Blog Archives

Pam Lindsey brings to the Peake Fellows a passion for coaching along with a distinguished career in both supply chain management and applied learning innovation. Pam is a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) and a regular speaker at international industry conferences/STEM programs. Pam is an experienced professional across integrated business planning, Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), and supply chain management.

Pam is President and Co-Founder of L4 Services LLC, a consulting, advisory, and educational services firm. She also co-leads the training academy for the National Defense Transportation Association. Pam was previously Director of Global Supply Chain Operations for Ciena Corporation, a telecommunications and network strategy company. For most of her career, Pam served in a range of roles for the DuPont Company as a leader for continuous improvement, project management, manufacturing, process safety, risk management, and training/development. She has worked in the pharmaceutical, chemicals, fluoroproducts and agricultural product lines at U.S.-based sites and globally.

Pam has also served as a longtime leader of ASCM/APICS, the association for supply chain management, as board director and as board representative for the Research, Innovation, and Strategy Committee. She is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional and a Six Sigma Black Belt. Pam’s other non-profit service includes a high school Project Lead the Way (STEM) board and chairing the Chemical Operators Industry Advisory Committee for Delaware Technical Community College. She also serves on the Services and Supply Chain Program Advisory Board for the Graves School of Business at Morgan State University and as an advisor to the Graves School of Business Consulting Club.

Pam holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh where she was active in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Pam also holds a master’s in project management from Morgan State University Graves School of Business.

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Sonny Delfyette brings decades of broadcasting expertise to the nationwide upskilling of local businesses with the Peake Fellows and the i-HELP (Higher ed Enterprise Leadership Program) Community Navigators. Sonny currently hosts afternoon programming for KCBI, a faith-based radio station in Dallas-Fort Worth. His career spans both faith-based and secular radio where he co-hosted the Mo’Nique Show in 2008 with Oscar-winning actress, Mo’Nique Hicks.

Sonny has served communities across the U.S. including Los Angeles, Kansas City, Detroit, West Palm Beach, Virginia Beach, Baltimore, and New York State. He began his career on two of his hometown radio stations in Wheeling, West Virginia. In each region, Sonny has developed his distinctive approach to outreach and engagement based on listening as the foundation for strong communities and collaboration.

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VADM Dee Mewbourne (retired) as Deputy Commander of the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), the DoD’s Single Distribution Process Owner across air, land, and sea. USTRANSCOM expanded its efforts into space logistics through reusable rockets with SpaceX under VADM Mewbourne’s leadership. In his service under USTRANSCOM Commander, General Steve Lyons, he helped support the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation, the largest non-combatant evacuation airlift in U.S history. Under the next USTRANSCOM Commander, General Jackie Van Ovost, he helped coordinate the rapid delivery of U.S. aid to the people of Ukraine following the Russian 2022 invasion.

VADM Mewbourne’s experience has ranged from serving as Chief of Staff for U.S. Navy Cyber Forces to his role as the U.S. Navy’s Grey Owl which recognized him as the longest serving naval flight officer at the time of his retirement in July, 2022.

Prior to USTRANSCOM, VADM Mewbourne served as commanding officer of three nuclear aircraft carriers: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the USS Enterprise, the USS Harry S. Truman. He then commanded the Military Sealift Command which is responsible for private sector partnerships and the military hospital ships including the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy.

VADM Mewbourne graduated from the United States Naval Academy, received an MBA from Colorado State University , and is currently working toward a doctorate in education at Vanderbilt University. He is also an honors graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School and completed the navy’s Nuclear Power Program, Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), and Joint Forces Staff College.

As an educational program leader, VADM Mewbourne commanded the Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), responsible for training of enlisted sailors, ROTC, and officers. Now the Peake Development Team and Venly rely on VADM Mewbourne’s unique insights to help guide upskilling with the Peake Fellowship and ecosystem member innovation for Community-led Cyber Defense.

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Dr. Brad Perkins helped to envision the Peake Fellowship’s platform and pilot efforts in community healthcare innovation when he was the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Innovation Officer for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer for Karius, a leader in liquid biopsy for infectious diseases. Previously, Brad had served as co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at The Commons Project Foundation, Chief Medical Officer with genetics pioneer Dr. Craig Venter at Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), and Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation and Chief Transformation Officer at Vanguard Health Systems, a multi-state, for-profit, integrated health services provider with nearly 46,000 employees.

Before entering the private sector, Brad served two decades in the U.S. Public Health Service and the CDC where he led the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch and investigated global bacterial disease epidemics. He co-discovered the bacteria that causes Cat Scratch diseases and conducted research leading to development of several new bacterial meningitis and pneumonia vaccines, which became global standards for vaccine therapy. In 2001, Brad led the field and laboratory investigations into U.S. anthrax attacks and helped build the nation’s emergency response capability. He also led CDC efforts to improve population health for specific demographic groups. Brad earned a BA in Microbiology and an M.D from University of Missouri. He did his residency at Baylor College of Medicine and earned an MBA from Emory University.

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Dean brings to Venly his in-depth experience on critical infrastructure for high-security & operational mission systems. Dean began his career as an engineering co-op student working for the U.S. Department of Defense. After engineering positions with Boeing and Booz Allen Hamilton, Dean founded Entegra Systems, a technical and mission services company. As Entegra CEO, Dean sought to create the kind of company that he would want to work for — one with an open door policy; that embraced diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and technical disciplines; that offered great benefits and work environment; and that addressed vitally important and meaningful work. Entegra became known for those traits under Dean’s leadership. In 2021, the firm was acquired by Acclaim Technical Services.

Dean earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Clemson University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering, with a concentration in Telecommunications, from Johns Hopkins University. Dean’s experience building high-impact service organizations reinforces the growth of each community partner.

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Dr. Michael Wertheimer serves as the Cybersecure Collaboration Lead for Venly & its Peake Fellowship Development Team based on his career at the forefront of managing risk and national security. Dr. Wertheimer served as Managing Director of Cyber Security Strategy at Morgan Stanley and led all facets of the firm’s technology and information risk strategic portfolio. He was the chief architect of the firm’s defense-in-depth network architecture and led a small team of world-class cyber professionals responsible for threat hunting and adversarial pursuit.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Wertheimer shares Venly’s and the Peake Fellowship’s passion for helping local businesses grow, create jobs, and strengthen each community served. His unique background helps community ecosystems by geography, industry, and demographics develop distributed strategies for the collective cyber defense of their members.

Before Morgan Stanley, Dr. Wertheimer served 26 years as a National Security Agency cryptologist, senior technical leader, and senior executive leader. As NSA Director of Research, he contributed to breakthroughs in mathematics, engineering, and computer science. In this role, he led over 500 civilian scientists in the advancement of cryptology, cybersecurity, trusted systems, big data processing, threat analysis, and high-performance computing.

Dr. Wertheimer was an inaugural member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He served as ODNI Assistant Deputy Director for Analysis and Chief Technology Officer, overseeing Intelligence Community efforts to bring increased depth and accuracy to analysis. He launched A-Space, a Time Magazine Best Invention of 2008, and the Library of National Intelligence.

Throughout his career, Dr. Wertheimer has pioneered applied learning initiatives and he served as a Professor of Practice in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Dr. Wertheimer is the recipient of many awards for public service, including a Presidential Rank Award, the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, and the Director’s Distinguished Medal. He received a BA Magna cum Laude in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Rochester and his MA and PhD in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied on an NSA graduate fellowship.

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As a longtime internet venture capital innovator, Bob served as an early advisor and funder of Benchmarking Partners which spawned Venly. He currently chairs the investment committee for Spring Point Partners, the social impact fund for one of the nation’s oldest family offices.

After a successful career in banking, Bob held a range of executive roles for pioneering venture funds: Co-founder and CEO of TL (Technology Leaders) Ventures, which managed $1.5 billion in capital; Chair of The Reinvestment Fund, a $400 million not-for-profit community investor which focuses on rehabilitating neighborhoods, real estate, charter school lending, and renewable energy; and Chair of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a leading social impact funder of seed-stage investments.

Bob served as a board member of the National Venture Association and has been recognized with the Visionary Award of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NIFTY). He is a graduate of Amherst College and Temple University School of Law.

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Sarah Hancock brings to Venly an understanding of powerful user experience from her own work in IT and entertainment. She began her career as a programmer at IBM before becoming an arts innovator on the board of multiple theater companies including the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.). With Sarah’s support, A.R.T. brought three successful productions to Broadway: Pippin, Porgy and Bess, and All the Way. Sarah holds a BS in Computer and Information Science from The Ohio State University.

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Vani Kola began her career training as an engineer then as the founder of Silicon Valley eProcurement software vendor, RightWorks. She went on to sell RightWorks for $700 million dollars before going back to India and pioneering the venture capital industry there. Her connection to Venly goes back to her time as a RightWorks client for go-to-market services offered by Benchmarking Partners, the company that formed Venly.

In addition to Vani’s prominence as a global business leader, she has been a champion of local businesses in the U.S., India, and worldwide. In that spirit, she helps guide Venly’s strategy of helping small & local businesses be global successes at home and abroad.

Vani holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Osmania University and a MS in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University.

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Industry pioneer, Professor Robert Kaplan, co-developed the Balanced Scorecard and Activity-Based Costing measurement and management systems that helped inspire the Venly Local Service Learning Platform for Community Commerce growth and innovation.

Professor Kaplan guides Venly’s support of small & local businesses, helping them to grow and strengthen their communities. In his ongoing Harvard Business School (HBS) role, he co-leads two major national and international efforts. He and fellow HBS Professor Michael Porter are guiding the restructuring of healthcare delivery in the U.S. and globally in order to deliver markedly improved patient outcomes at significantly lower total cost. Professor Kaplan’s contribution to this effort includes the introduction of Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing and Value-based Bundled Payments to the sector. His other work stream helps corporations and foundations introduce Inclusive Growth strategies that connect residents of low-income regions to global supply chains for their products, services, and talent. This progress is accomplished through for-profit regional ecosystems that improve community-wide social and economic conditions.

Although best known for his industry impact, Professor Kaplan’s academic record includes 14 authored or co-authored books and 200 papers including more than two dozen in the Harvard Business Review. His book, The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, has been translated into 24 languages.

Professor Kaplan has received multiple honorary doctorates after earning his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Operations Research from Cornell University. In 2006, he was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame for contributions that “…revitalized the role of accounting in business management and strategic planning.”

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