Intelligence Informed, Requirements Driven: Quinn Wants Stakeholders to Know USAMRDC’s Story

Story by Paul Lagasse

Medical Research and Development Command

FORT DETRICK, Md. – When Dr. Carrie Quinn was the director of the Gains in the Education of Mathematics and Science summer enrichment program at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, she would greet the students with high fives every morning at the front gate of the Natick Soldier Systems Center. An Army captain at the time, Quinn brought her signature energy and excitement to the program. She arranged unique experiences to spark enthusiasm and immerse the students in the military research environment, like orchestrating a surprise visit by a UH-60 helicopter and its crew for a lesson on the science and medicine of battlefield evacuation. And at the end of each week with them, she would call each student up on stage and give them a challenge coin identical to the one she carried.

“My goal was to show them what it means to be part of a team,” says Quinn. “It was saying to them, ‘There are many ways to contribute to the fight.’”

Teamwork is what it’s all about for Quinn, the new deputy to MRDC’s commanding general and only the second person to fill that role.

“I see my job as getting everyone moving in the same direction toward a clearly defined goal,” says Quinn. “I like to raise the bar of expectation just a little bit. And I’ve never been in a situation where people haven’t met me at that higher place, fundamentally changing what they thought was possible.”

Quinn developed her energetic leadership style over the course of her military service and her subsequent civilian career. During the last year of study for her PhD in molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Quinn saw a job posting from USARIEM’s Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division that interested her. However, the position was only open to military personnel – so she joined the Army to pursue it. As a principal investigator at USARIEM, she led a team of military and civilian researchers focused on optimizing Warfighter performance in extreme environments. Her team’s research into the causes, indicators and treatment of heat stroke, for example, led to multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts being published in top-tier scientific journals.

Quinn’s interest in the broader strategic policy aspects of military medicine research and development soon led her to pursue positions beyond the laboratory. Following her time at USARIEM, she served as a senior medical intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she provided expert insights across the biomedical and biotechnology space to senior Defense and U.S. government leaders. While assigned to DIA, she was selected for a special assignment in the White House Situation Room, directly supporting the President, Vice President and National Security Advisor. Most recently, Quinn was a senior advisor for critical and emerging technologies at the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, shaping the department’s science and technology resourcing and portfolio decisions across many critical technology areas. Those positions allowed Quinn to gain valuable experience in policy and technology analysis and in working collaboratively with stakeholders and subject matter experts from a wide range of backgrounds including members of Congress, the National Security Council, academia, industry and the private sector.

Quinn sees her new position as an opportunity to put her combined knowledge of medical R&D, policy development and strategic planning to work for MRDC and the Defense Health Agency to advance collaborations and conversations with current and potential partners.

“The way we make those connections is by telling our story,” says Quinn. “We need to make sure that we’re shaping our narrative so that it clearly connects the contributions of our mission-critical assets to the priorities and direction of each stakeholder. That’s a challenge, but it’s also essential.”

Quinn says that both she and Maj. Gen. Paula Lodi, MRDC’s new commanding general, will make strategic messaging a priority during their leadership tenures.

“We need to tell our story in a way that helps people understand the national security significance of this organization,” explains Quinn. “We need our stakeholders to understand that MRDC is an intelligence-informed, requirements-driven entity with substantial national security implications. We’ve got to be intentional in our strategic messaging and use our voice to say, ‘Let me tell you why you need us.’”

Quinn says she hopes that her military, civilian and contractor teammates will get as excited as she and Maj. Gen. Lodi are about the opportunities ahead for shaping and advancing MRDCs portfolio. It goes back to the spirit of teamwork that Quinn fostered with her GEMS students, and the energy, determination and passion that such teamwork inspires.

“You know what, we’re probably going to break a couple things along the way in our push to modernize our research enterprise, and if we do, we’ll circle back and we’ll fix them. But we have to be bold. We have to be willing to step outside our comfort zone, take some calculated risks, and gain momentum to achieve those leap-ahead innovations that will keep us ahead of the threat.”