Virtual heroes leadership.

A first-rate lineup of training and software pros.
Office Team Working Togetherness Workplace Concept

A Team of Software and Training Experts.

Bringing together specialists in training software, modeling, simulation, production, and operations, Virtual Heroes’ management team has the experience and insight to take your essential projects from initial development all the way through to productive deployment.

BrownHeadshot_Square@2x
Randy Brown
VP & Division
Manager
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SilvaHeadshot_Squared@2x
Ingrid Silva
Assistant Division Manager
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CloverHeadshot_Squared@2x
Marcia Clover
Senior
Producer
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TaylorHeadshot_Squared@2x
Murray Taylor
Senior
Producer
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MilksHeadshot_Squared@2x
Wesley Milks, Ph.D.
Group
Leader
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LyonsHeadshot_Squared@2x
Jeff Lyons
Group
Leader
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GrayHeadshot_Squared@2x
Oliver Gray
Game Programming
Lead
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RoblesHeadshot_Squared@2x
Hector Robles
Lead Game
Designer
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WalkerHeadshot_Square@2x
Tim Walker
Technical Lead &
Program Manager
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HarmsHeadshot_Squared@2x
Heather Harms
Division
Administrator
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Take The Next Step In Training Software.

Now that you’ve been introduced to our team, we’d love to learn more about yours. Let us know what training simulation initiatives are most important to you. Then together, we can determine how our capabilities might be an ideal fit with your priorities.

“We can literally crowdsource challenges NASA is trying to solve with thousands and thousands of players, and really tap their collective intelligence to try and come up with answers.”

- Daniel Laughlin, NASA Learning Technologies Division | Moonbase Alpha
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Randy Brown

Randy Brown is the Virtual Heroes Division Manager at Applied Research Associates, Inc.. Randy creates immersive training and education content for commercial, medical, and government customers. He has over 30 years’ experience in the software development industry. From the start of Virtual Heroes in 2004 through its acquisition by ARA in 2009, he developed interactive 3D graphics software at companies such as Amoco, Digital Equipment, Ex Machina, Data General, SAS Institute, Southpeak Interactive, and the Research Triangle Institute. Randy has worked with a wide range of commercial, government, and private organizations, directing content development related to entertainment, oil exploration, research, visualization, training, education, simulation, and gaming.

Ingrid Silva

Ingrid Silva is the Assistant Division Manager of Virtual Heroes. Ingrid specializes in financial and proposal management and directs the daily operations of the division. She has been in the modeling and simulation industry for more than 20 years. Prior to joining ARA in 1997, Ingrid worked at the Bank of New York.

Marcia Clover

Marcia Clover is a Senior Producer for Virtual Heroes. With more than 20 years in the interactive and e-Learning industry, Marcia is inspired by leveraging technology and user experience design to deliver effective and impactful learning experiences. Throughout her career, she has designed, developed, and managed a diverse portfolio of projects, including those in the pharmaceutical, retail, advertising, and real estate industries. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Instructional Technology from the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Murray Taylor

Murray Taylor is a Senior Producer for Virtual Heroes. Murray has more than 30 years’ experience in the software development industry. Prior to joining Virtual Heroes, he was president and co-founder of Digital Steamworks, where he developed custom training software for the NFL, General Electric, DARPA, Cleveland Clinic, and other international companies. He is named as an inventor on several U.S. patents. Before forming Digital Steamworks, Murray developed commercial computer games for Atari, Hasbro Interactive, and MicroProse Software.

Wesley Milks

Wes Milks, Ph.D., is a Group Leader for Virtual Heroes. He has 30-plus years’ experience performing systems engineering and architecture development for large, software-intensive systems. He was chief architect for the Common Training Instrumentation Architecture (CTIA) and Warfighter Simulation (WARSIM) programs, and he was selected as the Standards Category Coordinator for System Design & Architecture, coordinating architectural standards for Army simulation systems. Wes performs operations research and experimental analysis for Virtual Heroes’ clients, including leading the experimental design, data collection, and analysis for DARPA’s Real-time Adversarial Intelligence and Decision making (RAID) project. Wes holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio Northern University, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M, and a Ph.D. focused on Operations Research from the University of Central Florida.

JEFF LYONS

Jeff Lyons is a Group Leader for Virtual Heroes. Jeff has been with Applied Research Associates since 2006. He specializes in simulating weapons effects in real-time for the live, virtual, and constructive domains. Jeff’s accomplishments include helping to develop a complex radar simulation for the F-35 radar system. In addition to having expertise in modeling and simulation, Jeff is well-versed in engineering design and analysis, holding a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Florida State University and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Oliver Gray

Oliver Gray is the Game Programming Lead for Virtual Heroes. Oliver has supported Serious Games development for more than 14 years, working extensively with Epic Games’ Unreal® Engine. Prior to joining Virtual Heroes, Oliver attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science. He also earned a M.S. in Computer Science at North Carolina State University.

Hector Robles

Hector Robles is the Lead Game Designer for Virtual Heroes. Hector brings to fruition interactive training goals for commercial, medical, and government customers. He has 10 years of video game design experience, serving clients in the private and government sectors. With his award-winning design skills, he takes complex subjects — like those relating to network security and military cyber warfare simulations — and condenses them into engaging, immersive, and measurable Serious Games.

Tim Walker

Tim Walker is the Lead Software Engineer for Virtual Heroes. Tim serves as technical lead for full-stack development on the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Total Enterprise Acquisition Management Systems (TEAMS) program. Previously, he was the technical lead for the Foundational GEOINT in 3D (FG3D) project, where he developed a pipeline architecture to connect first and third-party micro-services on the Geospatial Repository and Data (GRiD) platform. He also served as program manager and technical lead for the Assimilation of Sources for a Cohesive Environment Description (ASCEND) program, designed to streamline data delivery to soldiers, improving situational awareness. He served as technical lead for the Interactive Terrain Generation (ITG) software suite, which included the Rapid Unified Generation of Urban Databases (RUGUD) tool, the Urban and Underground Model Generator (U2MG) tool, and the Virtual Infrastructure Protection Editor (VIPER) tool. As part of ITG, he designed and developed the Reusable Architecture for Visualizing Environments (RAVEN) used by many projects as a 3D interface application foundation.

Heather Harms

Heather Harms is the Division Administrator for Virtual Heroes. Heather oversees division business processes and technical communications. She has been with ARA since 2006, having also served as Program Control Analyst and Assistant Facility Security Officer. Before joining ARA, she worked as a Communications Specialist. Heather is a Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC), and holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Digital Media with a minor in Computer Science.