Capstone Projects 2024‒25

Michael Arnold served twenty-four years in the US Army and retired in 2017 as a colonel. He is a senior executive with an extensive background in public-sector strategic change management, human resources reform, and talent management. He most recently served as the deputy director of the US Army Talent Management Task Force. Arnold was a 2014–15 Hoover National Security Affairs Fellow. He holds an undergraduate degree from La Salle University and an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Accelerating Momentum with Talent Management Reform in the All-Volunteer Force

Challenge Addressed: America will struggle to be combat effective in modern warfare unless it mandates needed changes in the military’s talent management ecosystems. The industrial-age process of managing people by interchangeable, one-size-fits-all pay-grade and skill sets must be replaced with more modern, agile, granular, and robust talent data.

Capstone Goal: Create a new and modern practice for managing service members that maximizes the return on American taxpayers’ dollars and creates better near-term and long-term readiness among the military’s people.

Haotian Bai is an immigrant, a US Army veteran, and a pioneering entrepreneur in the third-party reproduction and legal services sectors. He is founder of Patriot Conceptions and TrustUS, and his businesses prioritize supporting military families and ensuring privacy in legal processes, underscoring his commitment to service and innovation. He holds an MS from Iowa State University.

Expanding Access to Reproductive Care for Veterans: A Policy and Advocacy Initiative

Challenge Addressed: Veterans and active-duty service members currently face barriers—awareness, access, and financial—to third-party assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Capstone Goal: Prepare a series of policy recommendations and create an interested stakeholder group for improving reproductive healthcare to expand ART access for veterans and active-duty military personnel.

Jeremy W. Cannon deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan as a trauma surgeon during his active military service. He is now professor of surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a practicing trauma surgeon and a surgical researcher. He holds degrees from the US Air Force Academy, Harvard Medical School, and MIT.

Strategic Medical and Disaster Readiness Center

Challenge Addressed: Between major conflicts, the US combat casualty care system deteriorates to the point of obsolescence, a phenomenon termed the “peacetime effect.” When we then re-engage an enemy in conflict, our military medical system enters the fight unprepared, leading to preventable battlefield deaths. Maintaining military medical readiness between conflicts would mitigate this costly cycle while also meeting a major need for civilian trauma care and disaster response across our country.

Capstone Goal: Create a center of excellence that seeks to minimize the “peacetime effect” and the resulting death of US war fighters and disaster victims by 1) training trauma and disaster response experts, 2) innovating for improved care in hostile and post-disaster settings, and 3) promoting value-added strategic medical and disaster readiness policies.

Jeff Chapman served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy. His professional background includes executive roles across commercial and public sectors, and he is the founder and former CEO of Babel Street, which he led from inception to significant growth and ultimately a successful acquisition. He holds degrees from the US Naval Academy, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia.

Understanding the Return on Investment for States to Employ AI in Healthcare Delivery for Rural Communities

Challenge Addressed: Rural communities in the United States face significant healthcare challenges, including limited access to medical professionals, long travel distances to healthcare facilities, and inadequate resources for complex health needs. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve healthcare delivery, reduce costs, and increase efficiency to help bridge healthcare gaps in rural regions. However, while AI promises to transform rural healthcare, it is critical for state policymakers and healthcare stakeholders to understand the financial implications of these technologies.

Capstone Goal: Analyze the potential financial benefits of AI adoption in state healthcare systems, to include examining cost savings, efficiency improvements, and quality of care. The return on investment projections will inform actionable recommendations for state policymakers.

Jonathan “JD” Due of Business at William & Mary. Due has served extensively in the nonprofit space, including as the director of programs and scholarships at the Pat Tillman Foundation. He is a graduate of the US Military Academy and holds an MA in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Flourishing After Service: Addressing Veteran Underemployment and Empowering Those Who Served to Maximize their Productivity, Resilience, and Fulfillment

Challenge Addressed: The prevailing conversation on veteran transition and employment fails to address the chronic root causes of veteran underemployment, which recent studies estimate exceeds 60 percent. Underemployment in this population is poorly understood, and the policies created to help transitioning service members do not maximize veterans’ productivity, resilience, and fulfillment.>

Capstone Goal: Identify the primary causes of veteran underemployment in the United States as well as effective interventions that can significantly mitigate and meaningfully address its challenges via state, regional, and ultimately national policy changes.

Robin Johnson served over twenty years in the US Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. She is a certified humor professional who uses a cognitive behavioral theory–based approach to improving psychological performance. Johnson is a TEDx speaker, an instructor for the Institute for Defense and Business, Faculty at Thayer Leadership (West Point), and a thought leader on the applied and therapeutic use of humor for mental health and suicide prevention. She holds a BA from the Ohio State University and an MBA from Webster University.

HEAL*ARIOUS:  Humor for Improved Psychological Performance

Challenge Addressed: Suicide, a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults, is exacerbated in military and veteran communities, where more than four times as many troops and veterans have been lost to suicide than from hostilities Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Humor, which is understudied and underutilized, offers some options. The innovative use of humor to address cognitive distortions has a profound positive impact on mental health.

Capstone Goal: Expand awareness of and access to therapeutic humor in the active-duty and veteran communities to reduce depression and suicide. Develop an online training course and supporting workbook that teaches practitioners how to facilitate humor-infused cognitive behavioral theory–based workshops to reduce depression and suicide.

Sean Singleton spent six years as a US Air Force acquisitions and protocol officer (active), before spending seven years as a special investigator (reserve). He serves as managing principal of Oglethorpe Capital LLC and an independent director of WaFd Bank. Singleton has a BS from the US Air Force Academy and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The Foundational Element

Challenge Addressed: The country’s advanced and emerging tech fields will depend on a workforce driven by science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The current dearth of STEM education for US middle and high school students, especially in disadvantaged and minority communities, has been highlighted as a national security concern. If America is to remain beyond parity with our near-peer economic competitors, our nation will need to increase the number of students going into STEM fields of study from all sectors of society.

Capstone Goal: Create a 501(c)(3) organization whose programming simultaneously addresses improved STEM education in disadvantaged and minority communities; early STEM-intensive career experiences and opportunities with the defense industrial base; and increased financial literacy and monetary resources of low- and moderate-income students. Effort will initially pilot with public- and private-sector entities in four cities: Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mary L. Tobin is a US Army combat veteran with more than twenty years of experience in leadership development, community engagement, and public speaking. She is the director of programs at More Perfect Union and previously served in the Biden-Harris administration as the senior advisor for wounded warrior, veterans, and military family initiatives for AmeriCorps. Tobin is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and the New York Institute of Technology.

In Pursuit of the American Dream: Data-Driven Approaches to Reducing Political Polarization and Increasing Civic Engagement at the Community Level

strong>Challenge Addressed: The perceived gap between the American dream and American reality has resulted in increased political polarization and decreased civic engagement and volunteerism. Better understanding how social determinants of health influence political polarization, local economic resilience, and civic engagement across communities in the United States will contribute to policymaking that can strengthen civic participation.

Capstone Goal: Create visual and actionable tools and engagement opportunities to advance awareness of economic disparities, improve economic outcomes, encourage volunteerism, and increase civic engagement.

William Treseder served more than ten years in the US Marine Corps. He is the cofounder and chief operating officer of government innovation company BMNT and an advisor to multiple defense tech startups. Treseder also currently serves in the Marines Reserves as the chief strategy officer of the Marine Innovation Unit. He holds a BA from Stanford University.

Overseas Business Corps

Challenge Addressed: America needs to attract middle-income countries to a liberal free-market model to reverse the democratic recession and undermine Chinese efforts to weaken the American-led international order. Thriving small and medium-sized businesses are critical economic pillars in this model.

Capstone Goal: Prove a working model that sends small groups of Americans on a “tour of duty” to Lagos, Nigeria, to accelerate the growth of local, small or medium businesses

Clint Trocchio served as a military pilot and budget examiner in the US Coast Guard for twenty-two years. He is the chief clerk of the US Senate’s Committee on Appropriations and chair of the US Senate Federal Credit Union’s Supervisory Committee. He received his BA from the Coast Guard Academy and master’s degrees from Spring Hill College (MBA) and George Washington University (MPA).

US Senate Committee on Appropriations “Applied Policy Lab”

Challenge Addressed: In Congress, the Appropriations Committee holds the jurisdiction and constitutional authority, as well as significant influence, over the nation's financial resources. When building conference law, the House’s and the Senate’s respective committees are sustained with tools and pathways (the “pipes and doors”) that trade earmarks and accounting positions between the two chambers. However, the back end of the appropriations process and the engagement and sharing of information between the two chambers is antiquated, making operations difficult, slow, and opaque.

Capstone Goal: Build and deploy bipartisan, bicameral lawmaking tools for Capitol Hill’s appropriators to streamline their work and publish their results for public view, including the Hill’s first-ever shared financial ledger, and a content system used to produce and publish national earmark projects. The tools also perform a continuity-of-government role in helping maintain the committees’ readiness for lawmaking amid elections and national emergencies.