Over the past several years, I have become personally involved with three ongoing issues, that are close to my heart. The support efforts I have proposed are endorsed by my extremely skilled and interested network, and I look forward to tapping them to ensure successful outcomes.
Habitat for Humanity - Restore
Over the last 20 years, I have been supporting the Habitat for Humanity team and their Restore centers through donations and volunteering. My sons and I began volunteering at Restore during their freshman year in high school. They went on to complete the bulk of their sophomore, junior and senior year volunteer hours supporting the Restore facility in Rockville.
During a recent visit, donating extremely heavy furniture, the lack of an operational liftgate in Rockville, and a complete lack of one, in Silver Spring were notable. The burden this puts upon workers and donators is quite imposing at times, and potentially an issue for both – retaining the employees and encouraging donations.
I was speaking with a friend about this experience, and we discussed options for supporting. They are extremely generous and offered to provide for the repair of the Rockville liftgate, and the installation of one in Silver Spring. Over the next several months, in correspondence with the Restore leadership, we determined that forklifts would provide a more comprehensive solution at both locations.
The forklifts have been delivered to both locations, training of operators, and a train the train program have been implemented. Restore has also committed to quarterly preventive maintenance, to ensure the investment lasts for years.
Additionally, while in my role as the Operations Program Manager for BAE Systems, I oversaw the renovation the Redland Corporate Center facility in Rockville. The common areas were refurbished, and rather than discard slightly used cabinetry to a landfill, I ensured that they were carefully disassembled and provided them to Habitat.
King Farm Farmstead
Residing in King Farm since my original home purchase in 2001, and subsequent townhouse purchase in 2014, I have always had an affinity for the farmstead. It is a travesty that the city has allowed the buildings to decay, and now it has become even worse due to the investment into the barns with no strategy for the property.
Additionally, the annexation of the King Farm Buick property has resulted in a new set of issues with the Farmstead – as the construction of a 370-unit townhouse development has begun. The developer has allocated funds to build a 47-car parking lot is to support the Farmstead – however, there are still no plans for its future. I pointed this out during a Mayor and Council meeting and the pragmatism of this effort was dismissed.
My interest remains, however, as I cited prior to the annexation, parking was an issue for any solution. Now, that has become the issue that may preclude any use.
In 1998, King Farm was sold to a group of developers to convert the farm property into one of the largest new communities in Montgomery County. The property retained the name and, over 20 years later, it is one of the top-rated communities in the country.
Part of the property is an historical site known as the King Farm Farmstead. It is an oddly shaped parcel with eight buildings highlighted by two milk barns, a horse barn, and a residence. This site has remained virtually untouched until the City of Rockville invested almost $3 million in 2018 to renovate the milk barns and save them from collapsing.
Residing in King Farm since my original home purchase in 2001, and subsequent townhouse purchase in 2014, I have always had an affinity for the farmstead. It is a travesty that the city has allowed the buildings to decay, and now it has become even worse due to the investment into the barns with no strategy for the property.
One of the most significant issues with the property is the cost of bringing utilities in under code. There are many issues cited by the Public Works leadership that could cost over $10 million. There are also potentially other hidden costs that must be investigated prior to any investment.
- The King Farm Farmstead Task Force provided some potential uses for the property in 2017.
- I offered a farming-based learning facility at Mayor and Council meeting in 2018 and met privately spoke with Mayor Newton and Councilman Pierzchala privately – where they both expressed support. (Councilman Pierzchala would later deny that support, despite my having taken notes from our meeting where he not only expressed support but provided additional complementary uses to my suggestion.)
- In 2019 the King Farm Buick property adjacent to the Farmstead was annexed and sold to a developer.
- I spoke at four of the Mayor and Council open sessions, and pointed out the fallacious traffic study that understates the impact of the development by a factor of at least 10. I noted that the traffic in and around the Farmstead resulting from this new development will affect any potential future use, in a mostly negative manner.
Helmet Design and Data Capture
Effective treatment for Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) has not leveraged the technological advances society has enjoyed over the last 20 years. That needs to change.
While working at BAE Systems in 2009, I had the opportunity to meet with colleagues from a division located in Arizona that were working on improving military helmet design. They used impact telemetry modules in the helmet to assess forces and enable them to improve impact effects and reliability.
[Note: At the 2011 Long Island Head Injury Association annual conference, I met Aggie, her daughter Joanna, and Joanna’s health assistant Pat. Joanna had suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in a car accident, five years earlier. During the luncheon, Aggie shared with me her efforts of trying to find an effective treatment for her daughter. In those five years, she had endured a great deal of personal strife, and if it were not for her obvious strength, I would have broken down just listening to her. Even now, whenever I relate her story, it brings tears to my eyes.
It occurred to me that if she had access to a database that collected information on head injuries, their causes, effects, degree of severity, treatments, and outcomes, her struggle would have been reduced significantly. Although a very complex issue, with the current state of data storage and transfer, it certainly seemed to be a reasonable solution. In fact, it should exist across every field of medicine.
Later that year the DoD funded the NIH to establish a Traumatic Head Injury database, and the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) informatics system is the result.]
There are quite a few manufacturers of impact telemetry measurement devices, and in addition to military applications, almost all are involved with the improvement of helmet designs of other sports, predominantly football.
A key additional data collection point in most of the modules is a timestamp. This provides the ability to precisely record the moment an impact occurs.
Almost all football games, from high school and college to the professionals, are recorded. Helmets that contain impact telemetry modules with the timestamp capability could provide a visual record that would enable specific identification of individuals and the impact that caused a head injury.
Sideline and post-concussive cognitive tests are the initial measurements of athlete injuries. These continue throughout the recovery process in concert with the various treatments they receive. A database that maps individual medical progress, containing a record of the impact data, would provide an opportunity for others suffering from similar injuries access to treatments and expected outcomes.
- Extensive initial interaction with representatives of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Long Island Head Injury Association, provided numerous contacts across the health and sports industries, and all have been tremendously supportive of the proposition.
- The Department of Defense provided $10M to NIH to develop a comprehensive head injury database. It is called the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) informatics system and was developed to share data across the entire TBI research field.
Attempts to attain partnership for data collection efforts and incorporation into FITBIR were fruitless. I hope to explore opportunities with my next company.
Veterans Support
Those who have served our country sacrificed for us. They, and their loved ones, deserve our gratitude, support, and service.
The image was chosen specifically because this is a Veteran of the Korean War, my father’s war. My brother, sister, nephew, uncle, cousin, brother-in-law, and father-in-law all served. Two roles with two different companies enabled me to lead efforts pursuing improved Veterans Affairs communications.
All Veterans deserve our support. The value of their service to ensure our freedom is immeasurable. Our military provides us with a security that few other nations have achieved. Ours is the most powerful force on earth, and it is because of our dedicated service members. When they complete their duty they deserve recognition for what they have provided, often at great sacrifice.
The opportunity to continue supporting the communications efforts at the VA ended with the conclusion of the second contract I was supporting in 2020.
I hope to raise interest in this most valuable cause in my next role or supporting non-profit organizations dedicated to the effort.
