BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Joe “Mort” Mortensen, LSM ’16 (2026)
Colonel, United States Marine Corps (ret.)
Joe “Mort” Mortensen, from Albion, Nebraska, is President of the Leadership Southern Maryland Board, previously serving as Senior Vice President and Vice President for Programs. A retired U.S. Marine Corps Naval aviator with 29 years of service, he commanded Naval Test Wing Atlantic and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23. Post-retirement, he served as Director of Test and Evaluation for the Navy’s Training Systems Division, Chief of Staff for Naval Air Systems Command’s Test and Evaluation Group, and co-chaired NATO’s Flight Test Technical Team, retiring from federal service in 2020. Mort holds an interdisciplinary B.S. in Engineering from the University of Nebraska, an M.S. in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee, is a U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate, and completed a fellowship at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. He and his wife Denise live in Leonardtown, Maryland.
Senior Vice President
Stephen Cassetta, LSM ’22 (2029)
Vice President, Strategic Growth and Capture
Gnostech, LLC
Steve Cassetta is the Vice President for Strategic Growth at Gnostech, LLC. He grew up in Rye, New York, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1988 with a BS in mathematics before becoming a Naval Flight Officer. Cassetta spent eight years on active duty flying the E-2C Hawkeye and serving as a flight instructor at both VAW-110 and VAW-120. In 1996, he transferred from active duty to the Navy Reserve and moved to Lexington Park, Maryland, eventually serving as the Commanding Officer of VAW-77.
In 1996, Cassetta joined Veda, now KBR, and spent 19 years working as a project manager and Weapon Systems Operator, flying test missions in support of VX-20. In 2015, he joined Ausley Associates / MAG Aero, serving as the Vice President of Operations for MAG Aero’s Patuxent River operation.
Cassetta has served as a vice president for St. Mary’s Youth Soccer and spent twelve years coaching for the club. He also served as a board member for the Forrest Farm Homeowners Association, a merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts of America, and is currently serving as a Lector at St Aloysius Church. He has three children and currently resides in Solomons, Maryland.
Treasurer
Andrew Fitzgerald, LSM ’22 (2028)
Founder & President
Nine 30 Consulting
Andrew Fitzgerald is the founder and president of Nine 30 Consulting, a small business in Lexington Park that provides financial management, project management, data analytics, and acquisition support to the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). Fitzgerald broadened his horizons from Charles County to Saint Mary’s County, attending high school at Saint Mary’s Ryken. Fitzgerald entered college as an engineering major but later switched to business because he couldn’t see himself being happy surrounded by engineers all day. Today, more than twenty years later, he is surrounded by engineers every day and loves what he does. Fitzgerald holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.
Secretary
Dan Palmieri, LEAP ’22 (2026)
Continuous Improvement Board Analyst
Naval Systems, Incorporated
Dan Palmieri is Continuous Improvement Board Analyst for the Navy International Programs Office at Naval Systems, Inc., where he manages hybrid meeting facilitation and developmental training for the US Navy International Programs workforce. He also ensures all Navy government personnel and contractors receive proper training to support and qualify for their positions and provides certification pathways for employees looking to advance and promote.
Palmieri has over 15 years of professional experience in financial and technical analysis, new business development, contract management, and training. He received his Bachelor of Arts in political science and international economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2009 and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 2024.
Immediate Past President
Phil Fickes, LSM ‘20 (2027)
Sr. Manager, Global Military Sales & Strategy
Bell Flight
Phil Fickes is a Bell senior manager for Global Military Sales & Strategy and oversees Bell’s foreign military sales (FMS) business development with the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland, and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and Navy International Programs Office in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining industry, Fickes served as an officer in the US Marine Corps for over 25 years. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois; an MS in management and MBA from the University of Maryland University College in Baltimore, Maryland; and is a graduate of George Washington University’s National Security Studies Program.
James Bolin, LSM ’21 (2027)
Vice President of Operations
KBR
James Bolin is vice president of operations at KBR, a defense contracting company that supports the US Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal agencies. After serving 20 years in the U.S. Navy and retiring from VX-20 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in 2005, Bolin continued DoD support as a contract flight test officer with KBR (Wyle). He quickly transitioned to management and now leads a division that comprises approximately 1,000 personnel across the United States. Bolin has a Master of Science degree in systems engineering from Southern Methodist University. He serves on the board of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance and resides in St. Mary’s County.
Curtis Brown, LSM ’23 (2028)
Senior Project Manager
The MIL Corporation
Curtis Brown is senior project manager at the MIL Corporation, a defense contractor that provides innovative cyber, engineering, financial, and information technology services to the federal government.
Brown served in the U.S. Navy from 2004 to 2012. In his civilian career he has specialized in business development and program management. Brown has served the Rotary Club of Lexington Park as Director of Charity. In 2021 he joined the St. Mary’s County Economic Development Commission and currently serves as president.
Jason Gray, LSM ’25 (2028)
Senior Program Manager
KBR
Jason Gray, a St. Mary’s County native, is a senior program manager at KBR, a defense contracting company that supports the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal agencies.
Gray’s journey began with a solid engineering foundation nurtured at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center. While he started in technical engineering supporting defense contractors, Gray’s career shifted when he discovered a passion for software engineering. He recognized technology’s role in innovation and dove into software development, driven by a desire to create impactful solutions. This journey led Gray to support defense initiatives, where he contributed to critical projects ranging from the DoD to NASA.
Grateful for the opportunities the Forrest Tech Center provided, Gray gives back by volunteering there, conducting mock interviews to prepare students for their futures. Gray resides in St. Mary’s County.
Denise Kopel, LSM ’23 (2028)
Senior Business Office & Facilities Manager
MAG Aerospace
Denise Kopel is senior business office and facilities manager for MAG Aerospace, a defense contractor that delivers full-spectrum command, control, communication, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) services globally.
Kopel was born in Sumter, South Carolina, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. She and her husband, Mike, moved to Maryland in 2017.
Kopel’s professional career has been diverse. She was business manager for Richard and Martin Jacobson at Nutmeg Mills, assisting the president and the board of directors in taking the company public. In 2015, she became business manager for country music star Nathan Osmond.
Kopel devotes much of her time serving her local community, working with children, and spending time with her husband. She joined the St. Clement’s Hundred Board and became the Osprey Gala’s Chairperson that benefits the Blackistone Lighthouse. Kopel also serves as legislative aid to Jack Bailey, State Senator for District 29. Kopel resides in St. Mary’s County
Michelle Kowieski, LSM ’11 (2026)
President
The Kowieski Group
Michelle Kowieski is the owner and founder of The Kowieski Group, a local woman-owned small business focused on assisting other companies with solving their most pressing strategic growth issues. Michelle graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a degree in Economics. She has two grown children, and lives in St. Mary’s County with her husband Mark and youngest daughter Kayla. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, photography, and perpetually learning how to golf.
Yonelle Moore Lee, Esq., LSM ’22 (2027)
Attorney
Yonelle Moore Lee, Esq., is an attorney, mediator, and part owner of an investment club and a real estate investment company. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of the District of Columbia and a Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law. Moore Lee serves as member of the Charles County Board of Education and as vice chair of the American Bar Association’s GP, Solo and Small Firm Division’s Women’s Initiative Network and Judiciary Committees. She is also the Region IV Treasurer of the National Bar Association and Recording Secretary of the Southern Maryland Chain Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. Moore Lee is a Diamond Life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., where she was also elected to the Eastern Regional Nominating Committee. She resides in Charles County with her husband Jonathan and their three children, Gabrielle, Jonathan Junior, and Jackson.
Montego Parker, LSM ’25 (2029)
Senior Relationship Manager / Fast Track Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
Montego Parker has over 30 years of experience in Information Technology as a compulsively organized, self-starting leader of teams of highly skilled multicultural professionals. Currently, he identifies resources to envision onboarding strategy for customers for their new Microsoft Cloud solutions.
Parker’s past experience includes serving as a Team Lead and people manager, responsible for providing oversight and guidance for the Microsoft FastTrack Targeting Managers group. He has also been responsible for deployment, data migration, implementation and delivery of Microsoft O365 and Cloud products for over 100 Federal District, Bankruptcy, Probation and Pretrial Courts across the United States and Territories. Parker has managed all aspects of technology, including staff, infrastructure support, software development, telecommunications (phone and data), system maintenance, and Web services while managing a staff for a USAID chartered international women’s advocacy-action group.
Parker resides in Chesapeake Beach.
Charles Roach, LSM ’18 (2026)
President & CEO
Cedar Point Federal Credit Union
Charles Roach was named President and CEO of Cedar Point Federal Credit Union in February 2016. He has been with Cedar Point since 2006, previously serving as the Chief Financial Officer.
As a credit union executive, Roach has been responsible for financial management, strategic planning, facilities expansion, technology implementation, commercial lending, employee development, and marketing. He is a consistent and proactive performer with a history of delivering thriving membership and asset growth, new product development, excellent sales programs, and enhanced member service strategies. Roach is a Certified Public Accountant who earned his bachelor’s in accounting from Black Hill State University.
Active as a volunteer in community service, he has served as Treasurer of the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce, Chairperson of the St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation, Chairperson of the Cedar Lane Senior Living Community, and a Board Member of the St. Mary’s County Public School’s Building Trades Foundation. He and his wife, April, have five children.
Patricia Stine, LSM ’22 (2027)
Executive Director
Pure Play Every Day, Inc.
Patricia Stine, Executive Director of Pure Play Every Day, Inc., is dedicated to helping children thrive emotionally, socially, physically and intellectually. Throughout her more than 30-year career as a play environment designer, preschool teacher, curriculum developer, administrator and entrepreneur, Stine has focused on empowering others to give children an abundance of playfully engaging learning opportunities. She co-founded the nonprofit Pure Play Every Day, Inc., in 2017 to bring open-ended, self-directed play, using loose parts, to children at community events. She also provides workshops for adults to help them understand the benefits and value of play for children. Stine advocates for children as a Play Ambassador for the U.S. Play Coalition, Outreach Chairman for the Charles County Early Childhood Advisory Council, and member of the Charles County Commission for Women. She resides in Charles County.
Christina Taylor, LEAP ’22 (2026)
Associate Director, Admissions & Recruitment
The George Washington University
Christina Taylor, MBA, M.Ed, is Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment at The George Washington University and Vice President of the LSM Emerging Leaders Program (LEAP). Taylor is an accomplished program manager and higher education technology professional with several years of experience leading strategic initiatives across education, public health, and corporate sectors. She is deeply committed to service and community empowerment—for example, by helping to expand access to technology education for African American girls and students.
Taylor has worked in the nonprofit sector and in sales, marketing, communications, and higher education technology. She serves as a core team lead volunteer with Black Girls Code, a not-for-profit organization focusing on providing technology education for African American girls and students. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Spelman College and dual master’s degrees in business administration and higher education administration at George Washington University.
Perliter Walters-Gilliam, LSM ’24 (2028)
President & Principal Consultant
NBBE Consulting
Perliter Walters-Gilliam, president and principal consultant of NBBE Consulting, is an international higher education accreditation professional with more than 15 years of experience developing accreditation standards, evaluating institutional compliance, assuring quality measurements, and monitoring accreditation regulation.
Gilliam recently served as the Quality Assurance Expert representing the Commonwealth of Dominica at UNESCO’s 3rd World Higher Education Conference in Barcelona, Spain, and is an international facilitator at the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education.
She is the founding Board Secretary of Poiema Movement, a faith-based non-profit organization that moves women from forms of brokenness to independence, and has served as a board member and chair of strategic planning for Young Mothers, Inc., a non-profit based in Washington, DC.
Gilliam is active with the University of Maryland, her MBA alma mater, serving as a 2021 Terp Mentor and 2023 Flex MBA panelist.
Angela Walters Small, LSM ’16 (2027)
Retired Public Information Officer and Director of Communications
Angela Walters Small is the public information officer and director of communications for the College of Southern Maryland. Prior to this role, she was a public information specialist and PIO for Calvert County Government. Small holds a B.A. degree in communications from the American University and has more than 35 years of communication experience.
Born and raised in Southern Maryland, Small spent the first seven years of her career as a journalist, photographer, and editor-in-chief working at weekly newspapers throughout Southern Maryland. From there she spent 10 years with Constellation Energy providing corporate communications, media relations, leadership and employee communications, and crisis communications support at the Fortune 200 company’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and Constellation Nuclear Services. Small took a few years to stay home and raise her newborn twin daughters in 2004 and returned to the workforce in 2011 as the manager of strategic leadership support and site contract lead for OMNITEC Solutions, a defense contractor at NAS Patuxent River. In that role, she served as the lead speechwriter and supported all leadership communication efforts for the commander of Naval Air Systems Command.
Small is currently a non-voting member of the Calvert County Economic Development Advisory Commission and serves as the PIO for the Maryland-Fire Rescue Services Memorial Foundation.
Marsha Williams, Esq., LSM ’21 (2026)
Partner
Williams, McClernan & Stack, LLC
Marsha Williams has been a practicing attorney in Southern Maryland for over twenty years. Raised in Camden, NJ, she attended Rutgers University – New Brunswick (Douglass College), where, in 1997, she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and a Certificate in Criminology. In 2000, Williams earned her Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law.
Upon graduating from law school, Williams began her legal career with the House of Ruth of Maryland. In 2002, she joined Maryland Legal Aid – Southern Maryland Office as a Staff Attorney and, in 2014, was promoted to Senior Attorney. In January 2018, she partnered with two other women to form Williams, McClernan & Stack, LLC. Williams is married and has one son.
Gadsden “Ed” Rule, LSM ’18, Past President
President
Naval Systems, Inc.
Samuel C.P. Baldwin, Jr., Esq., LSM ’16, Past President
Senior Partner & Founder
The Law Offices of Baldwin, Briscoe & Steinmetz, P.C.
Lee Capristo, LSM ’11, Past President
Director of Publications
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Thomas Clark, LSM ’18, Past President
Executive Vice President
The MIL Corporation
Mary Beth Cook, LSM ’17, LMd ‘19, Past President
Retired Director, Planning & Zoning
Mark De Luca, LSM ’10, Past President
Retired Systems Engineer
John Felicitas, LSM ’13, Past President
Retired Educator
In Memoriam
Robin Finnacom, LMd ’98, Founding Board Member
Retired Nonprofit Executive
Tom Jarboe, LMd ’06, Founding Member & Past President
Chief Executive Officer
J4 Aviation
Bert Johnston, LMd ’07, Past President
Aerospace Defense Consultant
Johnston Consulting
Dolores Martin, LMd ’06, Founding Member & Past President
Retired Healthcare Professional
Cathy Meyers, LMd ’98, Past Treasurer
Executive Director
The Center for Children, Inc.
Patrick Murphy, LMd ’06, Founding Member & Past President
Director & Lead Managing Counsel
Robert Half | Protiviti | Protiviti Government Services
Wilson Parran, LMd ’99, LSM ’09, Founding Board Member
Retired Deputy County Administrator
Matt Scassero, LMd ’07, Past President
Retired Naval Aviator and Higher Education Professional
Linda Vassallo, LMd ’07, Past President
Town Administrator
Town of North Beach
Susan Mudd Vogel, LSM ’09, Past President
Executive Director
College of Southern Maryland Foundation
Mary Washington, LSM ’09, Founding Board Member
Member
Board of Education, St. Mary’s County.
Ray Wernecke, LMd ’06, Founding Member & Past President
Retired Senior Advisor
Harriet Yaffe, LMd ’01, Founding Board Member