1.0 // LEADERSHIP
The people and milestones behind IDEA.
A board drawn from defense industry, aerospace, community college leadership, academia, and finance — and a record of progress from founding grant to 200+ graduates.
2.0 // BOARD & DIRECTOR
The people behind IDEA.
IDEA is governed by a board drawn from defense industry, aerospace, community college leadership, academia, and finance — and led day to day by an executive director whose career spans NASA engineering and national space policy.
Board of Directors
2.1
David Alan Smith
Chairman & President
Victory Solutions
2.2
Terry Abel
MSFC Technical Liaison
Lockheed Martin Space
2.3
Jeff Lynn
President
Central Alabama Community College
2.4
Beth M. Richardson
President
United Community Bank
2.5
John Wilson, Ph.D.
Senior Systems Engineer
Space Dynamics Laboratory
2.6
Charles Scales
Director of Business Development
Sierra Lobo Inc.
2.7
Greg Purdy, Ph.D.
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Auburn University
Executive Director
2.8
Chris Crumbly
Executive DirectorInstitute for Digital Enterprise Advancement
Chris Crumbly is the executive director of the non-profit Institute for Digital Enterprise Advancement. IDEA advocates for and creates skills-based, digital engineering programs, primarily for community college students but also to meet upskilling needs for current professionals.
The genesis of IDEA emerged from Crumbly’s 27-year engineering and executive career with NASA, as well as from his aerospace industry and academic roles. In addition to management positions at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Crumbly served as special assistant to NASA’s deputy administrator and senior space policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
3.0 // MILESTONES
From founding grant to 200+ graduates.
2019
IDEA Founded
The Institute for Digital Enterprise Advancement is established to close the MBSE workforce gap.
2020
DoD Curriculum Grant
Awarded a grant to deploy a Model-Based Systems Engineering curriculum for skills-based education.
2021
Pilot Program Launch
The first SET pilot program begins, teaching SysML modeling to community college students.
2023
Multi-School Expansion
The SET program expands to multiple schools, proving the model is replicable across institutions.
2025
200+ Graduates
Over 200 students have graduated from the program and entered the digital engineering workforce.
2026
Five Years of SET
Five years of teaching Systems Engineering Technology and educating the next generation of modelers.