NIUAA Board Members

Tom Van Wagner is the first Director of Outreach and Alumni Relations at the National Intelligence University, in Washington, DC. He has more than 30 years in federal government service, including 12 years as Navy Surface Warfare Officer. Prior to assuming his current role in alumni relations, Tom served as admissions officer from 1994-2004, and registrar and director of enrollments from 2004-2009. He is a joint-qualified Intelligence Community Officer, having completed a joint duty assignment while assigned to the DEA Office of National Security Intelligence from 2009-2011.

An active member of the local community, Tom currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alexandria Renew Enterprise. In 2001 he received a commendation letter for heroism from the local Chief of Police for actions that saved a woman’s life and helped put three hardened criminals behind bars, including one serving a life sentence. He is a co-founder of the Lloyd Snyder Music Education Foundation which supports public music education in Mercer County, NJ. In his spare time, he enjoys playing soccer, and performing with Irish Breakfast Band.

He holds a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence degree from the National Intelligence University and is a 1980 graduate of Colgate University.

Ms. Katherine Coviello serves as a Senior SIGINT Officer in USDI, focusing on defense SIGINT Capabilities and Investments. Previously, she served as the SIGINT Division Chief and prior to that as a senior Intelligence Research Specialist in the Military Intelligence Program (MIP) office of USDI. There, she provided OSD oversight and monitoring of the NSA and SOCOM portion of the MIP, as well as serving as the lead analyst for resource matters related to Intelligence Support to Cyberspace Operations. From 2007 to 2011, she provided OSD oversight and monitoring of the Army portion of the MIP with functional oversight of MIP resources for foreign language, social cultural dynamics/human terrain and biometrics enabled intelligence (BEI) across the defense components of the MIP.

From 2005-2007, Ms. Coviello served as the Army G-2 lead Science and Technology (S&T) Analyst, Deputy S&T Division Chief and Acting S&T Division Chief for the Army G-2. She came to the HQDA G2 after serving at Fort Monmouth, NJ as the Team Leader for the SIGINT and IMINT Operational Environment (S&IOE) threat database, as well as the lead intelligence officer for Product Manager (PM), Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) from 2001 to 2005. In this position, she was responsible for S&IOE planning, research, development, configuration management and dissemination. She also served as the PM ACS Intelligence Operations and policy subject matter expert, with focus areas in SIGINT and Collection Management. She additionally provided Information Security expertise, coordinating formal concurrence and approval of the ACS, as well as the Prophet system, Security Classification Guides (SCG) with the US Intelligence Community. She frequently assisted other elements of PM Signals Warfare with intelligence, threat and security matters. Before working for PM ACS, she worked as the Senior Intelligence Specialist for the TROJAN PM at the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) from 1997-2001. In this capacity she served as the TROJAN System customer advocate, new equipment training team manager, information assurance officer and information security officer/classification advisory officer. During this effort, she also participated in fielding of TROJAN Classic XXI systems worldwide.

Previously, Ms. Coviello served as the senior TROJAN Watch Officer with the Army Technical Control and Analysis Element’s TROJAN Service Desk at Ft Meade, managing operational cognizance and performing collection operations management for TROJAN sites worldwide. Other assignments include duty as an Army Special Agent serving with the Foreign Counterintelligence Activity, Anti-Terrorism Force member, Range Control Officer and Mobilization Officer.

Ms. Coviello is a native New Englander who attended the United States Naval Academy, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bridgewater State College, and completed the Post Graduate Intelligence Program and Masters of Science in Strategic Intelligence degree at the Joint Military Intelligence College (now NIU). She is a graduate of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course, Counterintelligence Agent Transition Course, Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course (RC Phase I), SIGINT/Electronic Warfare (EW) Officers Advanced Course, EW Staff Officers Course, Advanced Cryptologic Course and Intelligence Community (IC) Officers Course. She is IC Joint Duty qualified and also served as an Adjunct Faculty member with the National Cryptologic School.

As a former U.S. Army MI officer and NCO, she served in the reserve component from 1987-1997. There Ms. Coviello worked in a variety of staff assignments at both tactical and strategic levels, including Order of Battle Analyst, Tactical Intelligence Officer, Special Security Officer, Counterintelligence Officer, Special Project Officer, and SIGINT Collection Officer. Her awards and decorations include the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service, two Army Civilian Achievement Medals, multiple sustained Civilian Superior Service Awards, Army Achievement Medal with two oak leaf clusters, and National Defense Service Medal. The Military Intelligence Corps Association (MICA) honored her in 2004 with the Van Deman Award and the Knowlton Award in 2005. As chapter president, she led the MICA Garden State Chapter to the 2001 Chapter of the Year Award. She is a member of MICA, the US Naval Academy Alumni Association, and the National Intelligence University Alumni Advisory council.

Ms. Coviello is an avid equestrian and owner of a retired Appaloosa sport horse and a young Danish Knabstrupper mare; she shares her home with two Bengal cats.

Ron manages business and corporate development activities at UTC in the area of intelligence production and data analytics. In this capacity he has conducted   operational due diligence for M&A activity, opened new international and domestic markets in coalition intelligence enterprise architecture, and supports the maturation of customer and internal R&D efforts.

His business experience includes P&L responsibility for a $250MM company and spans 20 years in operations, program management, corporate and business development, and government affairs. Ron was the Vice President, Tactical Systems at Kongsberg Gruppen ASA; President and CEO of TGI, where he arranged its acquisition by Kongsberg; Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development of the Defense Holdings Group of J. H. Whitney & Company; led strategy and business development at Impact Science and Technology, a $400MM business unit of ITT Intelligence & Information Warfare (Harris); and also held various program management positions there and in Titan Corporation (L-3 Communications). Ron established and led the New England operations of NAVTEQ (Nokia) from start-up through a $600MM round of funding during its advent of digital map and GPS guided navigation systems that revolutionized personal navigation and launched an industry.

Ron is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and Serves as the Science & Technology Liaison for U.S. Army Europe G2 at MIT Lincoln Labs. His assignments include both the Regular Army and Army Reserve in command, operational, and staff positions at U.S. Strategic Command, Communications Electronics Research & Development Command, U.S. European Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Analysis Center, Special Operations Command Pacific, the 10^th Mountain Division, and the 2^nd Infantry Division.

Ron earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management as a MIT Leadership Fellow. He also holds a MS in Engineering Management from Tufts University School of Engineering, a MS in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and a BA in Geospatial Science and International Relations from Boston University; all earned under full scholarship. Ron received a Regular Army Commission as a Distinguished Military Graduate of Army R.O.T.C., having attended U.S. Army Airborne and Ranger Schools while still a cadet. Ron holds qualifications in the Military Intelligence Branch, Acquisition Corps, and Signal Corps. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College and courses at the Infantry School, Military Intelligence School, Field Artillery School, Signal School, Jungle Warfare Operations Training Center, JFK Special Warfare School, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, and Defense Acquisition University.

Ron serves on the boards of several businesses and philanthropic organizations, and previously served on an advisory board to the Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management.