Sallie McDonald (Key 22)
Director and Deputy Manager
National Communications System
Department of Homeland Security
Sallie McDonald was appointed the Deputy Manager and Director of the National Communications System (NCS) in January 2007, where she is responsible for the planning for and provision of national security and emergency preparedness communications for the Federal government. Prior to this assignment, she served a one year fellowship at George Mason’s School of Law working on a Critical Infrastructure Research Program.
Sallie was the leader of one of the 22 organizations that comprised the original Department of Homeland Security. Throughout her tenure at DHS, Sallie has worked with public and private sector organizations to develop working relationships with the Department. She has also been particularly active in the international arena, briefing foreign governments on critical infrastructure protection measures, sharing best practices and encouraging others to adopt measures to protect their country’s critical assets.
While working at the General Services Administration, she was the Assistant Commissioner for Information Assurance and Critical Infrastructure Protection, and was responsible for the Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCIRC), which on March 1, 2003 was transferred to DHS. FedCIRC was the Federal Government’s focal point for computer security incident recognition, reporting, handling and prevention. Sallie is an active participant in the Cyber Security community at the highest levels of government and has participated in the evolving face of Critical Infrastructure Protection. She has testified on cyber security issues numerous times to both the Senate and the House.
Sallie worked at GSA from1977 until her transfer to DHS. While at GSA she also spearheaded programs such as E-Authentication, Safeguard, Access Certificates for Electronic Services (ACES) and Managed Security Services. She also led the National effort for the Y2K Information Coordination Center.
She began her career in the telecommunications area at GSA, where she served in a variety of technical and management positions.
Donald G. Bathurst (Key 14)
Chief Administrative Officer
Department of Homeland Security
Mr. Bathurst is Chief of Administrative Services for the Department of Homeland Security. He is responsible for the delivery of administrative services, including facilities acquisition, facilities management, inventory management, records management, health and safety programs, environmental compliance, mail room, motor pool, fleet management and a customer service center.
Most recently he served as the Director of the Office of Asset Management at DHS, responsible for planning, development, acquisition, management, protection, and disposal for all tangible assets of the Department of Homeland Security, including land, buildings, motor fleet, aircraft, and all other personal property.
Mr. Bathurst has served within FEMA as the Deputy Associate Director for Operations Support responsible for proterty management and disaster logistics as well as security programs and safety. He served as Director of the National Dam Safety Program, coordinating the activities of 24 Federal agencies and the 50 States; as director of building sciences and public education programs in the Mitigation Directorate; and as the Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator, where he was instrumental in establishing counterterrorism training, coordinating anti-arson efforts and putting facility management plans in place for the National Emergency Training Center.
Prior to his service at FEMA, he spent more than 15 years at the General Services Administration where he served as the Chief Fire Protection Engineer. He developed risk management programs and directed applied research projects developing fire effects models, forensic engineering and protection of disabled building occupants. He served on a variety of technical standards committees and on the Board of Directors of the National Fire Protection Association. He also served in a variety of other roles including Acting Director of Safety, Chief of Environmental Management, and Acting Director of Repair and Alteration.
His accomplishments have been recognized through numerous awards from within the government and the private sector, including the 1992 Arthur S. Flemming Award as one of the top five managers in Federal service and the NSPE Federal Engineer of the Year award for GSA. His contributions to risk management and fire performance estimation have been internationally recognized, most notably by the Society of Fire Protection Engineer’s President’s Award. He is a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
Mr. Bathurst is a member of the Federal Government’s Senior Executive Service and holds a Bachelor of Science in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. He started his career as a firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician in Prince William County, VA, and Prince George’s County, MD.
Anh N. Duong (OPM 3)
Mrs. Duong and her family came to the United States as refugees of war after the fall of South Viet Nam in 1975. She graduated within the top 3% of her high-school class and went on to graduate Cum Laude in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Maryland.
Because of her background, Mrs. Duong feels deeply indebted to the American troops for her freedom and second chance in America. She wanted to work for U.S defense in order to serve our troops and has spent her entire career to date working in Naval Science and Technology. Mrs. Duong is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in explosives. She used to direct all U.S. Navy explosives research and development and had successfully put 10 new explosives into 18 different U.S. weapons in the 1990’s. Her unrivaled record in this field was cited in her receipt of the Dr. Arthur Bisson Award for Naval Technology Achievement by Rear Admiral J. Cohen, Chief of Naval Research.
Mrs. Duong is most well known for her thermobaric weapon created to defeat tunnels and bunkers used as terrorist hideouts, in order to spare U.S. troops from the dangerous task of clearing them out in foot. In only 67 days, her team of nearly one hundred scientists, engineers and technicians successfully went from concept through development, scale-up and fielding of the U.S. first thermobaric bomb, the BLU-118B, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. This earned the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) at Indian Head, where she worked, a Meritorious Unit Commendation by the Secretary of the Navy and her team the Roger Smith Team Award, while Mrs. Duong received the prestigious Civilian Meritorious Medal. Mrs. Duong then led her team through a follow-on effort, the Thermobaric Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD), which won the 2005 ACTD Of–The-Year Award by the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense. Prior to her Pentagon assignment, Mrs. Duong was NSWC Indian Head’s Director of Science and Technology. She currently serves as Science Advisor to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy (Vice Admiral J. Morgan), and the Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (Mr. T. Betro). With a special focus on the Global War on Terrorism, Mrs. Duong is working on the technical dimension of anti-terrorism and force protection.
Mrs. Duong’s leadership and passion for her work in serving the war fighters are well recognized. She received the 2004 U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Award of Excellence for Public Service, and has been featured on numerous newspapers, magazines and national and international television networks. Mrs. Duong appeared in the Sundance Festival award-winning documentary film “Why We Fight”, discussing her perspective on wars, and was featured in the book Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers, by the American Society of Civil Engineers. She was saluted by the Naval Sea Systems Command during Women’s History Month and featured in a Discovery and Military Channel’s documentary series as one of the masterminds behind the world’s “Future Weapons”. In June 2007, Mrs. Duong was selected by the Partnership for Public Service to be one of the 31 finalists, among nearly 600 nominees, for the Service to America Medals (Sammies). She was subsequently selected as one of the 10 medallists and was presented the prestigious 2007 Service to America Medal for National Security by the Secretary of the Navy in September this year.
