Commission on Wartime Contracting

Experience: Denean retired from the Air Force in May 2009 as a colonel with over 27 years of acquisition and contracting experience. She has experience as Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting in Afghanistan (PARC-A) in 2007, as well as five years as Air Force Contracting Career Field Manager; both positions involved the contingency-contracting policy, organizational, and workforce issues now under study by the Commission. While serving as a Contracting Career Field Manager, she implemented aggressive “Stop the Bleeding” initiatives to mitigate the impacts of losses in civilian and military contracting workforces; the initiatives included an innovative and successful “Warrior 1st” program to motivate officers to volunteer for one-year tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Denean has had Air Staff assignments including Chief of Air Force Contracting Policy, Military Assistant to the Principal Assistant Secretary (Acquisition), and Chief of Paperless Contracting. Earlier assignments included Chief of Staff for the Public-Private Engine Propulsion Source Selection, Assistant PEO Air-to-Surface Weapons, Contracting Officer and Division Chief at the Defense Fuels Supply Center, buyer on the B-1B program, and Deputy Program Manager on the Sensor-Fuzed Weapon.

Certifications: DAWIA Level III Certified in Contracting and Program Management, Acquisition Corps Membership.

Education: B.A., business management, University of Cincinnati; M.S., national resource strategy, Industrial College of the Armed Forces; M.S., contracting and acquisition management, Air Force Institute of Technology.