Employee of the Year:
Garrison Hill, IT Systems Architect
“I’m genuinely thankful to work at a company like COLSA that has believed in me and challenged me to grow. The opportunities I’ve been given, along with the support from my team and leaders, have made this a place where I’m excited to come in every day. Receiving Employee of the Year is an incredible honor, and it is truly all thanks to the support and trust from those I work with at COLSA. I would like to also thank my manager specifically, Joe Bennett.
His guidance, encouragement, and trust have pushed me to grow both personally and professionally. This award reflects the impact of his ability as a leader at COLSA just as much as my own efforts.”
Joe Bennet, CIO at COLSA, shared the following about Garrison:
Garrison Hill has delivered exceptional value to COLSA this year through the development of multiple enterprise-level solutions using the Microsoft Power Platform. Notably, he created a company-wide Performance Management System and Learning Management System, both of which are now used by all employees. These tools have significantly improved operational efficiency and generated measurable cost savings, benefiting both employees and customers. His technical expertise and innovative mindset have elevated the performance of our Corporate IT department and the broader organization.
As our Solutions Architect, Garrison designs and implements scalable, low-code applications that streamline business processes and empower teams across departments. His role is critical to COLSA’s digital transformation efforts, and his ability to collaborate and support others has made him a trusted resource and key enabler of success.
Garrison exemplifies COLSA’s core values in every aspect of his work. He puts people first by creating solutions that improve daily workflows, demonstrates integrity through thoughtful and ethical decision-making, fosters teamwork by sharing the solutioning burden across departments, and drives customer satisfaction by delivering impactful, sustainable results. His contributions this year have been nothing short of outstanding.
Scientist of the Year:
Nathan Olson, Data Scientist
I am very grateful to receive Scientist of the Year for 2025. Being part of COLSA has enabled me to improve my programing and analytical skills as well as develop professionally. I enjoy the cross-team collaboration where data scientists across the different projects can meet, learn from, and support each other. The atmosphere of mutual improvement keeps me continually learning and finding ways to enhance the projects I am working on.
I would, in particular, like to thank Ted Henrich for the award. Thank you, Conner Smith for being a great coworker and friend and for convincing me to become a data scientist. Thank you, Zach Johnson for managing Conner and I and the support you have provided. Thank you to Elissa Miller, Lorin Bales, and the rest of the Data Science Team. You all are truly some the best data scientists I have seen.
Ted Henrich, VP, Systems and Software Engineering share the following about Nathan:
Nathan Olson distinguished himself as the lead data scientist, developer, and principal investigator for COLSA’s Space Electronic Warfare (SEW) Internal Research and Development (IR&D) project: the Auto-Geolocation initiative supporting the U.S. Space Force’s Bounty Hunter program. This effort represents one of the most ambitious and technically advanced research projects within COLSA, aimed at exploring and maturing methods for automating the identification and location of electromagnetic interference that affects satellite communications.
Through Nathan’s expertise, the Auto-Geolocation team in transforming what began as a conceptual study into a credible, data-driven research line that was a key discriminator in COLSA’s most-recent and successful Bounty Hunter proposal. This resulted in a five-year contract award supporting the US Space Force’s Mission Delta 3 organization. His ability to clearly communicate complex research findings and technical progress has been demonstrated in multiple briefings to COLSA’s CEO and senior leadership on project milestones, challenges, and future directions. His vision to automate Bounty Hunter’s geolocation capabilities has already resulted in multiple other automation successes and positioned COLSA to continue our first three years of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning efforts identifying and categorizing interfering signals of interest.
Nathan’s scientific achievements this year highlight both innovation and disciplined experimentation. He successfully completed the incorporation of new transponder and reference signal criteria into the system’s “pair builder,” the portion of the research software that analyzes and correlates observed and known signals. This improvement increased the precision of geolocation modeling and supported ongoing testing and data analysis.
He also resumed and advanced work on the algorithmic Differential Time Offset and Differential Frequency Offset validator, a critical component designed to assess timing and frequency differences between signals to improve analytic confidence. Building on this foundation, Nathan continued research into enhanced spectrum occupancy modeling, which helps characterize how portions of the radio spectrum are utilized under varying conditions. His efforts on secondary reference signal occupancy provided valuable insights into how to improve detection and analysis accuracy in dense or noisy environments. Beyond the technical development, Nathan conducted extensive analysis of historical geolocation data to refine the research algorithms’ pairing logic, enabling more informed recommendations for future model validation.
Nathan embodies COLSA’s core values. His scientific work and collaboration with developers and other data scientists demonstrates COLSA’s highest standard of scientific rigor and innovation. His leadership and technical depth have shaped a major line of research that positions COLSA for continued excellence in advanced signal analysis and space control technologies and will cement our role as a preferred partner with the US Space Force’s Mission Delta 3.
Engineer of the Year:
Mark Anderson, Program Manager, Bounty Hunter
This really is a team award…I owe the award to the engineering efforts of my team that succeeds in solving every engineering challenge. They do the hard work. I just stand in front of slides and point at things.
Ted Henrich, VP, Systems and Software Engineering shared the following about Mark:
Mark Anderson led or contributed multiple areas for COLSA in his primary role as Program Manager for our US Space Force Bounty Hunter contract. In this role he not only led the program side (schedule, performance, and budget), but he also contributed deep operational experience and engineering oversight to ensure his team was successful in sustaining and operating the defensive space control system around the world in support of combatant commanders.
He guided his team in responding to an urgent operational shift to deliver a critical system upgrade to the Bounty Hunter 3.X architecture to enable essential remote operations capabilities between the Central Operating Location in Colorado and the operating location in Europe. His systems expertise and mastery of the space electronic warfare domain has ensured team and customer success in every facet of the Bounty Hunter program.
Mark also leverages his engineering prowess through his engagements with business development efforts and by providing technical expertise for space-related proposals. In one example, he single-handedly created the required space communications architecture to successfully land a lunar lander on the moon. In another, he developed technical and organizational recommendations to improve US Space Force mission oversight and readiness for the entire space electronic warfare portfolio.
Mark has also been leading our efforts on COLSA’s Machine Learning Internal Research & Development (IR&D) investment where we are developing a highly technical Auto-Geolocation capability. This effort represents one of the most ambitious and technically advanced research projects within COLSA, aimed at exploring and maturing methods for automating the identification and location of electromagnetic interference that affects satellite communications and will be a significant differentiator for COLSA in establishing ourselves as a true US Space Force partner. In addition to leading the IR&D investment, he is providing considerable leadership and Bounty Hunter insight into COLSA’s efforts to develop a Digital Twin / Model-based Systems Engineering capability that can be marketed to our Department of Defense and federal customers.
Mark exemplifies COLSA’s core values in every aspect of his work whether he is leading his team or providing engineering or operations expertise. He puts his team at the front of every action he takes and exhibits integrity and embraces collaboration in every engagement. In the end, customer satisfaction is the core measurement of success, and the US Space Force is always positioned better when Mark and COLSA are tasked to get the job done right the first time!
Manager of the Year:
Brian Wohlschlaeger, Senior Program Manager, Drone Programs
Congratulations to Brian Wohlschlaeger, Senior Program Manager of our drone programs, for winning 2025 Manager of the Year.
James Kennedy, VP, Uncrewed Systems shared the following about Brian:
Over the past year, Brian successfully navigated demanding and evolving customer priorities amid significant leadership turnover and organizational restructuring driven by Acquisition Transformation. His disciplined program oversight directly contributed to program growth, including the addition of Data Science capabilities and the integration of Artificial Intelligence into our drone products.
Brian’s primary role as a Senior Program Manager is orchestrating the entire lifecycle of our drone products and managing the customer expectations throughout rapid prototyping, production, delivery, and sustainment. He ensures cost, schedule, and performance objectives are met by leading a diverse, cross-functional team that bridges engineering innovation, operational execution, and customer needs.
In every respect, Brian exemplifies what it means to be a leader and Program Manager of the Year. His balance of strategic vision, technical mastery, and operational discipline has delivered measurable results for our customers and positioned COLSA for continued success.
Grow with Us
As COLSA grows, we continuously seek qualified talent to join our Family of Professionals. Check out our Careers page to learn more about working for COLSA.
