Mr. Christian serves as the Chief of the Protection Engineering Division (PED) for the Engineering Directorate, of the U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. In this position he is responsible for providing engineering life cycle acquisition, management, and technical support, in the areas of Collective and Individual Protection (COLPRO & IP), to the U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) Defense, Joint Project Manager for Protection. Additionally, Mr. Christian is responsible for providing COLPRO and IP engineering sustainment support to the TACOM-Lifecycle Management Command, Product Support Integration Directorate.
Mr. Christian has over 29 years of CBRN defense protection experience and has built an expansive national and international network of engineers, scientists, and professional technical personnel from industry, academia, and other Government agencies. An essential part of his job is to foster the development of collaborative initiatives to integrate and transition novel COLPRO & IP technologies for application to current and future platforms to meet warfighter’s requirements. He currently serves as the Head of the U.S. Delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) CBRN Joint Capabilities Defense Group, Physical Protection Sub-group. In this capacity he continually collaborates in the area of CBRN protection with representatives from Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Slovakia, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Turkey and NATO Partners for Peace.
Mr. Christian earned a Bachelor in Science of Industrial Engineering Degree from the University of Puerto Rico in 1984 and a Master in Science of Business Administration from Texas A&M-Texarkana in 1985. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army School of Engineering and Logistics with a diploma in Product Production Engineering and has a U.S. Department of Defense Level III Acquisition Level Certification in Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering and a Level I in Program Management.
Mr. Christian has been married for 24 years to the former Mrs. Ilia Liz Gonzalez. They have three children: Isaac David, 23 years old; Angelica Turquoise, 20 years old; and Nathalia Maria, 18 years old. Mr. Christian and his wife are native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, and reside in Churchville, MD, USA.