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Service Members, Veteran Earn Appointments as White House Fellows

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Five service members and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are among 16 men and women appointed to the 2016-2017 class of White House Fellows, the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships announced today.

The fellows come from diverse backgrounds, varied professions, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to public service and leadership, officials said in a statement announcing the appointments. 

The White House
White House
The White House
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The White House Fellows Program was created in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to give promising American leaders “first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the Federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs.” The opportunity to work within the nation’s government is designed to encourage active citizenship and a lifelong commitment to service, officials said. The Fellows take part in an education program designed to broaden their knowledge of leadership, policy formulation and current affairs. Community service is another essential element of the program, and Fellows participate in service projects throughout their year in Washington.

Selection as a White House Fellow is highly competitive and based on a record of professional achievement, evidence of leadership potential, and a proven commitment to public service, officials said. Each Fellow must possess the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute meaningfully at senior levels of the federal government, they added.

The service members and veteran selected for the 2016-2017 class of White House Fellows are:

Army Maj. Raven Bukowski, Akron, Ohio

As an intelligence officer, she has led more than 200 intelligence collectors and analysts over the course of five overseas deployments within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. She last served as the director of intelligence for 5th Special Forces Group, where she led the intelligence effort for Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Syria. In this role, Bukowski delivered intelligence assessments to U.S. interagency and intergovernmental partners that directly informed policy-level decisions on military operations to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor of international relations at the U.S. Military Academy’s department of social sciences, where in addition to teaching she served as an academic counselor and conducted research for the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. Bukowski is an active term member on the Council on Foreign Relations and the author or co-author of four papers dealing with military doctrine or defense policy. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy and Master of Arts degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Coast Guard Lt. Linden Dahlkemper, Erie, Pa.

She most recently served as an instructor in the department of humanities at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., where she volunteered as an intercollegiate sailing team coach, musical theater director and cadet mentor. Dahlkemper also facilitated experiential leadership training for Coast Guard cadets as an Officer in Charge in the Coastal Sail Training Program. Previously, she served as the operations officer on Coast Guard Cutter Aspen and conducted oil-skimming operations in the Gulf of Mexico for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She subsequently led counternarcotics and maritime transportation operations in the Pacific. As a deck watch officer on Coast Guard Cutter Walnut, she led some of the first boardings of foreign-flagged vessels under the authority of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and conducted joint operations with international partners in the South Pacific. She earned a Master of Science degree in public policy and management, with high honors, from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science degree in government, with high honors, from the Coast Guard Academy, where she was the recipient of the Jewish Women’s War Veterans Award in Government.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd Edwards, Equinunk, Pa.

A Navy SEAL, he has led special operations throughout Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, and has deployed twice to Afghanistan and three times to Iraq. In addition, he spent a year in Bahrain, where he established a regional task force and directed special operations in its area of responsibility, which included unstable regions of Africa and the Middle East. Edwards’s most recent operational assignments have included leading 60 SEALs and support personnel as a task unit commander and managing the training and employment of more than 200 personnel deployed to disparate locations as an operations officer. He also was selected as the two-year fellow for the Navy’s politico-military master’s degree program. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was a senior staff member for the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference and a varsity letterman in sprint football, and an master of public policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Army Lt. Col. Timothy Gatlin, Houston

He most recently served as the strategic planner for the director of the Army’s Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention Program. As a commander, he conducted operations in support of the Army’s counterterrorism operations in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During Operation Spartan Shield, he deployed as a brigade fire support officer, advising on targeting, joint fire support operations, and foreign military partnerships. Previously, he was a faculty member at the U.S. Military Academy and a Local Dynamics of War Scholar at the Army Command and General Staff College. He has presented and published on topics including leadership, state-sponsored development programs in Iraq, and regionally aligned forces. Gatlin co-founded the Excel Scholars Initiative, an enrichment program dedicated to diversifying the West Point cadet leadership and faculty pools by launching minority cadets into leadership roles and into contention for prestigious post-graduate programs. He has also served as a board member of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Orange County, N.Y. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the U.S. Military Academy and Master of Arts degree in social-organizational psychology from Columbia University as an Eisenhower Leader Development Fellow. Prior to his selection as a Fellow, Gatlin was selected to serve as a battalion commander.

Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Morales, Naranjito, Puerto Rico

He recently served as commander of the 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron in Kabul, Afghanistan. In this capacity, he led a highly skilled, multinational combat flying advisory team responsible for the development of the entire Afghan air force airlift capability. Morales has spent his career working with and advising political and military leaders around the world. He has led teams with diverse missions ranging from planning and executing all U.S. military exercises in Central and South America and the Caribbean to building partnerships with air forces throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Morales flew more than 200 combat airlift missions into Afghanistan and Iraq as a C-17 and C-130 pilot, and he earned the prestigious Airlift/Tanker Association Young Leader Award and the Air Force Association Company Grade Officer of the Year award. He received a Master of Arts degree in religion and a Master of Divinity degree from Liberty University, as well as a Master of Science degree in logistics from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He is a member of Cru Military, Mensa and the Global Leaders tier of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

Kyle Scherer, Dover, Ohio

He was most recently an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, with broad experience advising clients in liability management and corporate finance transactions. Prior to joining the firm, he worked on the Navajo Nation as a Staff Attorney for DNA-Peoples Legal Services, a nonprofit organization focused on providing access to justice to low-income Native Americans living in the Four Corners region of the United States. Scherer is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is the recipient of a Bronze Star Medal, having served a staff officer for Joint Task Force Kabul, as chief of intelligence operations for Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435, and as the senior intelligence officer for U.S. Forces Iraq’s personnel recovery division. In addition to maintaining an active pro bono practice, he is a Director of Native American Alumni of Harvard University and a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Military Affairs and Justice. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College, where he pursued a special concentration in American public policy and American Indian politics, and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, where he was a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership.

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