AFCEANova

AFCEA NOVA is pleased to honor Shana Muhammad as the Young AFCEAN of the Month for December 2011.

Shana Muhammad was our Young AFCEAN. She is a Business Development Manager for Strategic Resources. Shana was the Young AFCEAN co-lead for the Beltway Collaboration Reception and our last Warfighter IT Day. She is the young AFCEAN lead for the Luncheon Committee. She provides exceptional support to make sure the luncheon programs continue to be successful!

AFCEA NOVA Education and Grant Committee awards discretionary grants in Fall and Spring of every year. We are pleased to announce a grant of nine thousand dollars to five area schools. The Fall 2011 grant winners are:

• James Madison High School
• Seneca Ridge Middle School
• Lake Braddock Secondary School
• Dominion High School
• Robinson Secondary School

“When Melissa Booker’s IB physics students found out that the robotics program was awarded this grant for purchase of equipment for them to work with… you could hear LOUD whoops of joy resonating inside and outside of Melissa’s classroom! The students were thrilled! Because of this grant, our physics students will have an opportunity to enter the Science Olympiad Robotics Competition that will take place on February 25th,” said Deb Duncan, Assistant Principal and High School Science Department Administrator, Robinson Secondary School.

AFCEA NOVA is pleased to honor Steve Costolo as the Young AFCEAN of the Month for November 2011.

Steve is the Federal Account Manager for Gigamon, LLC - a provider of intelligent Traffic Visibility Networking solutions for enterprises, data centers and service providers. Steve assists DoD and Intel customers with architecting a Traffic Visibility Network that provides their Cyber Security and Network Analysis tools the data they need to support Continuous Monitoring and Situational Awareness missions.

Steve runs the audio-visual equipment for every AFCEA NOVA IT Day. He volunteered to run the audio-visual equipment for all of our luncheons, has served as a Junior Escort at our IT Days, and was an instrumental part of the Luncheon Committee in helping secure corporate table sponsorships. He always volunteers to help and shows up for almost every chapter event to offer his support. AFCEA NOVA is glad to recognize Steve as one of our outstanding Young AFCEANs.

In December, Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, USA, chief information officer/G-6, U.S. Army, served as the keynote speaker for the chapter’s annual IT Day focused on the Army. It was another successful event with almost 900 people attending. The general discussed the new environment based upon current budgets and emphasized that life is different. She said that the Army must be cost conscious and stressed the need to partner with industry to meet the mission of the Army and the mission of the United States in this economic crisis. The goals of Army must meet the goals of the nation. Everything must be done to carry on beyond current assignments. She also recognized that this is hard to do after 10 years of overseas contingency operations funding. She encouraged attendees to be the person who finds a solution despite the challenges.