Board of Directors

Chair

Claudine Adams, CEO and founder of Bravura Inc., has 30 years of professional experience, with increasing responsibilities throughout her career building operations and businesses. She was ranked number 1 in the nation for her performance at Xerox, and was the executive responsible for building Adams Communication to currently over $200M in annual revenue. Since founding Bravura in 2014, her company ‘has been recognized as one of the fastest small business companies, and has been awarded the Best of Belcamp for Computer Support and Services for 2015, 2016 and 2017. Born in Philadelphia, PA, Ms. Adams graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She then received a Master’s of Theology from Calvary Christian College in Waldorf, Maryland. She is a member of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution.

Secretary

Kaitlin is a partner at Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP, Baltimore, and a member of the Maryland bar, with a strong focus on litigating and licensing copyrights and trademarks, resolving unfair competition matters, and negotiating business transactions and agreements.

Kaitlin most recently was voted to The Daily Record’s Leading Women Under 40, is the immediate past Chair of the Intellectual Property Section of the Maryland State Bar Association, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law teaching Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law each year since 2018.

She also serves as General Counsel for the Annapolis Police Foundation and as the Co-Chair of the Legislative Committee on the Board of the American Advertising Federation of Baltimore and is a prolific author having numerous articles published in national and state law journals

Karen Holt, Director, Harford Co.unty Office of Economic Development

Ms. Holt served as Regional BRAC Manager in Harford County's Office of Economic Development from 2006-2014 where she was responsible for grant administration, operations and communications for the Chesapeake Science and Security Corridor (CSSC) Consortium, a regional, 50+ organizational effort, established to address BRAC growth and support mission sustainability of the Aberdeen Proving Ground community. Through the Office of Economic Adjustment, the CSSC Regional Office secured more than $10 million in federal funding for infrastructure, transportation and other growth issues while serving as the region's clearinghouse for defense community news and information. She provided site management of the APG-CSSC Commuter Services Center staffed at APG as an installation/community partnership as well as the GroundFloor at Harford, a collaborative work space for app developers/designers, start ups and entrepreneurs She further served as editor to the CSSC Asset a quarterly, digital publication for the Greater APG community. Most recent CSSC study projects included the University Research Park: Advancing the Aberdeen Region as a Technology Hub, APG Community Joint Land Use Study (JLUS), and the APG Telework Feasibility and Best Practice Study.

Ms. Holt served as Public Information Officer for Cecil County Public Schools for more than 10 years before joining Harford County's Office of Economic Development. Prior positions included coordinating tourism-related economic development and local business efforts with Cecil County Chamber of Commerce, providing public relations and marketing for a federally-funded community development grant program through Cecil College; and serving as Public Affairs Assistant with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Memberships
Ms. Holt serves as a board member of the Harford County Chamber of Commerce, the Susquehanna Workforce Network, the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore Economic Advisory Board, the Greater Baltimore Committee's Harford County Business Council, a member of the Women in Defense Mid-Atlantic Chapter, Northeastern Maryland Technology Council (NMTC), the Northeast Maryland Higher Education Advisory Board (NMHEAB) and the Regional Additive Manufacturing Partnership for Maryland (RAMP-MD). Ms. Holt has served as a liaison to the Army Alliance, Inc., board member of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Aberdeen Chapter, as well as served on the Governor's Task Force for Higher Education in Northeastern Maryland in 2011 and chaired the Local Government Subcommittee's Education Workgroup for Maryland's BRAC Sub-Cabinet in 2008. She is active in community charity work in support of wounded warriors. 

Treasurer

Joseph Connolly currently serves as the Coordinator of Magnet and CTE programs for Harford County Public Schools. Previously, he served as an Assistant Principal at both Joppatowne and Fallston High School.  He has over 21 years of experience in education and has been with HCPS for over 17 years.  Prior to working in education, he produced a technology-based television show for WLNY-TV and has worked as a Project Manager/Associate Producer for Cablevision Systems Corporation.  Joe completed his Master of Science Degree in Leadership in Teaching for an Administration and Supervision Certification from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and holds a Bachelor of Communication Arts from Hofstra University in New York. 

Dr. Mary Way Bolt, President of Cecil College, currently serves on the boards of Union Hospital, the Regional Additive Manufacturing Partnership of Maryland (RAMP-MD), and the Northeast Maryland Higher Education Advisory. She also serves on the Cecil County Economic Development Commission and the Susquehanna Workforce Investment Board. Dr. Bolt earned an associate’s degree in nursing from Cecil College. She received her doctoral degree in higher education and leadership from Widener University. Her post-doctoral studies included the Harvard University Management Development Program.

Dr. Theresa B. Felder, is Harford Community College’s 10th President. Previously, Dr. Felder served as Senior Vice President for Student Success at Clark State Community College and Administrative Dean for Clark State’s largest branch campus, and a Workforce Development Coordinator.

Dr. Felder started her professional career in corporate accounting and later became an Independent Consultant,specializing in job readiness and employment training. Dr. Felder completed her doctoral degree in Higher Education Leadership at Northeastern University; she holds a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University; and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Syracuse University.

Nicole Funk is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s defense business with a current focus on Army clients and systems engineering. Prior to joining Deloitte in July of 2019, Nicole worked in support of the U.S. Defence missions, with an emphasis in Army, for 27 years. Nicole has a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Biotechnology. She also has a certification in business strategy.  Nicole began her career with a focus in eapons of mass destruction (WMD), including long range planning against threats in the areas of biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons. 

Heather Handler is in her 15th year in education: 10 years of experience in Delaware and four years in Florida. We are honored to have her in Cecil County Public Schools, where she currently serves as a Career and Technical Education Coordinator with experience at the middle and high school levels, especially in STEM education and Engineering and Design. Prior to that, Heather served in the U.S. Navy, from 1995-2000, as a Search and Rescue Swimmer (SAR) under the classification Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW).

John Karabias is Vice President, Vice President of Strategic Development, for Jacobs, a global technical services firm with over 52,000 employees and $13 billion in annual revenue.  Jacobs recent acquisitions include KeyW, Blue Canopy, and Van Dyke. John leads the development of Jacobs’ Cyber Business Unit (CBU) growth strategy and is accountable for all sales activities for CBU clients around the world.  In this role, John leads a team responsible for delivering world-class solutions to public and private sector organizations with complex cyber advisory, engineering, IT and training needs.

Over his career, John has organized major coalitions with diverse stakeholder groups, led corporate presentations with military leaders at the U.S. Pentagon, and secured large contract wins with major federal sector clients.  John has a deep commitment to the professional and civic communities in which he lives and works, not only as a NMTC board member, but currently serving on the board of several Maryland Non-Profits

Todd Marks is Founder of Mindgrub Technologies. Mindgrub, voted Inc. Best Workplaces, Innovator of the Year, and placing #520 on the Inc. 500/5000, is a technology innovation agency, working with companies and organizations in a variety of industries to bring their brand to digital. Marks founded Mindgrub in 2002 and has developed enterprise systems for a wide range of clients such as Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, Mercy Medical Center, Inova, Exelon, Wendy’s, Crayola, DELL, Adobe, Geico, Motorola, Polk Audio, Yamaha, ORACLE, A&E, The Economist, and Discovery Communications.

Larry Muzzelo, retired Deputy to the Commanding General U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), Aberdeen Proving Ground, oversaw a global organization (C5ISR) of approximately 9,000 personnel providing, integrating, and sustaining world-class hardware, software, and mission command capabilities with an operating budget of $1.8B.

Muzzelo is highly accomplished academically and holds multiple engineering and leadership degrees from Webster University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Pennsylvania State University

While Deputy Commander, Muzzelo was honored as the Visionary of the Year at the NMTC 12^th Annual Visionary Awards, in April 2022, in part, for leading CECOM and APG tenants providing strong volunteer mentoring experience and internship opportunities for 30-student cohorts.

Dr. Michael O’Leary, Professor and Chairperson, Dept. of Mathematics, Towson University was also Director & Founder of the School of Emerging Technologies at Towson, Prior to that, he was the director of the Center for Applied Information Technology (2007-2012) and the graduate director of the Integrated Homeland Security Management Master’s program (2008-2012). His sought-after expertise and research interest is in the development of improved mathematical algorithms for the geographic profiling problem, which is the problem of estimating the location of a serial criminal’s home base from the known locations of the crimes. This work has been sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. In addition, he coaches student teams on cyber security, and cyber security competitions, leading the Towson team to the finals of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) in 2010 and 2012; and he also coached the team that won the Maryland Cyber Challenge in 2011.

Chair emeritus

Randy Rippin, president and partner in RTR Technologies, LLC, joined the NMTC board in 2007 and was its chairman in 2011-2012. Rippin has more than 30 years experience in computer and information systems design, software engineering and operations research analysis. He is a subject matter expert in border management technologies for the Dept. of Homeland Security, and aircraft readiness for NAVAIR. Rippin also is active in commercial and defense-related business and technology organizations.

Bill Sorenson has over 25 years of directorial experience. Before working in the public sector, Sorenson worked in IT for ten years as the Vice President at DELL before serving as the Managing Director of Mid-Atlantic Sales for Hewlett Packard Enterprises.

Semi-retiring from the corporate world, Bill sought public service to share his experience helping businesses grow. He joined the Maryland Department of Commerce as a Director of Regional Business Development in 2017 before leaving to serve as the Director of Economic Development in Cecil County.