Thomas Tehada

Thomas Tehada currently holds the position of Corrosion and Cathodic Protection (CP) Subject Matter Expert, for the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFACENGCOM). He works for the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC) in Port Hueneme, California, and is duty stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Mr. Tehada began his career in 1979 at the Pacific Division NAVFACENGCOM as an intern under the then CP Program Manager. In 1986, he assumed the role as the Pacific Division NAVFACENGCOM CP Program Manager, and in 1990 was selected as the NAVFACENGCOM CP Subject Matter Expert, a position that was later transferred to the NAVFAC ESC (now NAVFAC EXWC) in 1995.

Mr. Tehada earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1978 from the University of Hawaii. He is a registered Professional Electrical Engineer (Hawaii - 1984), a registered Corrosion Engineer (California - 1987), a NACE Certified Cathodic Protection Specialist (2009), and has been a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers for the past 29 years.

George Keller

George Keller is a Senior Consultant at LMI, a government consulting firm, where he has been employed since 2006. He has provided broad consulting support to the DoD Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight since 2003 in the areas of strategic planning, requirements development, project selection, communications and outreach, and training and education. He is a retired Air Force officer with 21 years of service. He received his Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State and his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Dan Dunmire

Daniel J. Dunmire is Director of Corrosion Policy and Oversight for the Department of Defense, reporting directly to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Mr. Dunmire organized and implemented the DoD Corrosion Prevention and Control Program as directed by the Secretary of Defense, in accordance with the provisions of Public Law Number 107-314 which enacted 10 U.S.C. 2228 in FY 2003, and has headed the program since that time.

Mr. Dunmire started his civilian Federal service as a Presidential Management Fellow and has worked in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics since 1987, being assigned to areas in program management, industry, operations, and acquisition policy. He is a member of the Department of Defense Acquisition Corps, Level III, in Program Management. Three times he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service and was a member of the team that received the Vice President's Hammer Award for Acquisition Policy and Deskbook Design.

He also spent four years of active duty and is a retired Army Corps of Engineers Reservist. Mr. Dunmire attended Youngstown State University and graduated with a BA degree in communications from Kent State University. He received his Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Mr. Dunmire is currently a doctoral candidate seeking a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Virginia Tech. His dissertation will address policy associated with the DoD Corrosion Prevention and Control Program and focus specifically on public policy decision making regarding the cost of corrosion.

Dick Kinzie

Dick Kinzie retired in 2006 after 22 years as a Senior Materials Engineer in the USAF Corrosion Prevention and Control Office. His duties included new aircraft design for corrosion resistance, corrosion prediction and modeling, costs of corrosion, and corrosion related maintenance requirements.

He is currently providing support to the OSD Corrosion Office and serves as a member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center Technical Discipline Team. Mr. Kinzie received his degree in Chemical Engineering from the Univ. of VA and worked for 14 years in industry developing and manufacturing coatings, water treatment compounds and corrosion inhibitors prior to joining the AF Corrosion Office.

Kieche Meleson

Dr. Meleson is a Research Chemist at the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC) in Port Hueneme, CA. She has been working for the Navy for the past 3 and half years in the Capital Improvements Waterfront Structures Materials Division.

Most of her work involves paints and coatings related issues in DoD infrastructure as well as corrosion research, education, and specifications. Dr. Meleson earned her B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002 and her M.S. and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008. She is a NACE certified Cathodic Protection tester and Level I Coatings inspector.

She is a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) and the Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC).

Edwin Piedmont

Edwin Piedmont presently holds the position as Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center's (NAVFAC EXWC) Program Manager for the Defense Logistics Agency's Centrally Managed Cathodic Protection Program. The program covers all repairs and maintenance to DoD installations that have DLA capitalized fuel facilities. Mr. Piedmont is presently located in Charleston, SC.

Mr. Piedmont began his career in 1987 at Southern Division NAVFACENCOM as an intern under the PDC program. A graduate of the NAVFAC Leadership Development program, Mr. Piedmont was selected as the Cathodic Protection Branch Manager at Southern Division NAVAFAC and Program Manager for the DESC CP program in 2003.

Mr. Piedmont attended The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina from 1983 to 1987 on an athletic scholarship where he earned multiple All-Conference and All-State honors and earned a BSEE in Electrical Engineering in 1987. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in South Carolina and a NACE Certified Cathodic Protection Specialist. Mr. Piedmont is a Corporate NACE International member.