Brad Wallin
Deputy Director
Brad Wallin is the Deputy Director for Strategic Deterrence (SD) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He leads the Laboratory’s nuclear weapons program in its responsibilities to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent and to support the transformation of the stockpile and the nuclear weapons enterprise for the future. He is also responsible for stewarding the broad range of science, technology, and engineering capabilities and infrastructure that underpin the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) and lay the foundations for the long-term health and vitality of the Laboratory.
Wallin has more than 25 years of experience in nuclear security, including as Program Director for Weapon Physics and Design, Program Manager for Nuclear Threat Reduction, and as a technical advisor to the Office of Defense Science at the National Nuclear Security Administration. His technical career spans the many disciplines of weapon physics, including design, code development, and management of nuclear and high-energy-density facilities and experiments.
Michael Zika
Principal Associate Deputy Director
Michael Zika is the Principal Associate Deputy Director for Strategic Deterrence (SD) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). In this role, Mike serves as the principal advisor to the directorate and key participant in all aspects of the Weapons program leadership and management.
Mike has worked at LLNL for 29 years. He has made technical and management contributions across many areas of the weapons program, including computational physics, nuclear weapon design, high-energy-density design, and uncertainty quantification. Mike has demonstrated leadership and knowledge of the core mission of the laboratory—to advance the state-of-the-art in weapon science in support of maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent. Most recently, Mike served as a Deputy Program Director for SD's Weapon Physics and Design Program.
Jong Olivier
Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff
Jong Olivier is the Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff for the Strategic Deterrence (SD) Principal Directorate.
Olivier has a long and accomplished history at the Lab. Early in her career, she built control systems for high-precision inspection machines and for adaptive optics systems in astronomy and high-powered lasers. She has also served in various leadership positions across the Laboratory, including standing up I Division (Optical Science and Technology) as the Deputy Division Leader, and serving as the Deputy Associate Director for Operations in the former Physics and Advanced Technologies Directorate. In the Global Security (GS) Directorate, she served as a Division Leader, as the Deputy Program Manager for Energy Security and Nonproliferation (E Program), and as GS’s Strategic Science and Technology Manager. Prior to joining the SD management team, Olivier was serving as the Principal Deputy Associate Director in LLNL’s Engineering Directorate.
Derek Wapman
Associate Deputy Director for Stockpile Modernization
Associate Deputy Director Derek Wapman joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1980 and has extensive experience in nuclear weapon engineering and weapons systems project management. He has served as system manager and project engineer for several weapon systems and numerous other weapons-related projects. He was the SD Program Director for Weapon Technologies and Engineering, the Division Leader for Defense Technologies Engineering Division and the SD Deputy Principal Associate Director for Program Planning and Execution. He is currently the Associate Deputy Director for Stockpile Modernization.
Charles Slama
Associate Deputy Director for Operations
As the Associate Deputy Director for Operations, Charles Slama is responsible for the management of Strategic Decterrence’s facilities as well as overseeing nuclear operations, explosive operations, and hazardous waste management for LLNL.
Slama has more than three decades of experience, having served in the nuclear Navy, at commercial nuclear facilities, and at DOE nuclear facilities, along with a variety of roles including operations, radiation protection, licensing, engineering, project management, and nuclear safety. Prior to joining LLNL, Slama served as the Director of Nuclear Safety and Criticality for Newport News Nuclear-BWXT (N3B) Los Alamos LLC, where he was the contractor liaison for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. He is also a retired naval officer with 25 years of service, including as a nuclear operator and as an engineering duty offer. Slama holds Bachelor of Science degrees in nuclear engineering technology from Thomas A. Edison State University, as well as nuclear engineering and engineering physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Master of Engineering in nuclear engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Valerie Noble
Associate Deputy Director for Program Enablement
Valerie Noble serves as associate deputy director for program enablement in the Strategic Deterrence (SD) Principal Directorate. In this role, she provides leadership and management of the SD line organizations, Office of Classification and Export Control, SD Information Technology, SD Applications, and SD Knowledge Management. In addition, Valerie leads the development of the staffing strategies and strategic business processes instrumental to successful long-term delivery of SD programs and projects.
Valerie has more than 30 years of experience working in the weapons program where she has gained broad insights into mission needs, drivers, and challenges. Most recently, Valerie served as the deputy chief information officer for Cloud Modernization where she provided leadership and management of the Livermore Information Technology (LivIT) efforts in the use of cloud infrastructure and services to better enable LLNL’s business and mission needs. In addition, Valerie has been leading a key NNSA strategic initiative to modernize the Enterprise Secure Network that provides hosting to crucial applications and services. Prior to taking on the role of Deputy CIO, Valerie was the Applications, Simulation, and Quality (ASQ) leader where she served as the Computing Principal Directorate’s primary interface to SD and the other programs ASQ supports, including Environmental Restoration, Nuclear Material Technology, and Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Management.
Mark Herrmann
Associate Director for Weapons Physics and Design
Mark Herrmann is the Associate Director for the Weapon Physics and Design (WPD) Program. In this role, Herrmann leads LLNL’s efforts to strengthen our nation’s nuclear deterrent by advancing our understanding of nuclear weapons physics and design. This includes the physics design, assessment, and certification efforts for the enduring LLNL systems (W80, B83, W87), the W80-4 Life Extension Program, and the W87-1 Modification program. He also leads weapon science research and development, including focused experiments, integral hydrodynamic and subcritical experiments, high-energy-density (HED) experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and modeling and simulation using NNSA’s high performance computing capabilities.
Rob Neely
Associate Director for Weapon Simulation and Computing
Rob Neely is the Associate Director for the Weapon Simulation and Computing program (WSC), responsible for management oversight, strategy development, building internal and external partnerships, and stakeholder engagement. Neely has supported the LLNL mission for 27 of his 30 years of experience in high-performance computing (HPC) and scientific software development and now oversees all aspects of the world-class high-performance computing platforms and application development taking place at LLNL in support of stockpile stewardship and nuclear deterrence. Neely received his master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined LLNL shortly after as an HPC application developer on the ALE3D project. He has since held several positions aimed at advancing LLNL’s HPC leadership in software and application development, hardware procurements, and computing research—all with an end goal of amplifying our mission impact on national security using simulation codes on modern heterogeneous architectures.
John Miller
Associate Director for Weapon Technologies and Engineering
John Miller is the Associate Director for Strategic Deterrence's Weapon Technologies and Engineering (WTE) Program, which is committed to providing engineering and scientific excellence in support of stockpile stewardship and other critical national security missions.
Miller has been a part of WTE for almost 20 years supporting various weapon system programs including roles on the W80-3 LEP, the Reliable Replacement Warhead, the W78/88 LEP, and the W87-1 Modernization Program. Miller has also served as the Reentry Systems Group Leader and System Manager for the W87-0. From 2018 until 2021 Miller served as the WTE Associate Program Director for Stockpile Systems. Miller received an S.B. from MIT and an M.S. from the University of California, Davis, both in mechanical engineering.
Shellie Rucinski
Program Director, Weapons Infrastructure
Shellie Rucinski is the Weapons Infrastructure Program Director for Strategic Deterrence (SD). As a member of the SD Senior Leadership Team, she leads the Weapons Infrastructure Program and advances mission priorities through transformational infrastructure initiatives, disciplined execution, and close collaboration across Laboratory and program leadership.
With more than two decades of experience supporting Department of Energy missions, Shellie brings extensive expertise in infrastructure and construction project execution, strategic planning, program management, systems engineering, high-speed manufacturing, and risk management. Prior to joining LLNL, she held a range of technical and leadership roles supporting the Nevada National Security Site, most recently as Director of Enterprise Infrastructure Programs.
She is recognized for leading complex organizations and delivering mission-critical capabilities in highly regulated environments. Her work has focused on strengthening infrastructure, enhancing execution, and developing high-performing teams that support long-term national security mission requirements. She holds a BS in interdisciplinary engineering from Boston University.
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Robert Maxwell
Program Director for Materials and Manufacturing Transformation
Robert Maxwell is the Strategic Deterrence (SD) program director for Materials and Manufacturing Transformation. He leads numerous high-consequence efforts in partnership with National Nuclear Security Administration production and design agencies, including the Polymer Enclave, an additive manufacturing collaboration between LLNL and the Kansas City National Security Campus.
Previously, Robert served as Division Leader for Materials Science within the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, where he was the principal investigator for the Materials Transformation Initiative and many other national security programs.
A member of the Laboratory since 1997, his research spans advanced manufacturing, nuclear magnetic resonance, materials degradation, compatibility, and aging. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a BS in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis. He was elected a 2025 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Jackie Meeker
Superblock Director
Jackie Meeker is the Superblock Director for Strategic Deterrence (SD). She leads the programmatic mission execution and facility operations of LLNL’s Superblock, one of two defense plutonium research and development facilities in the Nuclear Security Enterprise.
Jackie has over 25 years of experience in nuclear design, engineering, and operations. At LLNL, Jackie has held several technical and operational leadership roles at both Superblock and at the National Ignition Facility. She has significant experience overseeing large multidisciplinary teams, driving significant program growth and innovation, improving operational efficiency, and establishing stakeholder alignment. Her previous roles include Associate Program Director for Nuclear Materials, Associate Program Leader for Nuclear Materials Engineering, NIF Target Area Operations Manager, Inertial Confinement Fusion Project Engineer, and others. Jackie also served in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer (Nuclear).
She holds an MS in physics from California State University, Long Beach and an MA in engineering management from Old Dominion University.
