Dr. Andrea Leeson to lead DoD's installation innovation programs as Executive Director, guiding the programs through a new chapter of mission-focused innovation and collaboration with government, industry, and academia.

The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) are pleased to welcome Dr. Andrea Leeson as Executive Director (A).

Dr. Leeson brings more than two decades of leadership, scientific expertise, and strategic vision to the role. Since 2001, Dr. Leeson has served as Program Manager for Environmental Restoration, and since 2015, she has held the additional role of Deputy Director. In these positions, she has played a central role in shaping program priorities, overseeing execution across hundreds of research and demonstration projects, and guiding investment strategies that address the Department of Defense’s (DoD) most pressing installation challenges.

Her leadership has been especially instrumental in advancing DoD’s response to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dr. Leeson has managed the full portfolio of PFAS research and demonstration efforts, developing the roadmap that guided the field from discovery to deployment. Dr. Leeson worked with leading scientists, agency stakeholders, and DoD end users to identify the most pressing technical gaps and then strategically directed investments to close them. Her leadership has positioned DoD to act decisively on PFAS impacts with a suite of tools that accelerates cleanup timelines and reduces costs. These solutions are now transitioning to DoD installations across the country.

Under Dr. Kimberly Spangler's leadership, SERDP and ESTCP delivered mission-focused innovation whose impact continues to strengthen the operational readiness of military installations and enhance their role as power projection platforms. Key accomplishments included:

• Enabling faster, lower-cost PFAS cleanup across 500+ military sites by leading the nation’s first large-scale assessment of treatment and destruction technologies and supporting eight early-stage companies through critical demonstration and validation milestones.
   
• Improving access to underwater ranges and reducing clearance timelines by establishing test beds and conducting live-site testing of advanced munitions response technologies, including autonomous systems for geophysical classification.
   
• Preserving mission-critical training lands and infrastructure by delivering tools that enhance land management, control invasive species, and reduce the risk of damaging wildfires.
   
• Expanding installation readiness across the Eastern U.S. by deploying advanced forest and fire monitoring systems and launching the Innovation Landscapes Network to drive adoption of actionable modeling tools.
   
• Maintaining power during outages and improving energy assurance through demonstration of microgrid and storage technologies that reduced critical load failures and sustained operations at key installations.
   
• Reducing maintenance costs and improving building performance with military-compliant high-efficiency HVAC and geothermal systems that deliver up to 30 percent lifecycle cost savings without compromising mission support.
   
• Protecting high-value aviation assets from hangar fires by developing a water mist suppression system that eliminates reliance on chemical agents while maintaining firefighting effectiveness.
   
• Increasing equipment reliability and extending service life by validating high-performance alternatives to legacy coatings, energetics, and other key system components used across military platforms.

Moving forward, Dr. Leeson will guide SERDP and ESTCP through a new chapter of innovation and collaboration with talent across the federal government, industry, and academia to strengthen DoD installations inside and outside the fence line. Key priorities will include scaling proven solutions, enhancing end-user engagement, and aligning investments with emerging installation challenges.

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