Marty Sikes, MS

Marty Sikes is the Associate Executive Director for Chemical and Biological Defense Programs at the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, the DOD-designated University Affiliated Research Center sponsored by U.S. Strategic Command.

Sikes has an extensive background in leading chemical and biological defense programs and security cooperation initiatives for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). He has developed several strategic partnerships across the U.S. interagency and with U.S. allies and partner nations throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Prior to his current appointment at NSRI, Sikes was on assignment to the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA). In this capacity, he served as the JPEO-CBRND’s Deputy Director for Strategic Stakeholder Engagements. He developed strategies supporting DOD stakeholders to meet their material and non-material CBRN requirements. Additionally, he established and managed collaborative partnerships with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other interagency partners, facilitating the execution of innovative, cost-effective and interoperable capabilities.

Sikes is a former principal staff member of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). During his 12-year tenure at APL, he spent five years residing in the Republic of Korea (ROK), working closely with senior leaders from U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), the U.S. Embassy and the ROK Government. While in South Korea, he led the design and development of a biosurveillance system integration laboratory and played a lead role in implementing USFK’s integrated biological defense capability and a whole-of-government biological response framework with the Republic of Korea.

Upon completing his assignment in the ROK, Sikes worked at the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM), playing a pivotal role in identifying critical capability gaps and leading efforts to build partner capacity to detect and respond to CBRN threats.

Sikes is a retired U.S. Navy Medical Service Corps Officer with specializations in public health, biological defense and CBRN medical preparedness and operations. Prior to commissioning, he served as a Hospital Corpsman with the Fleet Marine Force.

Sikes completed his graduate degree from the University of La Verne, La Verne, California, and is the recipient of the distinguished U.S. Navy George C. Hansel, Environmental Health Officer of the Year Award.