DAU opens its doors in Huntsville, Ala.: taking education directly to the workforce - Acquisition Education, Training, and Career Development - Defense Acquisition University

Program Manager, March, 2002 by Sylwia Gasiorek-Nelson

With the opening of the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) campus, Huntsville, Ala., on Feb. 1, DAU took a major step toward its goal of transformation in acquisition training by providing products and services to the community at major workforce locations. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by Army Col. (P) James R. Moran, DAU Commandant, Fort Belvoir, Va., and James McCullough, Dean, DAU South Region, took place on Feb. 21.

Opening Remarks

In his opening statement, McCullough welcomed local government-industry officials from the Huntsville region, DAU directors, faculty contractors, as well as distinguished guests participating in the day's events: Dr. Jerome Smith, DoD Chancellor for Education and Professional Development; Jim Flynn, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; Dr. David Billings, Dean of College Administrative Science, University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH); Maxine Maples, Director, Southern and Western Regions, Army Acquisition Career Management; and Ronald W. Boles, Chamber of Commerce, Huntsville, Ala.

"We are trying to open up a new facility and new capability within the Huntsville area and also the Southern region, which extends from the state of Texas to the East Coast, and from the state of Tennessee to the Gulf Coast," said McCullough.

He noted that this event "marks the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between DAU and local customers in the Southern region.

"We are here to support programs as the need for assistance occurs," said McCullough, "not to teach a class five years from now on what they did wrong." This, he said, is the framework that the faculty and staff of the DAU South Region are devoted to putting forward throughout the community.

Keynote Speaker

McCullough introduced and welcomed the keynote speaker, U.S. Army Col. (P) James Moran, DAU Commandant, who has enjoyed a long association with Huntsville throughout his career in program management.

"This is a great day, a great opportunity for the Huntsville community, DAU, the Army, and the many other tenants who are here in Huntsville," Moran said.

"There are about 10,000 people in this region who are part of the acquisition, technology, and logistics workforce that DAU is responsible for training. Our mission is to be the corporate university for that workforce. We don't teach people engineering, but we teach them how the military would like to handle engineering problems," he said.

Moran also told the participants that DAU is planning on having 70 people working in the South Region--50 of those 70, he confirmed, are already on hand.

The faculty and staff of the new DAU South campus, Moran stated, are all acquisition professionals, government workers, and military personnel, who will be responsible for providing the training that is required at Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Levels I, II, and III, as well as all related functional areas.

DAU South Region campus, he noted, will be responsible for about 30,000 of the 130,000 people who represent the DoD Acquisition, Technology and Logistics workforce.

Concluding his remarks Moran said, "We're happy to be here in Huntsville. It is a large mission, and I believe it's going to be a great team effort with the Huntsville community, DoD, and the Army Thank you all for coming, and we re looking forward to serving the workforce in the DAU South Region."

Partnership with Army Logistics Management College

Guest speaker, Barbara Mroczkowski, Assistant Commandant of the Army Logistics Management College (ALMC), Fort Lee, Va., spoke on the continuing partnership between ALMC and DAU--a partnership that began in 1993, when ALMC became a Consortium School teaching DAU courses. In 2000, ALMC became the host for the DAU campus at Fort Lee. "Today we are here reversing roles and we [ALMC] are becoming the organization that is being hosted by DAU," she said.

"This is really an exciting time for us at ALMC because we have an opportunity to move our introductory courses here to the DAU South Region campus and provide additional support to the Huntsville community.

"Thank you for welcoming us here today We're looking forward to working with your organization and supporting the Huntsville workforce," Mroczkowski concluded.

About the New Campus

The South Region campus will ultimately consist of 70 staff and faculty members, who will focus on teaching, research, and performance support (targeted training, consulting, and partnering with agencies). Their agenda also includes working with local offices and staying current on major issues and needs of the acquisition workforce throughout that region.

The new Huntsville facility will offer many reengineered courses in contract management, logistics, and the new six-week Program Management Office Course (PMT-352), which replaces the former 14-week Advanced Program Management Course (PMT-302) as the Level III PM Certification Course.

Besides six weeks of classroom training, the new Program Management Office Course, or PMOC, begins with 50 hours of Web-based distance learning that students complete over a 60-day period. DAU South will also provide a diversity variety of business and technical courses, including Systems Engineering and Production courses available to military and civilian personnel within the Department of Defense. In addition, the DAU South Region campus will also host ALMC's introductory acquisition courses, and in the next six months the ALMC Materiel Acquisition Manager Course (MAM) will be relocated to Huntsville. Simultaneously, eight faculty members will be relocated to the new DAU facility.