Invited to Present 2022 & 2024 NDIA HUMAN SYSTEMS Conference

NDIA HS Mission

"NDIA’s Human Systems Division promotes the exchange of technical information and discussions between government, industry and academia, and the expansion of research and development in areas related to the human as a system whose performance must be integrated into any military system of systems. To this end, the division will serve as an infrastructure by providing a variety of ways for government, industry and academia to collaborate to advance human performance in air, land, sea, space and cyberspace through research, education and consultation."

NDIA HS Division

2024 KPERFORM™:The Role of the Vocal Process in HPOIPeDI & Warfighter Operational Readiness

Filling in the gaps in Brain Science research and innovation that directly impacts how we prime the systems for operational readiness of our warfighter, to the extent of cognitive performance and decision making under threat. The Brain-Body connection scholarly research lacks investigation of the vocal tract and its related vocal process as a part of that connection.

Dr. Kathy Raths: Physical voice quality can change from affective cognitive states induced by self-referential, valenced inner speech. Posture and respiration were considered because of the integral nature of bidirectional neurofeedback associated with the proprioceptive system underlying inner speech and its psychophysical bearing on vocal health. Findings indicated that significant physiological inner speech activation was detectable in voice quality.
Dr. Veera Asher: Prosody is defined as language patterns identified by stress, pitch, frequency, rhythm, intonation, and a rule-governed form of auditory stimulation that can move listeners emotionally in systematic ways. Some neurological evidence suggests a direct connection between musical and linguistic prosody.
Chris Culos: Verbal articulation rhythm and stress is percussive in nature and expresses itself throughout the body inclusive of the vocal tract and articulators used in speech. Specific biomechanical parameters coupled with respiratory rate and intensity, can be trained and demonstrated through balance and coordination, to optimize fine motor control agility in both the body and the voice.
Dr. Daniel Cooper: Warfighter performance to date does not include voice performance and quality of voice, when assessing overall human performance and operational readiness. Articulation and quality of phonation and resonation, is becoming more relevant because of neurological indicators that can be measured with real-time sensor based metrics related to the nervous system. Integration of prosody based exercises within strength and conditioning or speech pathology programs, can further enhance the warfighter’s execution of required motor skills needed to be performed within high threat, high consequence environments.

Kathryn J. Raths, Ph.D., LPC, Psychotherapy & Affected Cognitive States

Kathryn J. Raths, Ph.D., LPC, with decades of excellence in mental health, Dr. Raths has earned distinction as a psychotherapist with Still Waters Counseling, LLC. Since 2015, she has focused on addressing clients' diverse needs. She has led training meetings mentoring therapists on self-reflection and personal growth to help them become healthier individuals for enhanced professional effectiveness. She emphasizes the significance of self-talk by recognizing the influential power of words in either uplifting or diminishing effects on oneself and others. As part of this, she underscores the pivotal role of "I am" statements in shaping our behavioral health, patterns, and ability to generate positive energy.

Likewise dedicated to civil advocacy, Dr. Raths volunteered in a hospice role for veterans at the VA Ann Arbor Health Care. She offers discounted counseling services to existing clients facing financial challenges, ensuring uninterrupted therapy for those affected by job loss or urgent needs. Having experienced developmental trauma and economic hardship, she combines perseverance and a foundation in strong value systems to help her community as well as her patients. Dr. Raths has presented to business owners, geriatric populations, grief survivors, and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assaults. She has led workshops and facilitated groups at community centers, libraries, domestic violence shelters, county jails, prisons, senior centers, elementary schools, and in her clinical work environment.

Before her current role, Dr. Raths worked in sales and purchasing for the Yazaki Corporation for nine years and as purchasing director for Metalforming Technologies, primarily in the automotive industry. She co-created Affordable Rigging and Transportation with her husband, which they sold in 2023. Dr. Raths owned Lifetime Art Impressions LLC, where she authored "What Can I Say When Words Escape Me, Being Present in Times of Sorrow" in 2009. She credits much of her success to the love and support of her husband, who she described as her biggest cheerleader. Dr. Raths loves spending time with her husband and four adult children, especially when they travel together and explore the world.

Among her professional accomplishments, Dr. Raths was honored with an award for working as a volunteer, where she has served for more than a decade, since 2006, at Safehouse Center. She also received an Outstanding Counselor-Student award from Siena Heights University for achieving top student status in her class in 2015. Dr. Raths holds memberships with the American Counseling Association, Michigan Counseling Association, and the EMDR International Association.

Before embarking on her professional journey, Dr. Raths earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with a minor in e-commerce from Cleary University in 2001. Following this achievement, she attained a Master of Arts in clinical mental health counseling from Siena Heights University in 2015 and a Doctor of Philosophy in transpersonal psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2023. Well-qualified in her field, she is a licensed psychotherapist and LPC supervisor with the State of Michigan.

Looking to the future, Dr. Raths intends to broaden the reach of her mentorship services, including developing workshops centered around the influential role of self-talk and her unique voice research to shape therapists' perspectives of themselves and the subsequent engagement of their nervous systems to forward learned techniques through worldwide client mentorship. Her research emphasizes the mind-body connection, specifically, the integral and intertwined nature of the inner and outer voice related to physical and mental health. Dr. Raths plans on moving her newest business endeavor, Kathryn J. Raths, LLC, to an online forum to further advance her teaching endeavors.

Daniel Cooper, Ph.D. Combat Readiness Research & Innovation

Dr. Daniel Cooper, Ph.D.

Daniel is a human performance and behaviour specialist who focuses on improving individual and team performance in high-pressure, high consequence situations. Daniel provides a unique perspective that sits at the intersection of real-world experience, academic research, and high-performance development. Daniel has combined his extensive operational career from 22 years Military service with 18yrs within Special Operations in the Australian Special Air Service Regiment. With PhD research investigating the impacts of pressure and evidence-based training methodologies in Use of Force behaviours to improve the transfer of training to performance. Whilst serving Daniel also co-raised the Special operations high performance initiative whilst gaining a double master’s degree in high performance and integrated cognitive and physiological factors for improving performance. This experience has been complimented through, high-performance coaching in professional sports as well as personal pursuits in conquering the world’s toughest extreme endurance events across the planets most unforgiving environments.

In 2023, Dr. Cooper joined KPERFORM™️ as an Advisory Board Member, and as our Research and Innovation Specialist"

Member of the NDIA HS Division & Conf. Planning Committee

Veera Kharé Asher, DMA (voice), CSCS, BBV Systems Inventor & Master Trainer

Dr. Veera Kharé Asher, DMA (voice), CSCS, is a founding member and CEO at KM BBV Holdings, LLC dba KPERFORM™ and inventor of BrainBodyVoice™ (BBV) Systems. Her pioneering research and innovations for decision making under pressure or threat, coupled with actively training our SOF warfighters for operational readiness, recovery, recalibration and optimization of the combined physical, respiratory and cognitive human systems, has established BBV systems-based training protocols as a new category in human performance optimization, injury prevention and early disease intervention [HPOIPeDI].

Dr. Asher invented the BBV Systems-based methodology to introduce the role of the vocal process as a part of the holistic Brain-Body connection, whereby filling critical gaps in brain health and neuroscience research and innovation. She believes the integration of BBV systems-based analog and digital quantitative algorithms and prescriptive analytics, with other physical, cognitive and neurological methodologies or devices for human performance and warfighter operational readiness, would ensure a more comprehensive rules-based system to inform the machine learning [ML] that drives the AI for digital twin technologies.

Presenters/Authors at the ndia human systems conference 2024

Chris Culos, Drummer and Fine Motor Control Biomechanics

Chris Culos: BIO: "

Chris Culos is the co-founder of rock band O.A.R., widely accepted as one of the most successful independent bands of all time. Forming in high school in 1996 in Rockville, MD, the band then attended the Ohio State University before going on to tour the country for the next two and a half decades. In the early years, the band relied on word-of-mouth and grassroots approaches to grow their fanbase, fostering a die-hard audience and propelling the band into mainstream success with hit songs “That Was A Crazy Game of Poker”, “Peace”, “Love and Memories” and platinum-selling radio single “Shattered”. Now 25 years into their career, O.A.R. has sold over 2 million albums and 3 million concert tickets, including numerous sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks, USO trips across the US, Iraq and Kuwait, and performed live in Times Square on New Year's Eve. When not on tour Culos resides in Nashville, TN and is a drumming educator & clinician specializing in techniques that dive deep into mind-body connectivity. Culos recently joined the KPERFORM™️ Advisory Board in 2024.