The Ohio Federal Research Network Team

Karen Posey is Founder & CEO of KP Strategies LLC a management consulting firm focused on helping CEO’s drive exponential growth and client retention.   Karen has extensive experience being a high-performance leader with a successful track record in running organizations and has been recognized four times for her high performance leadership.  From her early days in sales and sales leadership, to her experience in general management, management consulting, marketing, strategy, and consumer experience to CEO of a MedTech start-up.  Karen has the robust knowledge, skills, attributes, and experience to guide CEO’s to achieve growth and scale.  Based on her experience, she also guides other start-ups CEO’s to successfully go from incubation to launch scaling to sustain their companies through the Entrepreneur Center in Ohio as well as does a lot of consulting with the Air Force.

Ms. Becky Mescher is the Ohio Federal Research Network (OFRN) Program Coordinator and has been a part of OFRN since its inception in 2015. In her role, Becky ensures that research projects are developed and executed in accordance with program criteria and partner expectations. Becky joined Parallax Advanced Research in 2014 as the Communication and Event Manager for the Alliance for Human Effectiveness & Advancement (AHEAD) program. Prior to joining Parallax, Becky served as the Assistant Director of Administration & Operations at the University of Dayton Center for Leadership. During her 25-year tenure at the University, she managed professional development programs for businesses throughout the Dayton region. Becky has an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in management from the University of Dayton. Becky has over 30 years of experience in program coordination and event planning, as well as is certified in Personnel Decisions International (PDI) 360 assessments for executives and managers.

Ms. Jessica Pacheco has nine years' experience in marketing and communications across non-profit, for-profit and government industries. She is certified in Google Analytics, content marketing, search marketing and competitive analysis. Ms. Pacheco has a Master of Media Communications and a Bachelor of Linguistics.

Ms. Emma Warner has six years’ experience in marketing, communications and design across academia, nonprofit, and government sectors. She is skilled in written and verbal communication and specializes in content creation. Ms. Warner has a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies with a concentration in Business Administration.

General Bartman is the founder of 9G Consulting LLC and currently serves as a consultant to the Senior Vice President of the Office of Research, The Ohio State University. General Bartman’s most recent military assignment was as the Adjutant General, Ohio National Guard, Joint Force Headquarters, Columbus, Ohio, from 2015 to 2019. He was a member of the Governor’s cabinet and was responsible for the command of the Ohio National Guard and the military readiness of the Ohio Militia. General Bartman graduated from The Ohio State University in 1982 and entered military service in September 1982 through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program as a distinguished graduate from Detachment 645. General Bartman has served in numerous staff and operations positions in the United States Air Force and the Ohio Air National Guard to include serving as the Air National Guard lead to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force for the Total Force Task Force and commanding the 180th Fighter Wing. He is a command pilot with more than 3,200 flying hours, including 29 combat missions in Operations Provide Comfort, Northern Watch, and Southern Watch.

Williams was Dean of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University from 2011-2021 where he was responsible for 1000 faculty and staff educating 10,000 students via a $310M budget.  Williams represented OSU on the Business Higher Education Forum and the Council on Competitiveness, where he is a Senior Fellow.  He also served on the board of One Columbus and was chair of the board of the Transportation Research Center, driving central Ohio’s economic development and regional growth strategy.

Williams was President of the University of Alabama in Huntsville from 2007 to 2011.  There he served on the boards of the Tennessee Valley Corridor, the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce and the Alabama Business Council, partnering with the US Army at Redstone Arsenal and NASA Marshall to build the university’s research and enable its entry into the Carnegie Tier 1 (very high) research category.

Williams was VP Research at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA from 2000-2007 where he was on the boards of the NE PA Ben Franklin Technology Partnership and the Central PA Life Sciences Greenhouse, investing state funds in early-stage technology and life-science companies.  Williams holds B.A., M.A., Ph.D., and Sc.D. degrees from The University of Cambridge.  He is a (co-) author and editor of 13 textbooks and conference proceedings and (co-) author of 450 publications on electron microscopy studies of metals and alloys.  He is a fellow of nine national/international societies for materials, electron microscopy, aerospace and aeronautics.

Dr. John Sankovic is the president and CEO of Ohio Aerospace Institute. As OAI’s leader, Sankovic prioritizes developing multi-university partnerships, driving research from university laboratories to Ohio’s industrial aerospace manufacturers and fostering novel collaborations between governments, industries and private organizations.

Sankovic comes to OAI following a distinguished 31-year career at NASA, where he most recently served as center chief technologist and director of the Office of Technology Incubation and Innovation. There, he received numerous awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, six Agency Honor Group Achievement Awards and an R&D100 technology innovation award.

An industrious academic, Sankovic earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from The University of Akron, his MBA degree from Cleveland State University and his master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio with distinction by the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers for highest achievement on both licensure examinations. He holds three U.S. patents.

Inclined to share his knowledge and passion with future generations of innovators, Sankovic has taught numerous university courses over the past 15 years and authored or co-authored more than 70 technical publications on topics ranging from space propulsion and power to fluid mechanics and biomedical sciences.