Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano was commissioned in August 1996 and has served for over 19 years on active duty in the United States Marine Corps. A combat veteran, she has participated in numerous operational and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief deployments. Throughout her career, she has had challenging assignments, including a year as the Marine Aide to the Secretary of the Navy. She was selected for command twice, most recently as the commanding officer of the Marine Corps’ only all-female unit, the 4th Recruit Training Battalion. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Goucher College, where she majored in History with a pre-law emphasis. In 2011, she graduated with distinction from the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, earning her Masters of Military Science degree. She is actively engaged in the struggle to end gender bias in the military, and is a vocal proponent for equal rights and the elimination of double standards and lowered expectations for female conduct and performance.
Ellen Haring is a senior fellow with Women in International Security where she directs the Combat Integration Initiative project. Her research and work focuses on women and gender in the military. Haring is a West Point graduate, a retired Army colonel and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College. Presently, she is completing a PhD at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Haring has been a guest speaker on foreign and domestic news shows including: BBC Radio, CNN, PBS News Hour, National Public Radio, and Voice of America. She guest lectures at universities and colleges and has been invited to address members of Congress.
Haring’s recent publications include:
- “Patriarchal Sexism is Alive and Well in the Military” Foreign Policy (December 18, 2014)
- “Dear Berkeley Women: It’s time to lead the next revolution” Daily Californian (August 26, 2014)
- “The ‘Sea of Sameness’ in Professional Military Education” Joint Forces Quarterly (July 2014)
- “Deck Stacked Against Women in Experimental Task Force” Marine Corps Times (July 6, 2014)
- “Can Women Be Infantry Marines” War on the Rocks (May 29, 2014)
- “Do Military Women Want Combat Jobs” Foreign Policy (April 24, 2014)
- “Combat Integration: Good but not good enough” The Army Times (January 2014)
- “Rangers are NOT Leading the Way” Foreign Policy (January 2014)
- “A Col’s View of Commander’s Authority” Foreign Policy (September 2013)
- “Women and the Audie Murphy Model,” Armed Forces Journal (August 2013)
- “What Women Bring to the Fight,” Parameters, US Army War College (Summer 2013)
- “To Stop Sexual Assault in the Military Add More Women,” Christian Science Monitor (June 24, 2013)
- “The Army’s Disservice to Women,” The Washington Post (June 21, 2013)
- “Insights from the Women in Combat Symposium,” Joint Forces Quarterly (June 2013)
Holly Hemphill is Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center where she advises on tax policy matters and on issues relating to women in the military. She joined the Law Center after a career in federal service and private law practice. She twice served as Chair of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services by appointments of Defense Secretaries William Perry and Leon Panetta. She was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1996 and in 2014. She was named in 2015 as one of the Influential Women of Virginia by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Holly is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Susan Hosek is an adjunct Senior Economist at RAND. As a member of RAND’s research staff from 1973 to 2014, her research focused on healthcare, other benefits, diversity, and other related issues concerning military personnel. She was co-director of RAND’s 2010 report on sexual orientation and military personnel policy and co-director of the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research. Her research has ranged widely, including issues such as veterans health care, physical standards for military occupations, TRICARE benefits, disability benefits, sharing of electronic health information, and the organization and management of the military health care system. From 1993 to 2000, she directed the RAND Forces and Resources Policy Center, which conducts military personnel and health research for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other sponsors. From 2002 to 2010, she was RAND’s Group Manager for Economics and Statistics. She served as research director of the 2007 President’s Commission on Caring for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors and was a member of the 2001-2003 President’s Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation’s Veterans. She has taught at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and Carnegie Mellon University. She received her B.A. in economics from Cornell University and her M.A. in economics from Northwestern University.
Elizabeth Owens Lape (CDR, USN (ret)) completed a 23-year career in the U.S. Navy after serving in a wide variety of shore management, training, and joint billets retiring as an Education & Training Subspecialist and as a Joint Specialty Officer. She graduated from the Purdue University NROTC program, received her Master’s in Education from Old Dominion University, and is a Doctoral Candidate in the Higher Education Administration program at Old Dominion University. As a Government Civilian, Ms. Lape (GS14) is currently serving as the Deputy of the Individual Training and Learning Branch for the Joint Staff J7 where she is responsible for Joint Course Certification, Blended Learning, Joint Staff Officer Fundamentals and Women, Peace and Security Training/Education.
Dr. Gale A. Mattox is Professor/former chair, Political Science Department, US Naval Academy and awarded the 2011 Superintendent’s Faculty Service Award. She is an Adjunct Professor, Center for Strategic Studies, Georgetown U.; Director, Foreign/Domestic Policy Program, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Johns Hopkins U.; and 2009 Distinguished Fulbright-Dow Research Chair, Roosevelt Center, NL. Mattox served on the Policy Planning Staff, Department of State; as a CFR Fellow, State Department Office of Strategic and Theater Nuclear Policy; and International Affairs Analyst, Congressional Research Service. She was a Bosch Fellow, Germany and President, Bosch Alumni Association; NATO Research Fellow; and a Fulbright Scholar in Bonn. Mattox held the offices of President (1996-2003) and VP, Women in International Security (WIIS); VP, International Studies Assoc. Chair, International Security and Arms Control Section, American Political Science Assoc (2010-13), and recognized as an Outstanding Woman in the Security Field, Women’s Law Center. A book Coalition Challenges in Afghanistan: The Politics of Alliance with Steve Grenier, Stanford U. Press appeared in 2015.
Deborah Morrison works as an Executive Director of Consulting for LaMarsh Global. Her twenty-two years in the United States Military have provided her with strong leadership skills, dynamic team behaviors and the ability to build the processes and structures needed to develop empowered, self-directed employees. She has designed, developed and delivered a variety of activities that have both accelerated and sustained organizational change. These activities include executive level leadership development, innovation capability building, and change management certification and acceleration programs aimed at increasing organization capability build times. She has an MS in Organization Development and received her MBA with an emphasis in Leadership Studies. She is a distinguished graduate of the USAF First Sergeant Leadership Academy and the USAF NCO Leadership Academy.
Judy Patterson is SWAN’s Chief Executive Officer. She comes to SWAN with more than 20 years of nonprofit and association management. Judy co-founded both the American Gaming Association (AGA) and its charitable research arm, the National Center for Responsible Gaming, and ran the day-to-day operations for each. During her 18-year tenure, she diversified revenues by creating an international trade show and conference and raised more than $25 million through multi-year corporate contributions, special events and conference revenues. She developed corporate social responsibility programs for diversity, volunteerism and environmental sustainability that became hallmarks of the industry. Prior to joining the AGA, Judy served as special assistant to the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), where she developed public-private partnerships to build and sustain support for justice system improvements. She also served the ABA as director of the Public Liaison Office. Judy also served as circulation director of The Washingtonian Magazine, co-developed a monthly newspaper for the information industry, and was a teacher of the deaf.
Judy has a passion and dedication to women’s issues. Most recently, she served as a managing partner of Aspire Ascend, LLC, a professional services firm dedicated to advancing women’s achievement by creating and implementing workplace strategies for retaining and promoting women. She also founded an industry organization called Global Gaming Women to empower women and increase opportunities worldwide in management, executive, and board positions. She developed a first-of-its-kind online mentoring program and created a scholarship program to advance educational opportunities. She also grew the organization to more than 1,000 women worldwide in less than two years. Judy is known for her ability to connect with diverse constituencies to build trust and respect and has a talent for solving entrenched and complex problems.
Judy is a graduate of Georgetown Law School and a member of the D.C. Bar Association. She holds a Master in Education from Boston University. She is an active member of the Washington, DC Chapter of the International Women’s Forum and is Treasurer of the Washington Independent Review of Books. She is a volunteer domestic violence attorney for the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project. Judy lives in Washington, DC and is the proud parent of two adult children. She is an avid reader, theater-goer and pet-lover.
David R. Segal is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, and Founding Director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, and began his academic career at the University of Michigan in 1966. He directed the sociological research program at the Army Research Institute (ARI) during the first years of the volunteer Army, before joining the faculty at Maryland. He has been president of the District of Columbia Sociological Society, the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces & Society, and the Research Committee on Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution of the International Sociological Association. He has testified frequently to congressional committees on military personnel matters. He has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at West Point, a member of the Board of Visitors of the Army War College, a member of the Task Force on Human Resources Strategy of the Defense Science Board, and a consultant to the Army Education Advisory Committee, which assisted the army in developing reliable, valid and gender-free performance standards for army combat specialties. One of his major continuing and current research interests is diversity in the military, including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender. His books include Recruiting for Uncle Sam, Peacekeepers and their Wives, Life in the Rank and File, and The Post-Modern Military.
Mady Wechsler Segal (Ph.D. at the University of Chicago) is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Maryland, where she has been Distinguished Scholar Teacher, faculty affiliate of the Women’s Studies Department, Associate Director of the Center for Research on Military Organization, and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. Her research has focused on military women, military families, and race/ethnicity in the military. Her latest publications include “Conceptual Model of Military Career and Family Life Course Events, Intersections, and Effects on Well-Being” (Military Behavioral Health, 2015) (with Michelle Lane & Ashley Fisher); “The Role of Leadership and Peer Behaviors in the Performance and Well-Being of Women in Combat: Historical Perspectives, Family Issues, and Unit Integration” (Military Medicine, 2016) (with David G. Smith, David R. Segal, & Amy Canuso); “Military Women’s Life Events and Well-Being: A Life Course Model” (Military Medicine, 2016) (with Michelle D. Lane); “On the Fast Track: Dual Military Couples Navigating Institutional Structures” (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research 2013) (with David G. Smith). She served as a consultant to the U.S. Army Educational Advisory Committee on gender integration of newly opened ground combat jobs, working with the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) during development and validation of gender neutral physical job standards.
Dr. Agnes Gereben Schaefer is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Her research specializations include issues related to military personnel policy, reserve component issues, and national security strategy. Dr. Schaefer received her Ph.D. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Before joining RAND, Dr. Schaefer was a postdoctoral research associate and lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
David Smith, Ph.D., is an active duty U.S. Navy Captain and Permanent Military Professor in the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the United States Naval Academy having served 4 years as the Chair. A former Navy Pilot, Dr. Smith led diverse organizations of women and men culminating in command of a squadron in combat and flew more than 3,000 hours over 19 years including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a sociologist trained in military sociology and social psychology, he focuses his research in gender, work and family issues including dual career families, military families, women in the military, and retention of women. Dr. Smith is the co-author of Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women which is scheduled to be released this October by BiblioMotion publishers. Additionally, he has published numerous journal articles and book chapters—many on the topic of gender and the workplace. His most recent publications include: “On the Fast Track: Dual Military Couples Navigating Institutional Structures” in Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research (2013), “Dual Military Families: Confronting a Stubborn Military Institution” in Military Families and War in the 21st Century, Comparative Perspectives (2015), “Leadership and Peer Behaviors: Women in Combat” in Military Medicine (2016) and “Gender and the Military Profession: Early Career Influences, Attitudes and Intentions.” in Armed Forces & Society (2016).