Dennis K. McBride

Dr. Dennis K. McBride is Affiliate Professor of Practice, Center for Public Administration and Policy at SPIA, and Research Professor at Hume Center, National Security Institute at Virginia Tech. He recently joined the university with an agenda that includes expansion of relationships among Virginia Tech programs and faculty, particularly among Hume, SPIA, and our newly established National Security Institute. Dennis is currently teaching PAPA 5354: Disaster Management Response and Recovery.

Dr. McBride has forty years of experience at the intersection of public administration and scientific research – from the lowest, entry level position in local government, to board member of a federal credit union, to U.S. Senior Executive. He completed a twenty-year career as a Naval Officer – specifically as a Medical Service Corps aerospace experimental (engineering/ organizational) psychologist, retiring as Navy Captain (O-6) in 1999. His tours included five advanced research laboratories, as well as headquarters organizations including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research. He specializes in conducting and transitioning scientific research into actual fielding and practice. Dennis led tri-service and NATO-affiliated breakthrough programs in very large-scale modeling, simulation, gaming, and measurement, particularly as applied to organizational innovation. Three of the technologies he developed and transitioned account for more than $10B, each, in annual revenue.

McBride served as Executive Director, Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida, where he was professor with joint appointments in colleges of engineering and arts & sciences. From 2001 to 2011, Dennis served as president (now emeritus) of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. This non-partisan, nonprofit think tank provides policy option and evaluation advice to Congress and the administration on issues of national defense and homeland security, and the role played by technological innovation.

Dennis served as Associate and Acting Vice President for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University and affiliate research professor in the GMU School of Public Policy. Professor McBride served a one-year appointment as Distinguished Scholar and Executive Director of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy, National Defense University. He serves voluntarily as president of the Institute for Regulatory Science and is active in the American Society for Public Administration, where he is currently a candidate for regional representative.

In 2003, Dr. McBride became an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University, as well as at the Georgetown Medical Center in 2006. He has taught courses in decision-making, government ethics, program evaluation, policy management, defense & foreign policy, public policy for scientists, regulatory science & public health, and science policy and advocacy. He supervised completions of 60+ graduate degree research/thesis projects. Dennis’s academic editing responsibilities have included roles as editor-in-chief of Review of Policy Research and of the journal Technology. He has published some 150 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, edited volumes, and technical reports. Dennis recently co-authored an invited article for the National Academy of Engineering’s flagship journal, The Bridge.

Since 2015, McBride has served as Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Scientist for NeuroRx Pharmaceuticals, where he has co-led the regulatory-governed development of novel drug regimens that treat suicide-level bipolar depression, and medication for acute respiratory distress in ICU patients diagnosed with COVID. This leadership resulted very recently in securing membership into NASDAQ. McBride served from 2016 to 2021 as Vice President for Strategy & Innovation at Source America, the congressionally-designated Ability One central nonprofit agency that oversees the development of jobs, nationally, for people with disabilities, interfacing almost daily at the senior-most level with nearly every cabinet office, including departments of Labor, Justice, HHS, Veterans Affairs, Education, and Defense, as well as with the presidentially appointed commission.

McBride’s academic background includes an M.S. and Ph.D. in experimental psychology, the University of Georgia; MPA/M.S.P.A., public administration, Troy State University, Alabama; M.S. in Systems Management, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, and post-doctoral studies in management at the London School of Economics. Dennis is a graduate of the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute’s resident student program in Aerospace Experimental Psychology and Navy primary flight training, and the University of Tennessee Space Institute - Navy Test Pilot School flight test engineering program. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Joint Service Meritorious Service Medal.

• Ph.D., University of Georgia, 1979
• MPA/M.S.P.A., Troy State University, 1984
• M.S., Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 1987
• M.Phil. (program), London School of Economics, 1994
• M.S., University of Georgia, 1978
• B.S., University of Georgia, 1975 

• Regulatory Sciences
• Measurement and Strategy for Complex Systems
• National Defense and Homeland Security as National Security
• Policy Analysis / Program Evaluation
• Ethics in Public Service

• PAPA 5354: Homeland Security Response & Recovery 

• Rouse, W.B., & McBride, D.K., (2021). Cost/Benefit Analysis for Human Systems Investments:  Predicting and Trading Off Economic and Non-Economic Impacts of Human Factors & Ergonomics, In W. Karwowski  & G. Salvendy, Eds., Handbook of Human Factors & Ergonomics (5th Edition), New York: Wiley.
• Rouse, W.B., & McBride, D.K., (2021). Assistive Technologies for Disabled and Older Adults:  Models of Use Cases, Market Economics, and Business Cases. In A. Madni & N. Augustine, Eds., Handbook of Model-Based Systems Engineering. Berlin: Springer.
• Rouse, W.B. and McBride, D.K.  (2019) A systems approach to assistive technologies for disabled and older adults.  National Academy of Engineering, The Bridge:  32-38.
• Regulatory Biomedical Engineering: Application of the Regulatory Science Framework to Biomedical Engineering. (2018) Journal of Biotechnology and Bioengineering 2; 51-60. (with multiple co-authors)
• Regulating Ionizing Radiation Based on Metrics for Evaluation of Regulatory Science Claims. Dose Response. (2018) 16; 1-6. (with multiple co-authors)
• A logical process for labeling food. (2018) Agricultural Research and Technology.13; 1-3. (multiple co-authors)
• Innovation in Regulatory Science: Metrics for Evaluation of Regulatory Science Claims based on Best Available Regulatory Science. Journal of Regulatory Science. (2017) 5; 50-59. (multiple co-authors) 
• Innovation in regulatory science: Translational regulatory science based on lessons learned from clinical translational science. (2017) Journal of Translational Science. 3 (6). (multiple co-authors)    
• Innovation in Regulatory Science: The Critical Role of Review Criteria in Independent Peer Review. Technology and Innovation 17; (2015) 127-133. (multiple co-authors)
• Scientific ethics: Emphasizing regulatory science requirements. (2015) Technology and Innovation 17; 61-73. (multiple co-authors)
• Assessment of organic vs. conventional food using best available science concept and metrics derived from it. Technology and Innovation (2015) 17; 135-143. (multiple co-authors)
• Scientific, regulatory, and public information processes of genetically modified organism. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology; (2015) 34; 1-7. (multiple co-authors)
• Scientific foundation of regulating ionizing radiation: Application of metrics for evaluation of regulatory science information: Health Physics. (2014) 107; 388-3294. (multiple co-authors)  
• Innovation in Regulatory Science: Evolution of a new scientific discipline. Technology and Innovation. (2014) 16; 155-1165. (multiple co-authors)  
• The Wakefield Effect. (2013) Synesis 4; 15-23. (multiple co-authors) 
• The Ruckelshaus Effect.  (2012) Synesis 3; 12-19. (multiple co-authors)
• Regulatory Sciences:  Description of the discipline, education, and ethics. (2012) Japan Ministry of Science and Technology. (multiple co-authors)  
• Neurotechnology as a public good.  In Giordano, J.J. and Gordijn, B. (Eds.)  (2010) Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives in Neuroethics.  302—320.  Cambridge: Linton Atlantic. (multiple co-authors)

Multiple Projects as Hume Center for National Security and Technology Fellow, Department of Defense Acquisition Innovation Research Center

• Regulatory Sciences – scientific basis and communication of regulatory decisions
• Measurement:  Theory, Technology, Application
• Effects of Technological Change on Society and Governance
• Neurotechnology