Senior Fellow and Member, Board of Regents, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
Jeff Baxter currently serves as Chairman of the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense. He has acted in an advisory capacity for Congressmen Curt Weldon and Dana Rohrabacher, both members of the House Science Committee, and has participated in numerous wargames for the Pentagon. Mr. Baxter was invited to serve on the Laser Advisory Board at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has lectured at the University of Manitoba School of Political Science on the topic of regional conflict and missile defense. He is a world-renowned guitarist and a former member of both Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.
Sharon Layani is a Research Analyst in the S&T Division. She provides assessments of emerging science and technology trends, government acquisition strategies, strategic planning, and policy recommendations. Prior to her work at the Institute, she served as Research Associate and Research Coordinator at the International Center for Terrorism Studies. Her work focused on counterterrorism, international security, and rule of law issues. She provided research support and analysis for books, such as NATO: From Regional to Global Security Provider (2015) and The Islamic State: Combating a Caliphate Without Borders (2015), and assisted on a number of counterterrorism reports and projects. Ms. Layani served on the senior staff for Terrorism: An Electronic Journal and Knowledge Base and coordinated foreign policy and national security-related seminars. Ms. Layani graduated from the University of Michigan with a double major in Political Science and Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience, and a minor in International Studies focusing on the Middle East.
Dr. Mike Fritze is a Senior Fellow and former Vice President at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He is responsible for the Microelectronics related portfolio with interests and activities in the areas of secure access strategies, supply chain issues, support of legacy technologies, DoD innovation policy, outreach to Industry and strengthening the US Industrial Base. Customers have included OSD, DARPA, USAF and NNSA. Dr. Fritze is active on the NDIA Electronics Division co-chairing the Policy subcommittee. Prior to his affiliation with the Institute, Dr. Fritze ran microelectronics Programs at USC-ISI and was a Program Manager at DARPA MTO. Prior to that, he was a staff member at MITLL.
Dr. Moriah Locklear is a Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Prior to joining the Institute, Dr. Locklear obtained her PhD in organic chemistry from University of Nebraska at Lincoln where her graduate research focused on the study of peroxides for the construction of drug-related functionalities. Simultaneously, Dr. Locklear served as a legislative intern in the Nebraska State Legislature focusing on a variety of issues related to veteran affairs, technology policy, and green energy. She received her bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences with minors in chemistry and comparative religion at Ohio State University.
