Staff and consultants

Staff

Dr. Ray Williamson, Executive Director

Dr. Suzanne Metlay, Operations Director

Phil Smith, Communications Director

Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director

Ben Baseley-Walker, Legal and Policy Advisor

Brian Weeden, Technical Advisor

Sarah Hartzell, Contracts and Office Manager

Leonard David, Research Associate

Consultants

Agnieszka Lukaszczyk, Space Policy Consultant

Barbara David, Consultant

Dr. Ray Williamson is Executive Director of Secure World Foundation, a private operating foundation with headquarters in Superior, Colorado. He was formerly Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs in the Space Policy Institute, The George Washington University. At the institute, he had led several studies of security issues in space and on the socioeconomic benefits of Earth science and space weather research.

Ray is also an external faculty member of the International Space University (ISU), Illkirch, France, teaching general space policy and remote sensing for the ISU Masters and Space Studies programs. He is editor of Imaging Notes and serves on the editorial board of the journal Space Policy. As a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Dr. Williamson serves on Commission Five: Space Policies, Law & Economics. He is the author of more than 100 articles on space policy, remote sensing and space security and author or editor of nine books on outer space, the technologies of historic preservation, and American Indian astronomy, myth and ritual.

From 1979 to 1995, he was a Senior Analyst and then Senior Associate in the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of the U.S. Congress. While at OTA, Dr. Williamson led more than a dozen space policy studies requested by Congressional committees.

Ray received his B.A. in physics from the Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Maryland. After two years on the astronomy faculty of the University of Hawaii, he taught philosophy, literature, mathematics, physics and astronomy at St. John's College, Annapolis. For the last five years he also served as Assistant Dean of the College .

To see Ray's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Dr. Suzanne Metlay is Operations Director for Secure World Foundation.

As Education Programs Manager for University of Colorado at Boulder from 2004-08, Suzanne coordinated educational opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students, K-12 students and teachers. She also helped produce scientifically accurate and publicly accessible planetarium shows aligned with state and national education standards. Suzanne presented often at professional conferences and frequently gave presentations in the Boulder area about European and Asian space programs as well as the need for increased private entrepreneurship in space.

After obtaining a B.A. in History and Science from Harvard University in 1986, Suzanne earned her doctorate in geology and planetary science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993. Having volunteered for U.S. Senator Harris Wofford's regional office in Pittsburgh, Suzanne was privileged to work in the Florida Governor's Office of Planning & Budgeting from 1994-1996. When she moved to Colorado in 1996, Suzanne tried corporate life but found that she far preferred teaching at a community college and in 1999 became part-time faculty at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Front Range Community College (FRCC) and CU-Boulder.

In 2001, Suzanne decided to focus her teaching on FRCC only and was thrilled to be named Master Part-Time Instructor at FRCC-Boulder, where she taught astronomy, geology and geography. From 2001-2003, Suzanne also joined the student services staff and served as School District Project Coordinator for FRCC classes taught at local area high schools. For textbook publisher Prentice-Hall, Suzanne wrote a textbook supplement in 2001 and created content for websites regarding world regional geography in 2002 and 2004.

To see Suzanne's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Phil Smith is Communications Director for Secure World Foundation.

Previously, Phil was a space industry analyst for Bethesda-based Futron Corporation. Phil's Futron work included studies of existing and emerging markets, trend analyses using historical data and forecast models, analyses of the nation's space architecture, reviews of international space activity, studies of potential economic impacts of loss of space services, and analyses of space technology policy. Primary clients during this time included the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Security Space Office (NSSO).

Prior to his Futron work, Phil was a defense policy analyst for SAIC supporting headquarters offices in the Department of Defense. Work involved representing Army Headquarters during the development of policies related to START III, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Pre-Launch Notification Regime (PLNR). Assessments of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Verification Protocol and a proposed verification protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) were also conducted, and this included sustained contact with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.

Phil earned a degree in political science from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and obtained a graduate degree in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota. He served eight years in the United States Air Force and Air Force Reserve, both as a nuclear cruise missile specialist (active) and a bioenvironmental engineering technician (reserve). Phil also ran for public office in 1997, making an unsuccessful bid for the District 6 seat on the Omaha City Council. Phil is also a freelance artist specializing in the subject of human activity in space, past, present and future, and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) and the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA).

To see Phil's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Victoria Samson is the Washington Office Director for Secure World Foundation, where she engages Congressional staffers and agency officials on matters related to space security and governance.

Previously, she was a Senior Analyst with the Center for Defense Information (CDI), where her areas of interest included missile defense, nuclear reductions, and space security issues. Prior to her time at CDI, Samson was the Senior Policy Associate at the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of arms control groups in the Washington, D.C., area. She previously worked as a subcontractor on war-gaming scenarios for the Missile Defense Agency's Directorate of Intelligence.

Samson is the author of numerous op-eds, analytical pieces, journal articles, and electronic updates on missile defense and space security matters. She has an M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and holds a B.A. in political science with a specialization in international relations from UCLA.

To see Victoria's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Ben Baseley-Walker is a Legal and Policy Advisor for Secure World Foundation.

A British national, Ben works on legal and policy issues related to space security. He has worked in the policy and legal field in a variety of settings and countries including Chile, Kenya, Ethiopia and the Netherlands. From 2006 to 2007 Ben lived in Kenya working for the United Nations and the Kenyan Government. He is also currently the Co-Chair of the Vienna-based Space Generation Advisory Council.

Ben is an alumnus of the University of Edinburgh and the Universiteit van Amsterdam from which he graduated with a M.A. degree in Politics and an LLM degree in International and European Law respectively. He is a graduate of the International Space University Space Studies Programme (2007, Beijing).

To see Ben's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Brian Weeden is Technical Advisor for Secure World Foundation on space security and sustainability issues. His current research focuses on global space situational awareness, development of the technical architecture for space traffic management, and methods of protecting satellites.

Brian spent nine years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force working in space and ICBM operations. From 2004 through 2007 he was part of US Strategic Command's Joint Space Operations Center where he directed the orbital analyst training program and developed tactics, techniques and procedures for space situational awareness and space control. As a certified orbital analyst, he was part of a crew of military personnel that track all artificial objects in Earth orbit and produce the satellite catalog.

Brian has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University, M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota and is a graduate of the International Space University Space Studies Program (2007, Beijing).

To see Brian's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Sarah Hartzell is Contracts and Office Manager for Secure World Foundation.

She is also founder of Circles of Ten: Women for World Peace and President of the Board of Directors.

Sarah has over 10 years of management and supervision experience. She is a graduate of Naropa University's masters program in Buddhist psychology, the Emissaries of Divine Light's world leadership program, and the Boulder-based Group Leadership Training. She has been a program manager for "strengths"-based mental health treatment, has led the Right Sharing Committee of the Boulder Friends Meeting (Quakers) and has led the Healing Society in Action' group at the Boulder Dahn Hak (Holistic Fitness) Center.

As founder of her own business, Medicine Tree Institute, Sarah offers life coaching to individuals and groups who seek to live passionate lives based on spiritual purpose.

Leonard David is Research Associate for Secure World Foundation.

Leonard is a space writer/journalist and has been reporting on the evolution of world space programs since the 1950s. Over those years, his work has been seen in a wide ranging number of publications, from the Financial Times, Space News, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Sky and Telescope to Aerospace America and Foreign Policy magazine.

In the dot.com world, Leonard has served in the past as SPACE.com's senior space writer, covering a wide array of space-related activities, including the developing story of entrepreneurial space ventures.

Leonard has been a consultant to various industrial and governmental organization in the past, including NASA. He served as the Director of Research in the late 1980s for the National Commission on Space, a congressionally-mandated group that looked at the long-term future of the U.S. civilian space exploration and applications agenda.

To see Leonard's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Consultants

Agnieszka Lukaszczyk is a space policy consultant for Secure World Foundation.

A Polish/American national, Agnieszka is based in Vienna working on the European space policy and United Nations (UN) civil space activities covering the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and working closely with the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (OOSA). She has worked as the Executive Officer for the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) in support of the UN Programme on Space Applications since 2006, and is now SGAC Co-Chairperson. In addition, during the period of September 2006 to June 2008, Agnieszka worked at the European Space Policy Institute. Agnieszka also serves as the the Vice President - Operations for the World Space Week. She holds a Masters degree from the American University School of International Service in International Politics and a Bachelor degree in Political Science form the University of Tennessee. She also studied at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium; the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland and the World Trade Institute in Berne, Switzerland. She gained professional experience at the Political Section of the Polish Embassy in Washington DC, American Electronics Association in Brussels, European Department of the Polish Senate in Warsaw and the Warsaw Business Journal.

To see Agnieszka's presentations, writings and interviews related to the Foundation's mission, please go here.

Barbara David is a consultant for Secure World Foundation and is a space science education specialist and space journalist.

She is a credentialed teacher dedicated to the areas of astronomy, space science and the Earth sciences and is an experienced curriculum writer, journalist, and education and public outreach consultant.

Barbara has created numerous space, astronomy and Earth sciences lesson plans and curriculum units; written space and astronomy education-related magazine articles; and worked directly with teachers, students and the public.

IMAX, NASA, The Discovery Channel, as well as USA Today have utilized Barbara's talents. She is co-author of the forthcoming educator's guide to Kids To Space: A Space Traveler's Guide, a collection of space and astronomy lesson plans that will be published by Apogee Books in 2007.