The MILO product line and organization has achieved great success in the military and law enforcement industries. That success is largely due to the depth of experience of our internal resources—the majority of those coming from the communities we serve. Our employees typically remain with MILO for decades, but the downside of that longevity is a potential disadvantage of staying ahead of industry needs because those employees are no longer embedded within their industries as end-users. While it has not affected us yet, we have recognized that our increasingly low turnover—something we definitely consider a positive in organizational continuity—does present a potential for future gaps in our expertise as time progresses and industries evolve.

To ensure that we remain connected to relevant points in those sectors we serve—before those gaps appear—we have assembled a limited but comprehensive board of highly competent and trusted advisors to ensure we have current information from significant sectors when considering new content, curriculum, partnerships, or other product offerings.

The MILO Management team considers these advisors highly regarded members of an elite group with a diverse range of experience and expertise. As such, we are proud to call them “Friends of MILO.”

 

 

Chair of the Board – Dr. Joy VerPlanck

Dr. VerPlanck is a senior leader in the field of learning and development with over 25 years of experience in adult education and high-stakes training. She is a former US Army Military Police Officer and the owner of a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB), providing expertise in identifying and overcoming barriers in curriculum design to make training successful. She is a thought leader for MILO’s Cognitive Division – guiding and synthesizing applicable academic research and facilitating strategic partnerships. With a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Instructional Design, and a Doctorate of Educational Technology, her research path has included the effects of training with immersive technology on creative thinking and cognitive load, and instructional design to create empowered and independent thinkers in rigid operational environments.

 

 

Strategic Advisors

 

Mr. Dan Chavez

Dan is an accomplished instructional design and human performance improvement professional with over 15 years of experience designing, developing, and delivering learning solutions in military and municipal corrections environments. Previously serving as the Assistant Commissioner of Training & Development for the New York City Department of Correction, Dan holds an MBA and Master’s in Instructional Design, is PMP certified, and is a veteran of the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. His expertise in instructional systems design and corrections officer training informs content, curriculum, and presentations.

 

 

Dr. Eugenia Guilmartin, COL (Ret)

Dr. Guilmartin is a retired US Army Military Police Colonel, executive leader, security professional, and political scientist with 30 years of experience applying evidence-based solutions to the most strategically sensitive problems in the people domain. A leader-scholar who blends interdisciplinary study with operational expertise, she has led organizations of over 4000 employees operating across the globe as well as taught military and civilian graduate-level students in strategy, policy, and operations. She applies her unique understanding of political psychology and how micro-level individual behavior can influence macro-trends at regional and higher levels. She holds a BS from the United States Military Academy, a master’s degree from the Naval War College, a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University, and has served as an adjunct associate professor of security, strategy, and security operations at Georgetown University. Dr. Guilmartin has recently served at the Pentagon and as the assistant commandant of the U.S. Army Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and has served in Germany, the Balkans, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan conducting police mentorship, corrections mentorship, detainee operations, and security and mobility support operations. She is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Midwest Political Science Association.

 

 

Dr. Lois James

Dr. James is the Assistant Dean of Research at the Washington State University (WSU) College of Nursing. She focuses on bias, stress, sleep, and performance in “high-stress” populations such as police officers, military personnel, nurses, and top-tier athletes. Dr. James is the founding director of Counter Bias Training Simulation (CBTsim). Her work has been published extensively in academic journals, practitioner magazines, and mainstream media such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Her expertise in bias and performance informs research, articles, presentations, and curriculum.

 

 

Ms. Nadine Jones

Ms. Jones is General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, reporting directly to the CEO of a multibillion company.  She is an author and seasoned executive who brings a wealth of diverse, legal, commercial, and compliance corporate experience. With vast experience in developing and maintaining a corporate compliance program, Ms. Jones’ has also served as an Adjunct Antitrust Professor at Fordham Law School.

As a graduate of Howard University School of Law, Ms. Jones has a strong sense of social justice and equity. In June 2020, she co-founded an organization called The Initiative: Advancing the Blue & Black Partnership (“The Initiative”) along with two other Howard Law alumni. The Initiative was established to end systemic police violence and implement a collaborative approach to building healthy, scalable, community policing models. As executive director, Nadine developed and executed strategies, plans, and policies by partnering with members from both the Blue and Black communities, and by leveraging the networks of board members, advisors, and staff to implement and further community policing measures. Ms. Jones served as the chief spokesperson and a visible public advocate, championing the organization’s mission externally to partners and stakeholders, including working closely with police chiefs under consent decree. She also worked closely with data analytics specialists to develop the only community policing scorecard in the United States, and worked with a leading e-learning corporate ethics and compliance developer to develop e-learning training modules for police officers.”

 

 

 

Dr. Will Kalkhoff

Dr. Kalkhoff is a Professor of Sociology at Kent State University. He is the Executive Director of the Electrophysiological Neuroscience Laboratory of Kent (ENLoK) as well as the Graduate Coordinator for the online M.A. program in Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is also a fellow member of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces in Society. Dr. Kalkhoff’s current research efforts focus on team perception and performance under threat in virtual environments and on the effects of media use on brain function, personality, and social interaction. His research has been generously funded by the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office. Outside of academia, Dr. Kalkhoff serves as a Patrol Officer in the Reserve Unit for the Stow Police Department in Stow, Ohio. He also currently serves as a Safety Ambassador for the City of Kent in Ohio.

 

 

Mr. Richard G. Schott

Richard is an Independent Police Auditor in Fairfax County, VA, serving over 27 years in the F.B.I.  Case agent in the Birmingham, Alabama division from 1989-1998, working, among other violations, Civil Rights investigations; Associate Division Counsel for the Atlanta division from 1998-2000; Office of the General Counsel (OGC) of the FBI from 2000-2017. As a member of OGC’s Legal Instruction Unit, Richard spent 17 years training and instructing at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA. The primary audiences were FBI new agent trainees and attendees of the FBI’s National Academy program.  His expertise in use of force/deadly force issues and the DOJ/FBI Deadly Force policy helps inform content and curriculum on case law and use of force.

 

 

Dr. Samantha Simon

Dr. Simon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy and the School of Sociology. Using ethnographic and qualitative methods, her research focuses on violence, gender, race, and organizational inequality. Her book – titled Before the Badge: How Academy Training Shapes Police Violence – is based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork at four police training academies. In her book, she examines how the hiring and training at police academies emphasizes the use of violence, focusing on the ways that gender and race inform these processes.

Simon’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and the American Association for University Women, among others. Her work has been published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including Social Problems, Law & Society Review, Qualitative Sociology, and Gender, Work & Organization. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

 

Ms. Megan Torrance

Ms. Torrance is the CEO & founder of TorranceLearning, a company dedicated to innovative learning strategy, design, deployment & data. Under her leadership, the firm has flourished, serving Fortune 1000 companies with a global footprint. Ms. Torrance’s strategic vision has enabled TorranceLearning to impact millions of employees worldwide, reflecting her deep commitment to transformative corporate education.

Her influence extends industry-wide. As an author of go-to books like “Agile for Instructional Designers,” “Data & Analytics for Instructional Designers,” and “Making Sense of xAPI,” she has shaped the discourse in the field. She is a Facilitator with eCornell’s Women’s Executive Leadership certificate, an Instructor in Cornell’s Executive HR Master’s program, and an adjunct in Penn State’s Learning Design & Technology Master’s program.

 

 

Mr. Brian Uridge

Brian Uridge has more than three decades of experience in law enforcement, healthcare security, and fire service.

He is the Senior Director of Michigan Medicine Safety and Security at the University of Michigan. In this capacity, Brian Uridge oversees security and law enforcement personnel for a health system with 34,000 employees. that is visited by three million patients per year. A certified police officer for the university, he manages a full-time team, including clinical trainers, a K-9 team, security staff, and a community policing unit.

During his first few years with the University of Michigan, Mr. Uridge helped create the health system’s first K-9 program and developed a home health tactical safety training procedure. Before that, he spent three years as director of security services for Spectrum Health System in Grand Rapids.

Brian Uridge holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice from Ferris State University and a master’s degree in public administration from Western Michigan University. He also studied advanced criminal justice at the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy, which selects less than two percent of law enforcement officers from across the country.

 

 

To learn about the valuable contributions and expertise of the individuals who formerly comprised the Advisory Board, please visit our Former Advisors Page.