Dr. Kimberly Spangler

Dr. Kimberly Yearick Spangler is the Executive Director, SERDP & ESTCP, in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSD(A&S)), Energy Resilience & Optimization. In this position, she provides oversight of all activities of SERDP and ESTCP to develop and demonstrate innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions to meet DoD’s environmental challenges. This includes leading the strategic planning, technical competence, and transition facilitation in the areas of PFAS/AFFF, installation resilience and restoration, corrosion and repair technologies, munitions response, sustainable energetics, and emissions and waste reduction.

Prior to her current position, Dr. Spangler served as the Program Manager, Joint Department of Defense/Department of Energy Munitions Program (JMP) in the OUSD(Research & Engineering), Emerging Technologies and was responsible for leading the JMP in developing and exploring advanced munitions concepts and enabling technologies by preeminent scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons Laboratories.

In her earlier career as a trusted subject matter expert on energetic materials, Dr. Spangler served on the technical steering committee for the SERDP & ESTCP Weapons Systems and Platforms area and was the US Army DEVCOM Armaments Center APEX program Explosives Area Lead. Prior to her time at DEVCOM Armaments Center, Dr. Spangler was employed as an energetic formulation chemist at the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at ARL under the mentorships of Drs. Betsy Rice and Brian Roos supporting modeling and simulation research with experimental energetic material formulations. Dr. Spangler holds a B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Georgetown University. She is additionally a recipient of the prestigious Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship. Kimberly lives in Pipersville, Pennsylvania on a sustainable flower farm with her husband, Ryan, son, Bo (11), and daughter, Liv (4).