{"id":153,"date":"2026-02-10T12:04:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/?page_id=153"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:06:38","slug":"leadership","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/about\/leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Interim Executive Director Stephen Lee<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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NC State has appointed Stephen Lee, Ph.D., as interim executive director of the university\u2019s Defense and Security Institute. Lee, who earned a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Millsaps College and a Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Emory University, has authored or co-authored more than 80 published research papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prominent executive scientist with a long track record of proven leadership in the defense research space, Lee worked in scientific and science leadership roles at the Army Research Office and the Army Research Laboratory from 2001-2024. During that time, his work received several prestigious awards \u2014 including the Army\u2019s Greatest Invention Award twice, in 2003 and 2005 \u2014 for which he was also nominated in 2004 and 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executive Leadership<\/h2>\n\n\n
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JJ<\/div>\n \"Jacob\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n \n Jacob Jones \n <\/a>\n \n \n

Responsible Administrator<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n jljone21@ncsu.edu<\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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MP<\/div>\n \"Mackenzie\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n \n Mackenzie Perry \n <\/a>\n \n \n

Interim Workforce Development Lead<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n meperry6@ncsu.edu<\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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VB<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n \n Velma Burden \n <\/a>\n \n \n

Staff Support<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n vsburden@ncsu.edu<\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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MC<\/div>\n \"Mary\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n \n Mary Catherine Cole \n <\/a>\n \n \n

Staff Support<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n mccole@ncsu.edu<\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interim Executive Director Stephen Lee NC State has appointed Stephen Lee, Ph.D., as interim executive director of the university\u2019s Defense and Security Institute. Lee, who earned a B.S. in Biology…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1133,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"pageIntro\":\"Meet the Defense and Security Institute leadership team. \"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/153\/revisions\/328"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/defense-security\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}