Our dynamic team of experts sets us apart. A small team with a big impact, we have unmatched subject matter expertise and a proven track record of exceeding expectations on time and on budget. Meet the team behind the company.
Lisa Lutz
Lisa Lutz, a co-founder of SOLID, has over 25 years of experience as a Policy Analyst. She has worked in this capacity at both the federal and state levels of government and as a consultant to public and private sector clients. This exposure to a wide range of organizational missions, subject matter areas, and stakeholder information needs has given her the ability to quickly grasp difficult subject matter, assess client needs and develop effective solutions. Lisa’s expertise spans a number of areas, including program evaluation, qualitative and quantitative research, workforce development, occupational and job analysis, and web project management. She has participated in and led numerous projects in these areas.
Lisa’s work has concentrated on the development and implementation of programs to promote the professional development of service members and ensure their smooth transition from the military to the civilian workforce. For more than 20 years, she has specialized in the use of occupational credentialing as a means of doing so. She has performed research, provided policy guidance, and developed programs in this area for numerous organizations, including the Congressional Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance, as well as the U.S. Departments of Defense, Labor, Army, Navy, Air Force, Energy, and Transportation. She has also worked with numerous companies and non-profits, including The American Legion, to promote credentialing of Service members and Veterans.
Under Lisa’s direction, SOLID has provided research and analysis support for the Veterans Employment Initiative Task Force, several White House and Congressionally directed credentialing pilot programs, and for some of the most comprehensive online resources for translating military training and experience. This includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL) web sites, as well as Mil2Fed Jobs – an online tool for matching military jobs to federal occupations. Lisa has worked extensively with the Services’ voluntary education programs and in 2012 led an assessment of these programs.
Lisa’s expertise has led to appointments to advisory committees by four Secretaries of Veterans Affairs to provide them with subject matter expertise on the implementation of education and credentialing benefits for service members and veterans. She also serves on the American National Standard’s Institute’s Personnel Certification Accreditation Committee (PCAC).
Lisa holds a B.S. in Political Science and Psychology and a Master’s degree in Public Administration (M.P.A.).
Tom Caldwell
Tom Caldwell, a co-founder of SOLID, has over 29 years of experience helping companies meet their communication needs through innovative information design. Educated in technical communications and as a programmer, Tom began his career developing complex technical requirements and user instructions for computer applications, where he nurtured a strong focus on the user audience perspective.
During his tenure with Retired Persons Services, he lead a corporate communications group responsible for shaping messages for varied audiences including board members, senior staff, employees, and customers using various print and electronic media.
His primary focus over the past fifteen years has been on web design and development, and he is skilled with a wide variety of current web programming languages and platforms. Strong technical skills combined with a background as a Corporate Communications professional, writer, editor and designer give Tom a unique set of skills and experience that allow him to shape, implement and deploy the strongest message exactly tailored for a target audience. He uses this unique perspective to focus SOLID’s IT and web development services toward helping clients effectively serve their customers.
Tom has over fifteen years of experience supporting programs oriented to Service members and veterans, and in meeting their unique informational needs. He finds serving those who serve to be a privilege and an inspiration.
Jeff Lutz
Jeff brings over 30 years of project and program management experience to the SOLID team. As the Chief Operating Officer, Jeff leads SOLID’s project execution, business development, and corporate support activities.
Throughout his career, he has managed a wide variety of public and private sector energy conservation and building construction projects. Jeff is a Project Management Professional from the Project Management Institute. Jeff has excelled in several supervisory and leadership positions, and is experienced in managing all aspects of the project life cycle – initiation and due diligence, planning, implementation and close out. Jeff’s expertise is providing creative solutions to clients’ problems. His problem-solving and analytical capabilities allow him to manage shifting priorities, demands and timelines so that projects are delivered on-time and within budget.
Valerie Schutz
Valerie Schutz has over 25 years of experience in all aspects of database design, development, and maintenance, which includes windows based and web based applications. This experience includes over 20 years supporting system and application development for numerous federal agencies. She has over 15 years of experience developing applications in support of programs related to employment, training and professional development of current and former service members. This includes the design, development, and maintenance of the database and database-web interface for the Army Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL) website, the Navy COOL website, the Marine Corps COOL website, the Air Force COOL website, the Maryland Military to Federal Jobs Crosswalk, and the Vets4Energy Veterans Energy Pipeline.
Valerie has extensive technical expertise in software development, database support services, and database management systems, including design, implementation and documentation using a variety of programming languages and operating systems. She has particular expertise in relational database design and development using Oracle and SQL Server. Ms. Schutz quickly grasps complex subject matter thus enhancing her ability to offer viable database and programming solutions.
Valerie has experience in hardware and software evaluation and installation, logical and physical database design and implementation, testing of database designs, applications, and technology platforms, research and evaluation of new tools and techniques, and development of policies, standards and procedures related to the database environment.
Veera Pandey
Veera Pandey has over 10 years of experience in project management, product development, research and training for both Government and private sectors. As a project manager, she has been involved in project planning, schedule management, design, development and deployment of web applications.
In the area of Information Technology, she has proven skills in managing full life cycle of web based applications and research projects. She has expertise in designing, developing, testing and deployment of web based software applications. Her technical skills include knowledge of Php/ASP, Java Script, XHTML, CSS and database such as MySQL.
Veera has used her management and analytical skills to ensure product meets client requirements and is delivered in time with high quality. In addition, she has experience in business sales and research analysis including mentoring and training staff. She has masters in Economics and training in software development and management.
Megan Schlitt
Megan Schlitt has a Master’s Degree in Education (ME.d) and over 16 years of experience in instructional design, training, research, analysis, and data collection. She has over 13 years experience as an instructional designer leading and contributing in the design and development on instructor lead training and web based training courses for a variety of government, academic and non-profit agencies. She has consulted and worked extensively with various subject matter experts to identify instructional content and performed audience, task, and media analysis. Megan has evaluated various types of training tools and courses and developed reports summarizing training results and recommendations.
Megan has designed and developed courses on a wide range of subject matter including a learning module for the Transportation Security Administration on Liquid Container Screening, an online self-study course and pre-assessment for International Development Bank Corporate Procurement Program for Country Offices, and a web-based course on the core skills of Psychological First Aid for The National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
As an analyst, Megan has provided research and data collection, data analysis, and program evaluation support. She has provided analytical support in the areas of policy and planning, credentialing, and job competencies. In addition, Megan has good functional skills in managing client assignments and project teams. She has expertise in establishing and maintaining project schedules and working with clients, staff, and other contractors to ensure adherence to project schedules. Megan has used her data gathering and analytical skills to collect information to develop and deliver sound products.
Karen White
Karen White has over 17 years of professional experience providing services to public and private sector organizations in the areas of program evaluation, policy research, survey research and data analysis. Karen is skilled in all aspects of research and evaluation, including project design, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and data collection and analysis. For several years she specialized in survey research, managing large- and small-scale surveys in paper, telephone and electronic formats in topic areas such as organizational assessments, competency assessments, customer satisfaction, employee feedback and resource allocation. In addition to project design, implementation and management skills, Karen has programming experience in statistical and database software and is adept at summarizing findings in a report or presentation format.
At Solutions for Information Design (SOLID), Karen has focused on programs and projects related to civilian credentialing for Service members and issues surrounding the transition from military service to the civilian sector. Since joining SOLID, she has used her research and analysis skills to conduct gap analyses between military training and civilian credentialing agency requirements, to evaluate knowledge and skills gained in individual military occupations to identify and categorize civilian occupational equivalents, to research state legislation related to transitioning Service members, and to conduct a cost study to estimate potential cost savings for veterans participating in accelerated licensing or credentialing state demonstration projects.
Karen holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Northern Iowa.
Bill Brigman
Bill brings 24-years of leadership and program management experience to clients and the SOLID team. He is a highly successful problem solver and change management leader with an expertise in managing complex policy and legislative initiatives for large government organizations.
A retired U.S. Air Force officer, Bill served as a Branch Chief on the Air Staff in the Pentagon, a squadron commander at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, CA, and a key staff leader in multiple Higher Headquarters positions to include: Headquarters United States Air Forces in Europe; Headquarters Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio, TX; and Headquarters Air Force Officer Accession and Training Schools in Montgomery, AL. He is a decorated veteran with deployments world-wide including Operation Desert Storm, and Joint Service leadership positions in Operation Enduring Freedom and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Bill also brings experience as a high school teacher in his hometown of New Orleans, LA, as well as experience with a large government consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. He is an active triathlete and proud father of twin daughters, and he holds a Master of Arts Degree in Human Resource Development from Webster University in St. Louis, MO; a Master’s Degree in Military Operational Art and Science from the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, in Montgomery, AL; and a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Louisiana State University…yes, he is one of those who spells “go” oddly as in Geaux Tigers!
Christine Loving
Christine Loving has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and over seven years of experience in researching and interpreting forms of prior learning, including education and training, for traditional and non-traditional students.
Her analysis skills include monitoring reports and metrics and conducting extensive research to find creative solutions to problems. She also brings considerable expertise in analyzing military transcripts for the purpose of determining college credit.
Christine has led large teams of more than 40 employees in a fast-paced production environment. During her tenure at the American Public University System (APUS) she managed multiple projects that often required her to overcome significant challenges. In one instance, she successfully managed the creation of a custom workflow management system, which involved extensive training and communication challenges.
Christine is also a compliance expert, with years of experience adhering to strict policies and procedures relating to accreditation and federal regulations. Her ability to pay high levels of attention to detail allows her to consistently deliver an exceptional product to clients.
Mike Gray
Michael has 10 years of experience as a Front End Developer working on a vast assortment of projects. He knows a wide array of programming languages such as C#, JavaScript, ActionScript, XML, HTML, CSS, PHP, and Java. Additionally, he has worked on a large variety of web site projects including e-commerce sites, college sites, financial sites, sporting sites, and promotional sites. In the past, Michael has been the Lead Front End Developer on web site projects for some high profile clients such as World Bank, the Cleveland Indians, and James Madison University.
Being one of the youngest employees of SOLID, Michael has brought a fresh approach to front end design and development to SOLID. During his tenure at SOLID, he has played a key role in the development and design of the front end for numerous critical web projects, including the web sites for Navy COOL, Army COOL, Marine Corps COOL, DON COOL, and the API Crosswalk Tool. In addition, he has enhanced some of the project development processes and tools using experience gained in the commercial web site sector, as well as creating custom SOLID tools from scratch.
Jennifer Cercone
Jennifer joined SOLID in 2014. She is a Research Analyst; Jennifer brings experience from the private sector as well as from her work with local, state, and federal agencies and offices. Her background includes supporting constituency offices, a state governor’s office, a Member of Parliament’s office, the Departments of Defense, and Homeland Security.
A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz the III College of Public Policy and Management, her educational background in policy, statistics, and data analysis lends itself to the company’s commitment to excellence and quality.
Jennifer is committed to continuous improvement and education; she serves as a Vice President of her Toastmaster’s Club.