Heather L. Beal, Ph.D., CEM

Experience

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  US Navy

  Jul 1992 - Sept 2015

  Officer
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  USS CHUNG HOON (DDG 93)

  Oct 2003 - Jun 2006

  Signal Warfare Officer in Charge

  USS Chung-Hoon provided support to COMPACFLT and various combatant commands and carrier strike groups while deployed in support of Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM.STRATEGIC PLANNING AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ACUMEN: Drafted an aggressive strategic collection plan that resulted in more data collected in support of the Global War on Terrorism in three months on station than had been collected in the previous 12 months consecutively. Collection strategy developed was implemented across Seventh Fleet.ADMINISTRATIVE/RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Revolutionized ship security and access programs. Drafted shipboard security and operational intelligence instructions and initiated policies that verified adequate clearances and ensured proper access to restricted spaces. Previous systems had resulted in personnel security clearances lapsing without adequate time to enable recertification and ambiguous policies that confused watch standers and did not best protect the ship and ensure its secure spaces were safe from compromise or access violations. Designed surface and air asset allocation plan for maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf. INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER: Volunteered for, and excelled as, Command Equal Opportunity Manager (CMEO) amidst an initial highly toxic command climate. Responsible for judicious handling of delicate issues; advice provided averted additional issues and greatly improved command member and leadership morale. Initiatives/Achievements:• Recognized by leadership as a mentor for both officers and enlisted; credited with turning around command climate. • Obtained early accreditation of ship’s signal exploitation space, exceeding predicted timelines by two months. Show less

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  Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Hawaii

  Jun 2006 - Oct 2010

  Administrative Officer/Deputy Division Chief

  NIOC Hawaii provides Information Warfare capabilities to COMPACFLT operating forces, NSA/CSS Hawaii, and SECDEF. It provides shore installation management for 300,000 sqft facility and 2,800 service members.EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROFICIENCY: Expert administrator of the Navy’s disaster accountability and assessment tool (NFAAS). Conceived and actualized command instruction and program for personal accountability, providing emergency contact information and instruction to over 2,800 command members and their dependents. EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Deputy Chief of a 262 multi-service team that produced over 9,400 time sensitive reports and increased situational awareness of deployed commands and leadership official across the intelligence community. Oversaw command indoctrination and in/out processing division, comprising an average of 150 Sailors at any given time. ADMINISTRATIVE/RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Managed 30-man team responsible for administrative oversight of over 1,200 personnel. Maintained a $35K budget; recommended reallocation of assets to facilitate operational requirements. Cultivated a climate of empowerment that resulted in improving awards processing time by 30%. Researched billet allocation sourcing and classification; identified critical gaps in manpower fills as well as inefficiencies in personnel placement. Conclusions endorsed by senior leadership and a plan implemented to streamline billet classifications from 26 - 6, enabling clarity of funding streams and improving personnel allocation to better met command needs, despite force draw downs and other manning issues.Initiatives/Achievements:• Instituted leadership initiatives and mentoring that resulted in a 92% advancement rate, 98% physical fitness pass rate and an 89% retention rate for over 200 Sailors under her command.• Commended by NFAAS administrators for her diligence and efforts in ensuring command personnel safety. Achieved 100% accountability during two annual recall exercises. Show less

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  CJSOTF Afghanistan

  Feb 2008 - Jul 2008

  Collection Management, Dissemination, and Geospatial Team Officer in Charge

  CJSOTF-A, in partnership with Afghan Security Forces and in support of Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, conducts Foreign Internal Defense. It provides strategic reconn and direct action special ops for the Commander, Special Operations Command Central Command, and Joint Chiefs of Staff.EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Built intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) knowledge and application tools and trained team members in their utilization. These tools provided an ability to track & prioritize requests and were instrumental to military efforts in determining ISR shortfalls impacting routine and emergency operations; adopted by Afghanistan theater-level ISR managers as a key resource management and scheduling functional process.COMMUNICATION SKILLS/TEAM BUILDING: Conducted daily synchronization sessions with joint and allied ISR asset holders and usage stakeholders. Routinely liaised with numerous U.S. and Allied troop ISR managers across five separate regional commands in Afghanistan, and often back to the United States mainland to negotiate and barter over prioritization, scheduling and desired application of ISR assets to best meet operational needs and mitigate threats to troops on the ground.STRATEGIC PLANNING AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ACUMEN: Innovative sensor application set new standards for asset utilization and broke previous geographical boundary constraints. Lauded for her ability to deliver ISR assets where none had been available before.Initiatives/Achievements:• Developed and managed ISR coverage plans for over 50 major combat operations. • Engagement and management skills resulted in an 86% ISR fill rate with over 3,880 hours of coverage provided. Previously documented success rate was 15-20%.• Fused three years of historic ISR data into an interactive product that enabled instant visualization of request and receipt trends, providing operational commanders immediate insight into operational shortfalls and strengths. Show less

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  Commander Pacific Fleet (COMPACFLT)

  Jul 2010 - Jul 2013

  Non Lethal Targeting Chief

  COMPACFLT provides combat-ready forces for naval, joint, and combined operations. It executes Title 10 man, train, and equip authorities for a fleet of 187 ships, 122,000 personnel, with an annual budget of $8.3 billion.EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Expertly developed and managed a weeklong staff exercise and emergency process & capability drill designed to analyze cyber integration and execution during crisis ops. Visualized yet-undeveloped policy, and actualized through exercise execution into valuable policy recommendations. COMMUNICATION SKILLS/TEAM BUILDING: The impetus behind first-ever assembly of information operations (IO) consortium of experts to develop a comprehensive strategy to task document in support of planning efforts. Led non-lethal targeting for a 98-person IO cell during four key exercises and maintained readiness for real-world operations.STRATEGIC PLANNING AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ACUMEN: Developed exercise processes to handover cyber targets between U.S. and Australia with real-world application potential. Responsible for creation of 50 pages / reworking of 150+ pages of outdated operational planning data. Efforts seamlessly fused IO capabilities into operational crisis planning. Lead planner for 3 annual exercises. Developed/tested contingency and emergency op policy, identifying new weaknesses, and building resilience to mitigate identified problem-areas.Initiatives/Achievements:• Distinguished by Joint Staff (JS) as the “force” behind integration of non-lethal targeting processes with kinetic targeting during TERMINAL FURY 2012, the Pacific Theater’s largest joint exercises.• COMPACFLT now recognized with a more mature non-lethal targeting process due to her initiatives, easily outpacing like-sized organizations by years. • Developed SOPs for nonlethal target integration that has been adopted as the targeting standard .• Created the only nonlethal targeting job qual in existence, adopted across DOD. Show less

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  United States Cyber Command

  Jul 2013 - Sept 2015

  Combat Targets Branch Chief

  United States Cyber Command is responsible for planning, integrating, and executing offensive & defensive cyberspace ops in support of national, strategic, & military objectives including overseas contingency ops.EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Oversaw development of a cyber forces target system analysis (TSA) culminating in an over 300% expansion of intelligence content. Scoped and initiated the development of a second TSA that provided critical baseline intelligence of adversary capabilities / composition. The unique insight offered through operationally focused direction into typically purely analytic effort resulted in a product useful outside the intelligence community (IC), that spoke directly to operational contingency planners & enabled better defensive business continuity operation planning.STRATEGIC PLANNING AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ACUMEN: Key member of strategic/operational planning teams. Provided critical input & recommendations; resulted in acceptance of proposed objs and effects into plans. Recommendations resulted in command adoption of target dev priorities, an unprecedented first step to enable effective resource management. Key player in large-scale cyber emergency exercise; responsible for training and execution of target dev process and doctrine adherence.COMMUNICATION SKILLS/TEAM BUILDING: Created partnerships across the IC to enable development of an all-source TSA. Partnerships greatly expanded command interaction with several key cyber protection orgs and ensured a more holistic picture of the adversary could be developed, taking into account cybersecurity policy strengths and weaknesses and facilitating development of counter threat planning. Initiatives/Achievements:• Selected as Combat Targets (J2T) Division Field Grade Officer (FGO) of the year – 2013• Selected as USCYBERCOM FGO of the year – 2014• By-name request to brief TSA to 2 allied nations; interaction fostered new intelligence-sharing partnerships. Show less

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  BLOCKS

  Dec 2014 - now

  President and CEO

  BLOCKS is Building Links between Offices of Emergency Management, Childcare, and the Community, for Kids Safety and is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Develop and implement strategic plans and initiatives as approved by the Board of Directors. Develop and implement National Childcare Disaster Readiness Certification Program.EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROFICIENCY: Used knowledge of the PPD-8, the National Preparedness Goal, National Response Framework, National Commission on Children in Disaster, and other federal and state policy and guidelines to craft an organization mission plan to fill critical gaps in the Stafford Act and thereby improve community resiliency. Developed emergency operational plans and implementation recommendations and curriculum to enable better decision making by caregivers and prepare children during crises. EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Planned, developed, and established articles of incorporation, bylaws, mission statement and goals, business and funding plans as well as policies and objectives for start-up of a nonprofit organization. Skillful articulation of the limitations facing small businesses and the necessity to mitigate damage enabled childcare providers to develop and/or improve their own business continuity plans based off of provided recommendations. COORDINATION/NETWORKING: Coordinated with local childcare, childcare certification offices, state and county offices of emergency management, and the community, to help build risk awareness mitigation strategy networks to enable more holistic planning and response operations. Recruited a diverse Board of Directors’ membership across different states and backgrounds, ensuring that distinct perspectives were available and equality of input kept paramount. Show less

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  Train 4 Safety Press

  Mar 2017 - now

  Owner

  Train 4 Safety Press is an independent publishing imprint owned and managed by Heather L. Beal. Train 4 Safety Press publishes picture books on a variety of disaster preparedness topics.The books published by Train 4 Safety Press are specifically designed to help parents, childcare providers, and caregivers, talk to young children about disaster in a way that:- empowers children- provides information and education on what an event is- provides information on how to be prepared- does not frighten themTrain 4 Safety Press is a certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and Washington state Women's Business Enterprise (WBE). Show less

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  Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service

  Nov 2020 - Nov 2022

  Adjunct Faculty: Disaster and Pediatrics Course