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 development, planning and execution of pre-deployment roundtables for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps and academic symposia for U.S. Combatant Commands. Mr. Barber was also involved in the development of CSER's Executive Education in Stabilization and Reconstruction Course and Seminar in Logistics Cooperation for Stabilization and Reconstruction.
Mr. Barber has also served in the North Carolina National Guard since 2002. He has completed two tours in Iraq with the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team; first in Diyala Provence as a member of the 1-252 Armor Regiment's Commander’s Security Team during OIF II ('04-'05) and then 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 daughters Sidney and Sophia.
Ms. Mary Grace Baxendale
baxendale@idb.org
Mary Grace Baxendale returned to the Institute for Defense and Business (IDB) in June of 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 and six pre-deployment economics and governance roundtables held for Army and Marine Corps units deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. Ms. Baxendale has also developed and delivered three Senior Executive week-long Seminars and two Seminars on Logistics Cooperation for Stabilization and Reconstruction sponsored by DoD's Business Tranformation Agency.
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 graduation in 2004, she joined IDB Executive Assistant 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 and has been working in the Center for Stabilization and Economic Reconstruction at the IDB since June of 2008.
Mr. Jason Rodriguez
jrodriguez@idb.org
Jason Rodriguez graduated from Duke University with a M.A. in International Development Policy as well as a graduate certificate in International Peace and Conflict Resolution. With a concentration in development management and governance, he was particularly interested in the intersection of capacity development, fragile states and conflict. His Master's Thesis focused on capacity development in fragile states, analyzing the specific case of South Sudan, with strong attention given to how human rights and conflict resolution must be integrated at nascent stages of capacity development in order for meaningful development to successfully continue.
As part of Duke's graduate program, he also interned with Habitat for Humanity International in their Africa/Middle East Area Office in Pretoria where he drafted several concept papers and researched guidelines and specifications for USAID and PEPFAR proposals. While at Duke he was also awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship in Arabic as well as a Peace Corps Fellowship.
He also previously served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu from 2002-05 where he gained significant appreciation for development at the community level, coordinating multiple development projects in a remote village while conducting stakeholder analyses across a broad spectrum of participants and interested parties.