$5 million, -- $2.25 million dollars -- [applause] . .

[applause] >> also, i want to raise the profile of our patriots within the intelligence community. all races, all ethnicities, all

backgrounds, so they are equally respected by the american people as those who wear the uniform. intelligence officers work hard every day to make america a better place and a safer place and it is a younger work force that you think. foley, half of our people joined after september 11, 2001. there are remarkable opportunities for personal growth. thanks to all the historic clique black colleges and universities. thank you for assisting us and for making it possible to get to know such remarkable young men and women and for allowing us to work with them to embrace the mission, the vision, the values of the intelligence community. i guarantee that they will not let you down and we will not let them down. thank you very much. >> let's give him a hand,

please. as we close, we are at the end of our program, i want to thank everyone at the head table. we have on board for admiral blair. i want to give him this award and let him know that all of the hbcu presidents and i have something in common with you. that is we are charged with the care and management of the intelligence communities. we also have in common the fact that our intelligence communities are hidden. if you do your job right, yours

will remain hidden. if we do our job right, the light will shine on our intelligence community'ies. we will get more support from the private sector and have more strength as we are called to have a very for our intelligence communities together, for the work that you have done on our behalf of the work he will do, we give you this award and we thank you for what you have done and we thank you for the future we will create together. thank you very much. good afternoon, everyone. good afternoon. [applause] >> my name is george ross, the president of alcorn state

university. it's always alcorn. i am pleased to be joined on this panel today by two very distinguished senior officials of the federal government, the chief of naval research and a director of the central intelligence agency, the cia and i will introduce them momentarily. be we also have the pleasure of two other distinguished gentleman on the panel, our executive director of the white house initiatives on hcbus. [applause] and dr. john a. huston, the senior research professor is

also with us. [applause] black colleges and universities have worked to link their students and programs to the intelligence field, science, technology, and academic research. from concepts as seemingly esoteric as insurgency modeling tool applications as seemingly mundane as cleaning products, technology transfers among agencies, corporations, and other academic institutions, are impacting our national security and affecting our daily lives. there is a great deal of talent on the campuses of our 105 institutions. programs at the office of naval

research and the central intelligence agency will allow these two government agencies to tap into that talon by tapping into the innovative ideas and research as being carried on hbcus across the country. we will explore how this can export capacity and partnerships while jointly collaborating with the office of naval research and the central intelligence agency. as we see is the capacity to thrive in the areas of intelligence, science, and technology, perhaps, and even more importantly, we explore a way forward that helps our students and graduates understand how science and technology will affect their success in their personal and professional lives. between 1946 and the family of

the national science foundation in 1950, the office of naval research was the only agency whose principal mission was the support of basic research. over the past 63 years, the office of naval research has evolved into a more diversified agency. today, they are responsible for the basic and reply -- and supply -- and applied research as it executes and promotes the science and technology programs of the united states navy and marine corps. these programs produce research and technology portfolio to serve several constituencies, the united states congress, the fleet, the force, industry, and universities. today, we are privileged to have as our first speaker, the director of naval research.

he is rear admiral nevin kerr. he started when he was 17 years old. i did not as cold he is now. he spent his navy career at sea in cruisers and destroyers, deploying to the mediterranean sea, the black sea, the indian ocean, the persian gulf, north and south atlantic, the south pacific, the baltic, caribbean, and red seas. he served on the u.s.s. caine, the u.s.s. mccandless, the u.s.s. eisenhower. among others. he commended the uss cape st. george, winning gold and anchors. while a command of this ship, the ship participated in combat operations in support of

operation iraqi freedom in the european and central asia theaters. he has served in the office of the secretary of defense where he worked on several programs at several ballistic defense missile programs pretty later served in the office of the chief of naval operations as requirements officer. he was executive assistant to the commander u.s. fleet forces command. following promotion to flag rank in 2006, he was assigned as deputy director of service worker for combat systems and weapons and later, his deputy secretary has the navy and director of international programs office. he completed his education by earning a b.a. from the united states naval academy. he and i gave each other a high five and talked about maybe an

army football. i was at an institution in the army. he and i bonded. he received his master of science degrees in research from the naval postgraduate school and completed the advanced program at harvard business school. he had additional duties as technology requirements director. ladies and gentleman, please welcome nevin p. kerr jr.. >> thank you very much. dr. wilson, dr. houston, distinguished colleagues, thank you very much for the opportunity to join all of you here to beg for it -- to join

all of you here today. b100 five boys of history that many of you heard sunday night are the voices of america's future. [applause] that future depends on our ability to compete in the global marketplace, especially in science and technology. i would like to touch on who we are and what we do at the office of naval research and highlight our long association with hbcus, and describe what the future demands of each of us. we are seizing the opportunity to thrive. i like that. in the military, we talk about capability vs capacity. to us, capability means that we have the wherewithal to accomplish a mission. it implies that we have a ship

or aircraft or a weapon to do a particular job and capacity means we have enough of it to do the entire mission and fill the entire need. clearly, america has talent or capability. in the many bright young minds that will one day run this country. what is not so clear is that a sufficient number of those bright young ones will enter the challenging field that drive science and technology. especially as the contours of our population continued to evolve, we need to make sure we and power and leverage every inch of it in order to build the capacity that we will need to succeed. i mean numbers of graduates, numbers of professionals, numbers of teachers, researchers, and scientists. i spent about 35 years in the navy, so far. 20 years of that was at sea. it was a privilege and a joy to

command to warships. i learned to appreciate the importance of relationships, community, and engaged and the need to take care of and expect the very most from every single member of the crew. command of a ship is more about command of humans and machines. it only works if the entire group contributes. there's not much excess capacity out there at sea between the lifelines. as the chief of naval research, i oversee an organization loaded with talent, bright, enterprising, program managers, a burly of researchers, and people with a can-do attitude. they are the secret sauce behind unable institution. our history began with the establishment of the naval research lab in 1923 at the urging of thomas edison. the overarching office, o &r,

was greeted in 1946 to build a link between science and the fighting needs of our sailors and marines. it has given us gps, radar, radiography, the country's first intelligence satellite, nuclear- powered ships, the first global atmosphere production model, and synthetic lubricant kids. -- lubricants. they did their job well in the early years of the space program and were pulled out to form a new organization called massacre -- nasa. we exist to provide advances for use on the battlefield with many of those advances have application for everyday life. one example is the new acoustic technology for processing was

developed to track submarines as -- ended -- and is in use today. for use in breast cancer detection. o &r work permit outlets. we have offices in london, singapore, tokyo, and chile to expand efforts abroad and help stay abreast of ideas and innovation and avoid technological surprise. most recently, we were ranked by several national magazines as the best place to work in the navy, number 5 in performance and advancement and was named most admired employer by the congress of diversity executives at the black engineering awards. our talented team includes graduates in leadership positions from jackson state,

north carolina amt, south carolina state, st. paul college, an alabama state. we draw from the best to provide the best. we embrace the chief of naval operations loss that are made it must reflect the nation. -- reflect the face of our nation. in 1989, a dedicated program was established supporting undergraduate and graduate students at five schools. in 1992, that investment increased to $6 million and rose to $10 million in 1994. from that time to present, we supported 22 programs in minority institutions and provided educational support for over 1100 students annually. 9% of the students graduate on time with undergraduate degrees and 80% of them went on to earn master's degrees. today our programs include the

research program, research and better occasion -- research and education program participating in disciplines relevant to naval s &t. the research and education partnership program is designed to improve research and discipline in support of the department may be pretty exposes students to engineering careers with the naval research enterprise through summer internships at may be left. -- edney the labs. -- and maybe labs. at navy labs. since 1992, this program has

produced 44 ph.d. spirit will also encourage research proposals for matching funds to promote a participation in naval research. we are developing programs that encourage our government, university affiliated research centers to partner with hbcus to take advantage of the numerous government grants out there. the solid mechanics program sponsors tuskegee, north carolina and emt, and southern university become a thing is basic research unmooring composite materials and san which structures. at north carolina a &t - your team is examining composite

materials for submarine applications. they have developed a new fire resistant core material with extremely attractive mechanical properties for this material has been evaluated and the navy research to save lives in the event of fire. this is a bad thing in a submerged submarine. in 2008, o &r awarded money for research institutions. the systems committee provided 24 graduate degrees. there are other navy programs. i just selected these as examples. we do this because we need to attract every bright young mind weekend to a career in science and technology. on to the future -- where are some of the technological ideas for tomorrow?

game changing gears of research include power and energy, autonomy, information sciences, directed energy, speed of light weapons, and human performance. response in research and fuel cells and long insurance vehicles, portable power applications and rechargeable batteries for underwater vehicles. we're focused on robotics, human robotic interactions, and other systems. we're looking it quantum computing, new and more secure unified theories. much of this work is being done at newport news. human performance programs range from molecular biology to the development of advanced medical

therapies for saving lives and the study and protection of our environment. as the ideal people for the navy, we're about discovery and relationships. we must focus our attention on reaching out more to diverse communities. the demographic trends are well established and crystal clear. in order to maintain the help of the defense size and work force, we must continue to engage every bright young mind that has the capability to help us in that the future. no single segment of the population has enough depth to provide the necessary capacity that our country and future needs. we need to tap the entire crew. i would like to conclude where it started. we appoint capability in the untapped all of our population. we need to convert that to capacity by attracting the best and brightest to follow careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

with a rich and proud tradition and deeply rooted patriotism, america's colleges and universities will play an increasingly important role in educating and inspiring young ones that will build that future. the impact of the leaders of those universities and colleges in this room cannot be understated. thank you for what you do. i look forward to working with you in the future. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. we'll fight and salute you for what you do for our country in your 35 years of service. thank you, sir. [applause] this morning, our executive

director gave us three charges and the third one was to discover, to identify and eliminate the best research and brain power admiral carr talked about that. i encourage all of us to build in that capacity and capability to increase even more so the relationships and partnerships with the office of naval research. in 1947, president harry s. truman, signed the national security act, creating the central intelligence agency. it also created a director of intelligence. the director is the principal adviser to the president of the united states for intelligence matters related to national security. today, as the premier agency

responsible for providing global intelligence, on the ever- changing political, social, economic, technological, and military environment, the cia accomplishes this mission for research, development, and deployment of high-leverage intelligence gathering technologies. they create special disciplines to address such issues as non- proliferation, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, international organized crime and narcotics trafficking, and carmen, and arms and intelligence. the cia before destroying partnerships between the several agencies and discipline and takes an active role in the overall intelligence community. today we have with us the director of the central intelligence agency, leon edward

panetta. he became the 19th director of the central intelligence agency on the 13th of february of this year. as director, he manages human intelligence in open source collection programs on behalf of the intelligence community. he has dedicated much of his life to public service. before joining the cia, he spent 10 years code directing with his wife sylvia, the leon and sylvia panetta institute for public policy, based at california state university, monterey bay. the institute is a non-partisan, not-for-profit center that seeks to instill in young men and women the virtues and values of public service. in march of 2006, he was chosen as a member of the iraqi study group established at the urging of congress to conduct an independent assessment of the war in iraq. from july, 1994, to january

1997, mr. panetta served as chief of staff for president clinton. prior to that, he was director of the office of management and budget, a position that builds on his years of work in the house budget committee. he represented california's 16th district, now the 17th district, from 1977 through 1970 break. -- for 1983. he served as a legislative assistant, special assistant to the help and education welfare, the united states of civil- rights, and the executive assistant to mayor john lindsay of new york. he spent five years in private law practice. he served as an army intelligence officer from 1964 through 1966 and received the army commendation medal.

he was not here when i talked about the football game so we won't tell him. he also a bachelor of arts degree in political science and a law degree from santa clara university. he was born in monterey, where his italian immigrant parents operated a restaurant for it later, they purchased a farm in carmel valley, where he continues to call home. the panettas have three grown sons. ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the director of the cia, leon edward panetta. [applause] >> thank you very much, dr. ross. i would also like to thank secretary duncan, as well as dr. wilson for inviting me here to

share some thoughts with all of you. it is a privilege and pleasure to be here. more importantly, is an honor for me. your mission, in many ways, reflects the spirit of our democracy. because of the work you have done to promote equal educational opportunity, a mission that goes to the heart of what america is all about and because of my own history which in many ways tracks with your struggle for equal opportunity for all. working black universities and

colleges is what our universe is all about. it is about helping americans realize the dream of giving our children a better life. above all, that means access to higher education, that is the key to be able to achieve a better life. i know this from my own experience. as was mentioned, i am the son of italian immigrants. my brother and i were the first in our family to go to college and university. as the son of immigrants, the values that i just talked about in terms of achieving that better life, or what i believe in and what my parents made sure that we understood was the reason that we were to be

educated and to learn and be able to achieve that opportunity that this country is all about. i remember asking my father," why would you travel more than 3,000 miles to a strange land? no money, no speaking ability, very few skills?" they lived in a poor area of italy but they have a lot of family. why would they leave that and travel those miles? my father said," the reason we did it is because your mother and i believe we could give our children a better life." and i believe giving our children a better life is the american dream. it is what this country is all about.

in line with that is the importance of recognizing that as we give our children a better life, they have a responsibility to give something back to this country, as well. my parents constantly emphasized the importance of giving back to this country some measure of duty and responsibility in return for the opportunity that my parents got in order to be able to achieve some degree of equal opportunity. public service has been part of my bloodstream for a long time. you have heard my resonate beginning from being an intelligence officer in the army through being chief of staff for the president of united states and now as director of the central intelligence agency.

all of that public service has been because i truly believe that it is important to give something back to this country that gave my parents and my brother and i the opportunity to succeed. in many ways, as i said, my career tracks the struggle that you have been involved in in achieving equal education. early in the 1970's, as mentioned in the present, i served as director of the u.s. office for the office of civil rights. our responsibility was to promote equal educational opportunities to all of our children and the prime responsibility we had at that time was to basically break down the dual school system. we were supposed to desegregate schools that by law had been divided between black and white children.

we tried to insure that school districts were complying with brown vs. the board of education and with civil rights laws. having worked on civil rights laws when i was a legislative assistant in the congress, i believe it was my responsibility in that job to enforce law and to enforce the constitution. when duty to the law conflicted with the politics of the time, i decided that duty was more important and i have never regretted that decision. in the 1980's, when i returned as a member of congress, and chairman of the budget committee, i had the opportunity to work on funding for black colleges and universities with the bill gray and members of the national black caucus to ensure that we would be able to provide

funding. in the 1990's, i was honored to be a part of the white house initiative on historically black colleges and universities. president clinton signed an executive order that is signed by the office of management and budget with oversight of the initiatives' annual federal plan for assistance. as omb director, i was proud to play a role to strengthen your great schools. for 130 years, you have been an invaluable asset for african- americans and an irreplaceable source of talent and energy for america. as different communities have become part of our social fabric, our country has become

even stronger with a dynamic vitality that nobody else can match. diversity, along with freedom and the rule all block -- rule old law, is what makes america great. as cia director, there is probably no other organization that stands to benefit as much from diversity. recruiting and developing a diverse work force is crucial to the cia for several reasons. first, this nation was founded on the principle that we are all created equal. it is the fundamental principle that says america will ensure

that all of us, regardless of our race, regardless of our sexual orientation, regardless of whether we are disabled, regardless of what god we believe in, will have the opportunity to succeed. citizens want to serve his or her country in the field of intelligence, it is wrong to let those kinds of issues stand in the way. of success . the other reason is equally important because very frankly, diversity helps us do a better job of keeping the country safe. good intelligence requires officers from diverse backgrounds who have different approaches to the issues that we face, who bring a wide an array

of skills to our mission, and are products of the cultures in which we have to operate. i would like to underscore how important diversity is to the cia by talking a little about our mission. cia is to protect the safety of this nation. today, and tomorrow. we are a nation at war. we are confronting a war in afghanistan, a war in iraq. we are confronting a al qaeda and other terrorists in pakistan. who threaten our homeland and threaten our troops.

we are confronting the challenge of nuclear proliferation in countries like north korea and iran. we are confronting a whole new challenge, something called cyber security, which has the potential to, in fact, bring down our markets, bring down our power grid system, bring down our water systems, and crippled this country. we are confronting the challenge of instability in the middle east, in africa, in latin america, and southeast asia. in places like yemen and somalia. the cia has to be an intelligence organization that understands what our adversaries are thinking.

what are they doing? what are their secrets? what are their strategies? what do they intend to do that will hurt us? and that will hurt our goal of seeking peace in the world? éwfwe have to understand that te dangers, those opportunities, as america faces a world that confronts a number of challenges to our safety. this is not about the past. this is about the present and future. when president obama offered me this job, he told me to call them the way i see them. i told him that i will tell him

the truth. oftentimes, i will tell him things -- [applause] oftentimes, i will have to tell him things he would not like to hear. as director of the cia, my responsibility is to present him the very best intelligence that we have. not because it is politically right or what he wants to hear but because it is the truth. what i emphasize, with every cia officer is that our responsibility to the president, to the leaders of this country is nothing less than providing the truth. our mission requires highly skilled people from many different fields and many different disciplines.

the work of all of these officers that work at the cia, case officers, analysts, people who work in science and technology, people who provide the support for our mission, it these are people, i have to tell you, who put their lives on the line every day. -añi wish i could take all of yu to our stations throughout the world so that you could see the work of our case officers on a daily basis, men and women, some in our national clandestine service or out there trying to see if we can get people to spy for the united states, to determine what is going on in

other countries, what are they thinking? what are our enemies thinking? to try and develop a collection of intelligence so that we know what is happening, that are engaged in operations, some of those operations are incredible in what they do to save lives. our analysts, people who take that intelligence and try to determine what does it mean, who write finished reports that say to the president and the leaders of this country,"why is this intelligent importance and what does it mean in terms of our security? " they are inquisitive by nature. they are well versed in the trade crap. as a kind of intelligence that goes to the president and to leaders in this country every day.

that is what our job is all about. the best intelligence comes from officers who can operate credibly and effectively in just about any society on the globe. that means that they have to understand those societies, they have to speak their language. they have to be able to know what their cultures are all about, they have to be able to know what makes people tick. they have to understand them, otherwise, intelligence does not mean much. all lot of this is about getting officers who understand -- a lot of this is about getting officers who understand other countries that they have to engage. we have to reflect the face of the world that we're responsible for.

it is for that reason that we reach out, to seek out a diverse work force. that is what i am committed to making the cia look more like of this nation that we protect, look more like the world that we protect so that we can operate effectively to help protect the country. [applause] our goal, my goal, and it is our goal, is to substantially increase the diversity of our work force in the next few years. the position that the cia is seeking to it -- is to be recognized as one of the top 10 diversity employers in this town.

that is our goal and that is what we intend to achieve. [applause] by its very nature, diversity encompasses many dimensions, ethnicity, cultural, education, religious, racial, behavioral. sometimes it is not easy to quantify but one element, which is minority representation, is the one area we would like to see our work force closely approach a level of the population we have in this country. the cia needs to reflect the face of this country. that is what my goal is as the director of the cia. a fine recruiting effort has already begun to do that. the cia is viewed as a great place to work. is a challenging place to work.

we get more than one of the 40,000 applications at the cia way. if there is a new james bond movie that comes out, we get more applications. [laughter] our retention rate is one of the best in government. right now, new officers who come in, we lose less than 1% we have a great retention rate. almost 1/3 of our new hires this year are minorities. that is good. we can do even better. we want to significantly increase the hiring of minorities in collection and analysis and their inclusion in student intern programs, as well. we aim to expand national origin hiring, first and center set --

second-generation americans and substantially boost the number of new officers with foreign languages. above all, we are widening our recruitment pool by going to more places that offer a rich variety of talent. historically, black colleges and universities are important part of that effort. we have already started recruitment efforts that 17 of your schools this semester. we're conducting interviews, class and presentations, faculty meetings. we enjoy working relationships with many of the court offices and will reach out to more of your schools. our officers also participate in the intelligence community centers for academic excellence, the innovative program that was led by dr. lenora gant. and we're part of the urban

league's executive exchange program which does an excellent job of cultivating future leaders in government and industry. i have to tell you that more than just a diverse work force, this is a tougher challenge we have to have a diverse leadership, as well. my agency -- [applause] my agency seeks to give all of our officers the training and development they need in order to thrive in their work. we need to make sure that, in every case, accomplishment burns a seat at the table of leadership at the agency. by any measure, we do not have enough diversity in our senior grids. bringing executives from the outside with the intelligence community is not easy.

that is why we need to develop our junior and mid-level officers so that they can achieve those leadership positions. achieving greater diversity in senior leadership means giving up-and-coming officers what they need earn and learn in order to be at that table of responsibility. the bottom line is, we are putting the cia on a track to better represent the best and brightest from all the communities that contribute to america's greatness. it is good for all of us and it is good for the nation that we serve. this month, marks eight years since the attacks of september 11.

all of us must remember the lesson of 9/11, that we must do everything possible to make sure that never happens again to this country. it is the tireless work off thousands of men and women in the military and law-enforcement and intelligence that is essential to our nation's security. president obama gave me the high honor of working with some of the most capable and gifted people that i have known in over 40 years of public service in this town. these are people who do not pay a lot of attention to the noise of this town. they do pay a lot of attention to what their part tells them

about commitment to service. -- their heart tells about commitment to service. more than half of the cia work force has come aboard since 9/11. the energy and spirit they bring to the job is amazing. my goal is to begin a new chapter for the cia in the 21st century that provides the best intelligence possible with a professional and diverse work force that reflects the face of the world' and abides by the highest values of our nation. ultimately, protecting america is not just the work of the cia. is the work of all americans. it is the responsibility of all boss -- all of us to fight for a better nation and to fight for a more secure nation. there's the story often tell

that makes a pretty good point. there was a rabbi and a priest that decided they would get to know each other better. they thought that if they went to event together, they could learn about each other's religion. one evening, but went with boxing match. before the bell rang, one of the boxer's made the son of the cross. the rabbi nudge the present said," what does that mean?" the priest said," it does mean a damn thing, unless he can fight." [laughter] frankly, we bless ourselves with the hope that everything will be fine in this country but, frankly, it doesn't mean a damn thing unless we're willing to fight. [applause] i know that you are willing to fight for a better life and for

a better nation and i look forward to working with all of you in being able to make sure that the american dream that we all care about israel for all of our children. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you for those inspiring words, mr. panetta. we thank you for your service and the men and women of the cia and the military. we thank all of us for being vigilant. the most important thing we can do is protect our country. thank you, sir.

now, we will have some remarks from dr. john a. huston, the senior research professor of the director of the african-american studies. [applause] >> director panetta has to leave but i want to give him this war before he leaves. i want to say very quickly that we hear a lot of presentations and very rarely is it that the human being comes through. we understand him as a man, now. [applause] we trust the sincerity and the authenticity that came through and we believe that he intends to do what he said he will do.

that is a good thing! we should celebrate that. [applause] i also want to say that this is the hbcu community and we appreciate intelligence. because of something that you mention, i wanted to know that we can help you in a very special way. one of our most prominent alumni, spike lee, is about to shoot a film called "inside man, "this would be "inside man 2" and he could easily put a black james bond character in that and help recruit for the cia. [laughter] i will call him and let him know he can do that. here is an award for all you do and all you have done, leon panetta. [applause]

thank you. >> thank you very much. >> he has to leave and we thank you again. let's give him another hand as he leaves, thank you. [applause] and now we will have final remarks. >> later this week, a review of the health-care debate in congress with highlights from house and senate committees and analysis from capitol hill reporters. on sunday, a comparison of health care systems from around the world with former washington post reporter, tr reid. host: [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] average to improve public school

performance. live coverage from the aspen institute starts at 10:00 a.m., eastern. later, a conversation on the japanese collection. -- japanese election. coming up in 30 minutes, a former military adviser talks about the security situation in afghanistan for it after that, an update on the h1n1 swine flu virus and vaccine. later, we will continue our look at the nation's health-care system from the virginia hospital center in arlington, virginia.