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John Schmitt earned a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Davis in 1999 and a Master of Science in Microbiology and Immunology from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2009. A 20+ year veteran officer of the US Army, LTC John Schmitt (Retired)’s military career was uniquely diverse. After two combat tours in Iraq as a Blackhawk Helicopter pilot, maintenance test pilot and Senior Army Aviator, John became an Assistant Professor and course director within the Department of Chemistry and Life Science at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. He moved to Huntsville with his wife Sarah and children, Avery and Miles, where he served as an Acquisition Corps officer developing and delivering major weapon systems while in the Fixed Wing and Apache Program Offices as well as at the Joint Multi-Role Technical Demonstration office. John also served as the Military Deputy in the CCDC Aviation and Missile Center at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, the largest of the Army’s research laboratories and retired from the Army as the Chinook Block II Helicopter Product Manager. In 2020, John started his own consulting firm (Schmitt Consulting Group LLC), where he has committed his energy to projects of impact in biotech, advanced manufacturing, technology transfer, commercialization and marketing. Additionally, John serves on the board of Little Orange Fish, a community based mental health non-profit and is a founding member of the Inner Defense Initiative, a research collaborative committed to serving victims of trauma through biopsychology.