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Virtual heroes leadership

A first-rate lineup of training and software pros.

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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LyonsHeadshot_Squared@2x
Jeff Lyons
Associate 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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Wesley Milks
Wesley Milks, Ph.D.
Group
Leader
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Brian Olive
Brian Olive
Group
Leader
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Ryan Hite
Ryan Hite
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

Mr. Randy Brown is the Virtual Heroes Division Manager at Applied Research Associates, Inc., creating immersive training and education content for commercial, medical, and government customers. Randy has over 25 years’ experience in the software development industry. Prior to joining Virtual Heroes, Randy developed interactive 3D graphics software at Amoco, Digital Equipment, Ex Machina, Data General, SAS Institute, Southpeak Interactive, and the Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina. Randy has worked with a wide range of commercial, government, and private organizations, directing content related to science, oil exploration, graphics libraries, visualization, training, education, simulation, and gaming. Randy holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Computer Science from Oklahoma State University.

JEFF LYONS

Jeff Lyons is the Associate Division Manager of Virtual Heroes. Jeff has been with Applied Research Associates since 2006. He has worked in the modeling and simulation domain for over two decades. Jeff’s accomplishments include developing a complex radar simulation for the F-35 radar system; simulating validated weapons effects in real-time for the live, virtual, and constructive domains; and architecting large scale simulation software systems. Jeff is an experienced project and software team manager, leading his team with a customer-first focus. His management expertise includes project planning, project financials, scheduling, resource planning and tracking, business intelligence, staff performance, and business unit management. Jeff earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Florida State University and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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

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.

Brian Olive

Brian Olive

Brian Olive is a Group Leader for Virtual Heroes. Brian has been with Applied Research Associates since 2015. During this time, he has provided technical design and development support on multiple modeling & simulation, GIS-based applications for various military customers and operations. He has been recognized by ARA for technical achievement as a member of the development team for the ASCEND (Assimilation of Sources for a Cohesive Environment Description) program. More recently, Brian has been integral in the development of web-based business workflow applications for the intelligence community. He earned his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida.

Ryan Hite

Ryan Hite

Ryan Hite is a Group Leader and technical lead for Virtual Heroes. Ryan has been with Applied Research Associates since 2017. In his tenure, he has worked a variety of training and simulation efforts for the Army, Navy, and Marines Corps. His focus is guiding the development front of utilizing modern languages and deployment strategies, with an emphasis on cloud-native practices and techniques, while also targeting a wider domain of business use cases for his team’s work. He earned his B.S. from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where he studied biochemistry and computer science.

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.