I am a virtual Los Angeles native, having spent most of my life here.  While I didn’t grow up in Westwood, it was the area I picked for much of the time that was my own—for movies, meeting with friends, restaurants, shopping, and UCLA’s fantastic research library.

My chosen field was national security research, and I spent 33 of those years at the RAND Corporation, in Santa Monica.  There, I was Director of Operations and Army Business Liaison for RAND’s Army research division.  I served as Associate Dean of the RAND Graduate School, a Ph.D. program in policy analysis.  And I spent many years as a researcher for projects performed for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and the Department of Defense, on topics such as limiting the transfer of conventional weapons, U.S. security strategies in the Persian Gulf and the flanks of NATO, and preparing for “asymmetric strategies” for thwarting U.S. military power.

During the recent COVID pandemic, I turned my attention to another area that badly needed it.  I initiated and served as senior advisor on a RAND study focused on mitigating both climate change and food insecurity.  I was particularly inspired by the work of my daughter here in Los Angeles, and later in the Washington DC area, in the field of homelessness.

Since late 2024, my attention has been focused on my Westwood community.  I’m a recent addition to the Westwood Neighborhood Council’s Board, where I hope to work through our Outreach Committee to draw our neighbors’ attention to and involvement in the important issues the WWNC is tackling.