Dr. Jason McKenna

Ocean Enterprise RDT&E and The Institute for Advanced Analytics & Security | The University of Southern Mississippi

Dr. Jason McKenna is responsible for USM's Ocean Enterprise Research and Development Programs, including Unmanned Maritime Systems. He coordinates and promotes training and education for uncrewed systems operations and liaisons with state and federal agencies to advance USM's programs. Dr. McKenna possesses over 25 years of data science, analytics, engineering, M&S, and program management experience to model high volume data from various uncrewed platforms to plan, program, and execute research and development to solve complex maritime domain awareness and national security problems. Before joining the USM team as Affiliated Faculty and Research Scientist, he served as CEO, CTO, and Chief Scientist in the private sector and Lead Technical Director for Geospatial Engineering and Senior Research Geophysicist for the US Army. His responsibility included identifying and advancing strategic opportunities for growth within the organization, as well as improving R&D innovation for customers, developing new initiatives, and managing workforce development. He authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and technical reports.