Faculty Bios

The Academy faculty consists of former senior executives from several national security agencies, including the major intelligence agencies: CIA, DIA, NSA, NGA, NRO and State/INR. Each faculty member brings a wealth of detailed personal experience in dealing with the issues shared with our clients.

Mark Lowenthal, President of the Intelligence & Security Academy, has served as Assistant DCI for Analysis & Production; Vice Chairman for Evaluation, National Intelligence Council; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Staff Director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).  Dr. Lowenthal is the author of the standard college/graduate school textbook on intelligence, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, now in its 4th edition (CQ Press).  He also serves as an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University.  In 1988, Dr. Lowenthal was the Grand Champion on the television quiz show Jeopardy!

Mike Munson has served as the Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence Agency; and Deputy Director for National Support, National Reconnaissance Office. He also served as Director of Intelligence Program Review for DOD and as study director for the National Defense Panel and the recently released report from the President’s Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Marge Munson has served as Director of the Defense Investigative Service and as Deputy Director for Administration, Defense Intelligence Agency. She has also served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counterintelligence and Security and as Study Director for Defense studies on the use of Chemical Weapons during Desert Shield/Storm and the recently released study in support of the Secretary of Defense on detention operations at Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

David Burpee retired from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in March 2009 after serving for 9 years as the Public Affairs Officer. He is a certified Adjunct Professor at the National Geospatial-Intelligence College. From 1965-1993, Mr. Burpee served in the U.S. Army as an Air Defense Artillery officer, including a combat tour in Vietnam; and several public affairs positions, including Director of Defense Information, Office of the Secretary of Defense. He served in this capacity as the senior military spokesperson for the Secretary of Defense and led the daily operation of the Pentagon Press Room. Mr. Burpee earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington for Far Eastern and Slavic Studies in 1965 and a Master of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas in 1974. He is also a 1985 graduate of the US Army War College.

Robert M. Clark served in the Air Force, including a tour in Vietnam, and the CIA, where his focus included Soviet space programs, and technical collection issues.  He continued to work on these issues in the private sector in senior positions at STAC and BTG.  Dr. Clark’s writings include a special National Intelligence Estimate on denial and deception; Intelligence Analysis: Estimation and Prediction; and Intelligence Analysis: A Target-centric Approach, now in its second edition.

Dan Elkins is a nationally-recognized expert in defense and intelligence resource management. He is a retired naval intelligence officer and also served as an instructor of resource management at the Defense Intelligence College. Mr. Elkins has trained over 9,000 military and civilian personnel throughout the U.S. Intelligence and Defense Communities in national security resource management issues. He is the author of Managing Intelligence Resources; An Intelligence Resource Manager’s Guide and Financial Management of Intelligence Resources: A Primer. This series of publications has served as the most authoritative consolidated reference on intelligence and defense resource management for the intelligence and defense communities.

Lee Hanna has over thirty years of senior management experience at NSA, including management of its largest analytical component as Chief of SIGINT (signals intelligence) production for worldwide targets; Director of the National SIGINT Operations Center (NSOC); and Chief of Management Services. Ms. Hanna also developed NSA’s Instructor Training Program. Since leaving government service, Ms. Hanna has consulted for government agencies and private sector companies.

Sarah Holcomb spent 26 years in Government Service. She served as an international trade specialist at the Department of Commerce before joining the CIA’s National Clandestine Service (NCS) in 1981. She served in a number of CIA stations in the Middle East and Latin America. Ms. Holcomb became an Operations Officer in 1992 and served as Deputy Chief of Station in the Middle East and in Europe and Chief of Station in Europe. At CIA Headquarters, Ms. Holcomb served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Director for Operations (now DD/NCS); Chief of Reports of the NCS’s largest reporting component; Humint specialist liaison officer at State Department/INR; Chief of Operations for a new joint Humint-technical targeting and collection operations element; and Chief of the NCS Clandestine Humint Collections Center for the Deputy Chief/NCS for Community.

Ron Marks spent 16 years at CIA as both an analyst and a clandestine services officer. He served as Intelligence Counsel to Senate Majority Leaders Robert Dole and Trent Lott. Mr. Marks currently is Senior Vice President and DC Director of Oxford Analytica, a political risk analysis firm with an extensive IC client base. He is also an Adjunct Professor for Intelligence at the National Defense University and a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.

Anne Daugherty Miles spent 20 years as an officer in the Air Force, retiring in 2000. Dr. Miles has been a faculty member at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the National Defense Intelligence College (formerly JMIC), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She recently concluded an APSA congressional fellowship year on the House Armed Services Committee. She has written several articles about the U.S. national security policy process, including an assessment of Congress’s oversight role in the creation of NIMA, later NGA. Dr. Miles has a Ph.D. in political science from Georgetown University.

Robert A. Mirabello has 28 years’ experience in military and civilian education and training; program and curriculum development; execution and evaluation; war gaming, simulation; and experiential education design and implementation. From 1990-2007, Mr. Mirabello held several positions at the National Defense Intelligence College, including Director of Joint Professional Military Training, Department Chair, and Dean; and Chairman, Department of Intelligence and National Security. From 1985-1990, he oversaw over 450 field grade students, faculty and staff at the Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University. From 1971-1985, Mr Mirabello served in the Air Force, including combat tours in Southeast Asia.

John L. Moore is a specialist on the Middle East, with over 30 years of analytic intelligence experience in that region, including service as DIA’s senior expert on the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism. Mr. Moore served with the 18th Airborne Corps and the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam during 1960s.  In addition to being a faculty member of the Intelligence & Security Academy, Mr. Moore works as an independent consultant on the Middle East for the US Government, private firms and international organizations. Mr. Moore was a witness at the International Court of Justice testifying for the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2003.  He has also written and lectured on the region for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Institute and also serves on the Board of Advisory Editors of the Middle East Journal.

Anthony C. Nelson has wide ranging national security experience. He spent 20 years as an Army artillery officer, including two tours in Viet Nam and service as a Foreign Area Officer for South Asia. He then joined DIA, where he established the Counterterrorist analytic element and the Global Analysis Division focusing on transnational issues (terrorism, narcotics, weapons and money transfers). Mr. Nelson managed DIA’s imagery analysis office, served as DIA Representative to US Central Command, and served as the Deputy to the Director of Intelligence Production, Defense Intelligence Agency. His long experience as an intelligence officer includes counter-terrorism and regional specialties in Asia and the Middle East.

William M. Nolte is a 30 year veteran of the U.S. Intelligence Community.  His service at NSA included tours as SIGINT National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Near East/South Asia; Senior Intelligence Adviser; Chief, Legislative Affairs; and Director of Education and Training. Dr. Nolte also had several senior assignments at the National Intelligence Council: Deputy NIO for Near East/South Asia and Director for Outreach and Strategic Planning; and in Intelligence Community management, serving as Deputy Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis & Production; and Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence and Chancellor, National Intelligence University. He is currently Research Professor and Director, Program for Intelligence Research and Education School of Public Policy, University of Maryland.

Kathleen Reilly has been a professional staff member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) since 2001.  She has been the principal staffer for all aspects of the CIA program (budget and operations) and has previously monitored the Military Intelligence Program (MIP).  She also served as an assigned staff member on the House Appropriations Committee’s Select Intelligence Oversight Panel (SIOP), which coordinates between authorizers and appropriators.  She has also served in the U.S. Navy on active duty and, presently, in the Reserves.  Her Navy assignments have included electronic warfare, anti-submarine operations, counternarcotics and logistics.  Ms. Reilly  was in the first group of three women to perform aerial Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance operations for the Navy in Desert Shield/Storm and was personally hand selected by Secretary of Defense for first-ever assignment of women destined to combat operations afloat (SECDEF waiver before Combat Exclusion).  In 2008, she was selected as the Navy Reserves’ Top Sailor of the Year.  Ms. Reilly has a B.S. in Aviation Management.

Dan Spohn spent 20 years in the intelligence community directing strategic targeting activities and supporting the weapons development and policy offices in the Defense Department, particularly those related to nuclear activities and counterproliferation. Mr. Spohn is a physicist specializing in nuclear weapons effects. He has extensive experience in the laboratory environment simulating the effects of nuclear weapons and hardening military equipment. Before retiring from the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2000 he held the position of Deputy Director for Policy Support, with responsibility for intelligence support to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, DIA participation in National Intelligence Estimates, foreign intelligence exchanges and special access programs.

In addition, the Academy uses guest lecturers for specific modules.