America Makes Announces New Elected Members of 2024-2026 Executive Committee

Ohio-based America Makes, a public-private partnership for additive manufacturing driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) non-profit, is the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII). It works with many member organizations from academia, industry, government, non-government agencies, and workforce and economic development resources to accelerate adoption of the technology in order to advance U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and security. This week, the institute announced that it’s elected the new members of its Executive Committee.

This strategic advisory committee is made up of three appointed government representatives, as well as eight elected representatives from non-profit, academia, and industry—three sectors in its membership community. The Executive Committee meets regularly to make sure that the right policies, advocacies, and strategies are set so that America Makes can continue doing what it’s supposed to do as the national accelerator for AM. In addition to fostering innovation and research, America Makes coordinates technical and workforce data to help transform the industry. Additionally, just like the rest of the MIIs, it serves as a resource for the DoD and other federal agencies.

Elected members of the Executive Committee, who serve a two-year term, must know and understand the current, and future, state of the AM industry, so as to offer appropriate counsel to America Makes about things like workforce education and training, data management and IP policy, membership value and outreach, technical scope, ecosystem development and partnership strategies, and more. The new members of the 2024-2026 America Makes Executive Committee are:

• Sandra DeVincent Wolf, PhD, Executive Director, Carnegie Mellon University Manufacturing Futures Institute
• Barb Ewing, CEO, Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI)
• Jonaaron Jones, President and General Manager, Additive Manufacturing Division, Beehive Industries
• Brian Meincke, Vice President, Global Business Development and Innovation Strategy, ASTM International
• Nick Mulé, Director, Additive Manufacturing Intelligence Center, Boeing
• Hector Sandoval, Technical Fellow for Additive Manufacturing, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control
• Mark Shaw, Chief Engineer of Defense Industrial Base Strategy, Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (WSU/NIAR)
• Rick Russell, Principal ADDvisor®, The Barnes Global Advisors

The three government representatives for the Executive Committee are David Beck, PhD, Principal, Space Industrial Base, U.S. Space Force; Robert Carter, Deputy Chief, Materials and Structures Division, NASA Glenn Research Center; and Laura Macht, Engineer and Project Management, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC).

“I’m thrilled to welcome this dynamic group of newly elected Executive Committee members. Diversity has always been a cornerstone of our Executive Committees. This group brings representation from every corner of the additive manufacturing value chain and their unique insights and strategic guidance will be vital as we continue pushing the boundaries of our mission,” said America Makes Executive Director John Wilczynski.

Earlier this year, America Makes completed a Joint Defense Manufacturing Council Review (JDMC), the results of which were discussed at MMX 2024. The consensus was that the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology’s (OSD ManTech) should continue, but evolve, its strategic partnership with America Makes, and set some important action items, like developing a five-year strategy to improve its focus on U.S. competitiveness in AM, make data and IP more quickly and readily available to members, and more. The new members of the Executive Committee will now have the important task of ensuring that these items are completed. However, their first order of business will be electing the Committee Chairperson and Secretary.