CAREER SUMMARY
Dr. Al Koller
President, e3 Company
P. O. Box 423
Titusville, Fl 32781
Phone: 321.267.4860
Mobile: 321.289.2074
Email: alkoller@gmail.com
Education:
D.B.A., Management/Quantitative Methods, Florida State University, 1974
M.S., Systems Management, Florida State University, 1967
B.A., Mathematics/Physics, Florida State University, 1963
High School: Salutatorian, Titusville High School, Florida, 1959
Professional Experience:
After 50 years in the aerospace industry and two years of retirement, Dr. Koller has been called back to duty as Principal Investigator for SpaceTEC, the National Science Foundation's National Aerospace Resource Center, and Managing Director of SpaceTEC Partners, Inc., overseeing operations of SpaceTEC® -- the National Science Foundation’s National Center of Excellence for Aerospace Technical Education. He initially retired in the summer of 2007 after 15 years as a senior educational administrator and a NASA career as an engineer and program manager at the Kennedy Space Center for more than 32 years.
Dr. Koller began his aerospace career directly out of Titusville High School in 1959 as a technician working summers in ground electrical networks for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at its Missile Firing Lab on Cape Canaveral. When the ABMA team led by Dr. Wernher Von Braun was transferred to NASA in 1960, Al was assigned to the Launch Vehicle Operations Directorate. He continued to return each summer while completing his BA degree in math and physics, then returned to KSC/LVO where he served throughout the Mercury, Apollo, Skylab, and ASTP programs. He earned his Master’s Degree in Systems Management from the Florida State University in residence at Patrick AFB and his Doctorate in Management and Quantitative Methods from FSU in Tallahassee.
While at NASA he initially worked under the direction of Dr. Hans Gruene, Director for Launch Vehicle Operations under Dr. Kurt Debus, NASA's first Center Director of the Kennedy Space Center. During the 1970s he led the team of scientists and engineers developing the KSC Environmental Impact Statement for both the Space Shuttle at KSC and NASA’s expendable vehicles at the Cape. He also headed the Center’s first Environmental Management Staff. For nearly ten years he served as the Biomedical Program Manager and the Center’s Environmental Health Officer. In the late 1980s he developed the Center’s Total Quality Management (TQM) Program and was active in consulting on TQM implementation for both NASA and its contractors until he retired in 1992 to pursue a lifelong commitment to education.
During his fifteen year career at Brevard Community College, Dr. Koller remained linked to aerospace, serving as President of the Titusville Campus; Associate Vice President for Advancement, Associate Vice President for International Education; and Executive Director of Community Colleges for International Development -- a consortium of more than 100 colleges working worldwide in international education for developing countries. In 2001 he testified before the Commission on the Future of the United States’ Aerospace Industry, and that year he also founded SpaceTEC, developing and implementing this country’s only national certification for aerospace technicians. Before he retired, SpaceTEC had achieved acceptance of its Certified Aerospace Technician credential by NASA, the FAA, the Air Force, the Navy, the Veterans’ Administration, and the American Council on Education. The Certified Aerospace Technician is accepted by colleges nationwide for 24 credit hours of college work and has been included in the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation “Guidelines for Operation and Maintenance of Reusable Launch Vehicles”.
Dr. Koller has taught at several universities, consults for private and public organizations, and is nationally published in the technical and management fields, as well as in international education. He is the 2001 recipient of the Florida Space Business Roundtable’s “Explorer Award” for his leadership in space-related education. He was awarded the National Space Club Florida Committee’s Lifetime Achievement Award in aerospace in August, 2008.
Affiliations:
Dr. Koller is the Founding Chair of the Brevard Nature Alliance; Founder and past Director of the Business Education Support Board, Inc.; Past Board Chair and Director of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce; past member of the Jess Parrish Medical Foundation Board of Directors; and past member of Titusville Sunrise Rotary Club where he was twice named Rotarian of the Year. His professional affiliations include the National Management Association, where he is credentialed as a Certified Professional Manager; the Brevard Nature Alliance; the NASA Alumni League; the Merritt Island Wildlife Association; the National Space Club Florida Committee; the National Space Society; the Brevard County Civilian Military Community Relations Council; and Life Member, Missile, Space and Range Pioneers. His hobbies are fly-fishing, computers, reading, and webmaster for the Titusville Computer Club (TCC), the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation (CCLF), the NASA Alumni League (NAL), and the Canaveral Council of Technical Societies (CCTS). Dr. Koller is a member of St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Titusville where he has served as Treasurer, Junior Warden, Senior Warden, and Lay Reader. He is married to the former Carol Ann Knight of Jacksonville, Fl, and they have three daughters, a son, and ten grandchildren.
Career chronology, publications, and references are available on request.