Princeton. He is a career military intelligence and Middle East foreign area officer. Before arriving at Hoover, Pick served as a special adviser to General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Dino's military experience includes service with the 3/66 Armored Battalion in Desert Storm and the Tenth Special Forces Group (Airborne) during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Since 2001 Pick has helped develop the counterterrorism capabilities of the Iraqi and Jordanian Armed Forces and served as a policy officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His research at Hoover will focus on governance issues in Iran and Afghanistan.
