62nd Annual Siouxland Washington Conference Book

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

James (Jim) Dinneen, Acting Assistant Secretary, Private Sector Office,

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

James (Jim) Dinneen is the Acting Assistant
Secretary of Homeland Security for the Private
Sector where he previously served as the Chief of
Staff for the office. Before coming to the
Department of Homeland Security, he served at
the White House in the Executive Office of the
President as Director of Boards & Commissions in
the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO). He has
served as Deputy Executive Director of Priorities
USA Action, Special Assistant to the General
Counsel at the Department of Commerce, and Deputy New England Finance
Director of Obama for America. He has also worked for State Street Bank
and Trust. He received his B.A. from Hamilton College.

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

Phil LaRue, Director of Government Relations, The Concord Coalition

Phil LaRue is the Director of Government Relations for The Concord
Coalition, a nationwide, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the
public about long-term federal budget issues and their consequences for the

future. The group was founded in 1992 by
former U.S. Commerce Secretary Peter G.
Peterson; Warren Rudman, a Republican
senator from New Hampshire, and Paul
Tsongas, a former Democratic senator from
Massachusetts.

As Director of Government Relations, LaRue works with members of
Congress and their staffs to promote fiscal responsibility by sharing
Concord resources, conducting fiscal town halls and meetings, and
coordinating with existing bipartisan fiscal working groups on Capitol Hill.

Prior to joining Concord in 2015, LaRue worked as a senior adviser to two former Concord Coalition Paul
E. Tsongas Economic Patriot Award recipients – Congressmen Ron Kind (D-WI) and Peter J. Visclosky
(D-IN). In Congressman Kind’s office, LaRue served as spokesman to the House New Democrat
Coalition, where he worked across the aisle with pragmatic lawmakers to advance bipartisan legislation.

LaRue received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in
2011.

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

Mark Mitsui, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in the Office

of Career, Technical & Adult Education (OCTAE),
U.S. Department of Education

Mark Mitsui is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in
OCTAE. He most recently served as the President of North Seattle
Community College (NSCC). Prior to that, Mitsui served as Vice President of
Student Services for South Seattle Community College (SSCC), Assistant

Dean at Green River Community College,
Director of Student Success and Retention
Services at NSCC and as a tenured faculty at
Renton Technical College. International student
enrollment increased by over 50% during his
tenure as President and hosted several
international delegations researching the
American community college system. He worked on the statewide task force
to review and redesign the performance funding system in Washington’s
Community and Technical Colleges, including the student success metrics.
He oversaw the completion of a new Opportunity Center (a one-stop) that
brought together three state agencies to provide integrated federal, state and
private funding streams and services in order to move low income residents
out of poverty through education. He has also worked with a variety of
industry-higher education consortia to address skills gaps in high demand
sectors. He is very committed to serving under represented, under-served
communities and led strategic student success efforts to serve these
communities, including initiatives to help both South Seattle and North Seattle Community Colleges
become minority-serving institutions. He is excited to be working with his colleagues in OCTAE and at the
U.S. Department of Education.

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

Admiral James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld, Jr., Former Vice Chairman of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff, United States Navy

Adm. James Winnefeld served as the ninth Vice
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this
capacity, he was a member of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and the nation’s second highest-ranking
military officer.

Winnefeld graduated from the Georgia Institute of
Technology and received his commission through
the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program.
He subsequently served with three fighter squadrons
flying the F-14 Tomcat, and as an instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons
School.

Winnefeld’s unit commands at sea include Fighter Squadron 211, USS
Cleveland (LPD 7), and USS Enterprise (CVN 65). He led “Big E” through her 18th deployment, which
included combat operations in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom immediately after
the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, 2001. As Commander, Carrier Strike Group Two/Theodore Roosevelt
Carrier Strike Group, he led Task Forces 50, 152, and 58 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and
maritime interception operations in the Arabian Gulf. He also served as commander, United States 6th
Fleet; commander NATO Allied Joint Command, Lisbon; and, commander, Striking and Support Forces
NATO.

His shore tours include service in the Joint Staff Operations Directorate (J-3), as senior aide to the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as executive assistant to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations.
As a flag officer, he served ashore as Director, Warfare Programs and Transformational Concepts, United
States Fleet Forces Command; as Director of Joint Innovation and Experimentation at United States Joint
Forces Command; and, as the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy (J-5) on the Joint Staff. He most
recently served as the Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S.
Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).

Winnefeld’s awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal,
Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service
Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and five Battle Efficiency awards.

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

Mary A. Winnefeld, Ship Sponsor, USS Sioux City (LCS 11)

Ms. Mary A. Winnefeld is actively involved in the health
and welfare of military families, as well as the policies
that affect their lives. Through her personal experience
as a military spouse and mother, she has a keen
awareness of the hardships that affect military families,
especially the stress involved with casualty, illness,
multiple deployments and numerous moves.

Ms. Winnefeld currently serves on the Board of Directors
for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Cohen Veteran
Network Foundation, USO Metropolitan Washington, and The Pathway Home
National Advisory Committee. She is a member of Newman’s Own Foundation
grant committee and an Ambassador for the Tragedy Assistance for Survivors (TAPS) program.

Prior to dedicating her life to volunteerism, Ms. Winnefeld was employed by Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC) for over 17 years, serving as a program manager for NATO, as well as a
member of SAIC’s Ethics Board.

Ms. Winnefeld holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Diego and a Master of Arts
degree from San Diego State University.

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

Dakota L. Wood, Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs, The Heritage

Foundation

Dakota L. Wood, who served
America for two decades in the U.S.
Marine Corps, is the Senior Research
Fellow for Defense Programs at The
Heritage Foundation.

Wood’s research and writing at The Heritage Foundation focus on
programs, capabilities, operational concepts, and strategies of the U.S.
Department of Defense and military services to assess their utility in
ensuring the United States has the ability to protect and promote its
critical national security interests.

Wood grew up in Claremore, OK and graduated in 1985 from the U.S.

Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in oceanography.

He was named a distinguished graduate for his work in earning a
master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the

College of Naval Command and Staff, U.S. Naval War College. He was
also recognized for meritorious distinction by the Marine Corps’ School

of Advanced Warfighting.

In his service as a Marine, Dakota participated in the planning and execution of operations around the
world to include Operation Enduring Freedom following the attacks of 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom
to depose Saddam Hussein. Dakota culminated his career conducting studies on military, technology,
economic and political matters for senior officials at the highest levels of the Marine Corps and the
Defense Department.

Wood retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2005, having enjoyed a 20-year
career during which he served with a variety of operational units and in various high-level staff
assignments. His operational experiences included a number of contingencies ranging from the
evacuation of American citizens from countries in crisis to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

His professional and personal travel took him to over thirty countries on five continents and transit through
most of the world’s oceans and seas, experiences that included multiple deployments to Asia and the

Mediterranean region, NATO support operations in the Balkans, and contingency operations in W. Africa.

Then-Major Wood was a lead operational/logistics planner for U.S. Central Command during the initial
operational response to the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, as well as numerous plans that included non-
combatant evacuation operations and WMD counter-proliferation plans as well as logistics support for the
bed-down of special operations forces in Central/Southwest Asia in the early phases of Operation
ENDURING FREEDOM. Recruited by-name in late 2002, he was deployed to augment and lead
operational analysis and logistics planning and execution efforts in support of Marine Corps combat
forces for the invasion phase of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.

Mr. Wood also served as a strategic analyst for the Commandant of the Marine Corps and, later, while
assigned to the Office of Net Assessment, the Secretary of Defense’s internal “think tank,” where he
participated in a range of comparative analyses of military, technological, political, economic, and other
factors governing the relative military capabilities of nations, with a specific focus on identifying emerging
or potential threats and opportunities for the United States.

Following retirement in 2005, Mr. Wood helped to organize and operationalize the National
Biosurveillance Integration System, a Department of Homeland Security effort intended to provide
national leadership with the earliest indications of a potential biological threat to the United States.

Dakota L. Wood Biography continued…

From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Wood served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessments where he organized or materially contributed to numerous seminar-style wargames
conducted for various Department of Defense sponsors as well as authoring papers on a diverse array of
topics that included: conventional operations against a nuclear-armed adversary; US response options to
the imminent failure of a large state; the operational challenges of a protracted global irregular warfare
(IW) campaign; the many implications of the proliferation of advanced technologies and weapons;
evolving security challenges within the Western Hemisphere; and the development of transformation
strategies to improve the ability of the US military to protect the US and its interests.

Most recently, Mr. Wood served as the Strategist for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Special Operations
Command. In this capacity, Mr. Wood was responsible for advising the Commander on strategic level
guidance, policies, and operational concepts effecting the future employment of MARSOC forces,
personally facilitated the development of a new concept for the integration of operational capabilities of
special operations forces and forward-deployed conventional forces, and helped shape MARSOC’s
understanding and explanation of the utility of Marine Corps special operations forces in support of
national security interests.

Mr. Wood has been a frequent contributor to the news media, having been consulted on a wide range of
national security and defense matters by a number of national and international outlets. He has also
provided expert testimony to the U.S. Congress and has been consulted by the Government Accounting
Office (GAO), Congressional Research Service (CRS), and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Wood and his wife, Dixie, have three grown children.

MAPS OF CAPITOL HILL

The Liaison
Hotel

Dirksen Bldg.

Hart Bldg.

Rayburn Bldg.
Capitol Hill Club