Program Associates
Mr. Jason M. Barber
barber@idb.org
Mr. Barber joined the Institute for Defense and Business's Center for Stabilization and Economic (CSER) in August of 2007. Since that time he has been involved in the planning and execution of pre-deployment roundtables for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps and academic symposia for the Combatant Commands. Mr. Barber was also involved in the development of a post-conflict reconstruction seminar which has become CSER’s flagship executive education offering.
Mr. Barber serves with the North Carolina National Guard's 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team and has completed two tours in Iraq; once in Diyala Provence as a member of the 1-252 Armor Regiment Commander’s Security Team during OIF II ('04-'05) and as the Battalion's Targeting Team Leader in Baghdad during OIF VIII ('09-'10). Mr. Barber also served as a Leopard Tank Crew Commander with the 1st Armoured Regiment, Australian Army from 1996 to 2002. During this time he deployed on Operation Relex as a Security Team Leader aboard HMAS Tobruk.
Mr. Barber has travelled extensively in Australia, SE Asia and Europe. Mr. Barber earned his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied National and International Defense and Security and Business Administration. He lives in Cary, N.C. with his wife Joy and daughter Sidney.
Ms. Mary Grace Baxendale
baxendale@idb.org
Mary Grace Baxendale returned to the Institute for Defense and Business (IDB) in 2008 after earning a Master’s degree in International Studies with a business concentration from East Carolina University and teaching ESL in Bundang, South Korea. Ms. Baxendale is currently program associate for the Center for Stabilization and Economic Reconstruction at the Institute for Defense and Business. She has planned, coordinated, and executed a European Command symposium held in Bavaria, Germany, five pre-deployment economics and governance roundtables held in Hawaii, for the 25th Infantry Division, RTP, North Carolina for the II MEF (FWD), Ft Bragg, North Carolina for the 30th HBCT, California for I MEB and RTP, NC for XVIII Airborne Corps. Ms. Baxendale has also delivered two Senior Executive week-long Seminars sponsored by DoD's Business Tranformation Agency.
Before returning to the IDB in 2008, Ms. Baxendale received her undergraduate degree in International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, attending study abroad schools in Denmark and Paris for international business and French respectively. Immediately after undergraduate school in 2004, she worked as Executive Assistant at the IDB where she also assisted Senior Associates with the 2005 MedLog conference held at NDU in Washington, DC. Upon receiving her Master’s degree in 2007 from East Carolina University and a certificate in French from the Université Laval in Québec, Canada, Ms. Baxendale taught English in South Korea for a year and has been working in the Center for Stabilization and Economic Reconstruction at the IDB since June of 2008.