listing/roster of Charleroi, Pennsylvania High School Graduates/Alumni


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    THE 70's
      John Woodward, '77
      Andrea Todora, '74
      James R. Moon, '73
      David Mudrick & Cindy Colvin, '74
      George Braunegg, '75
      Bob Burns, '76
      Bill Woytovich, '73
      Michael 'Reed' Popovich, '74
      Karen A. Theys, '74
      Keith Spear, '74
      Vicki DuJordan, '71
      Leslie Kibler, '77
      Valerie Marraccini, '76 & Dennis J. Stitch, '78
      Janey Potts, '75
      Joseph R. Scaccia, '75
      Cheryl Deep, '74
      Mark Mascara, '74
      Jeff Kossol, '71
      Philip J. Kellman, '72
      Sheri Monack, '75

Technical resource provides password to biometrics... By Dorothy Yagodich, TRIBUNE-REVIEW, March 16, 2003
In this age of password and PIN overload, biometrics emerges with a technology that recognizes people by physical characteristics and personal traits. Biometrics uses the human body as the password for access.

As an outgrowth of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an increased awareness of physical security and public safety has helped make biometrics attractive to government and business. It is no longer regarded as a fringe technology but rather perceived as mainstream. MIT Technology Review has named biometrics one of the "top 10 emerging technologies that will change the world."

Armed with a wealth of biometric information, three friends, John D. Woodward, Jr., Nicholas M. Orlans and Peter T. Higgins decided to produce a comprehensive one-volume technical resource for the professional or student involved in the science, and for the individual who knows nothing about the technology but wants to learn. The result is the 416-page book, "BIOMETRICS: Identity Assurance in the Information Age"(McGraw-Hill/Osborne, $49.95).

Woodward, a former resident of Charleroi, Washington County, is senior policy analyst at RAND, a public research organization. Woodward said RAND, a contraction of the term research and development, was one of the first organizaitons to be called a "think tank." His work at RAND includes national security, intelligence and technology policy issues.

Orlans, principal investigator for MITRE Corp., designs, develops and tests identity correlation and query systems for counterdrug and criminal justice agencies. He supports a number of U.S. Department of Defense projects in the area of information assurance.

Higgins, retired from the FBI, was involved with the world's largest fingerprint automation project. Now as a consultant, he provides support to federal and state agencies in procurement of biometrics systems.

The authors offer history and definitions of biometrics and do not hesitate to include chapters using other experts to provide a complete framework. They start with fundamentals and build upon them. Organized in five parts, the book offers an overview about authentication, different types of biometrics, technical perspective, privacy, policy and legal concerns and a review of biometric programs.

Fingerprints, the most widely recognized biometric marker, have come a long way from the "modern founding" in 1972 with the installation of a commercial finger measurement device on Wall Street. Fingerprinting is now one-third of the biometrics market.

Higgins said fingerprint matching has thwarted so-called "welfare queens." One in Los Angeles had a mansion and drove a Rolls Royce to pick up more than 30 welfare checks each month. Fingerprinting deters multiple identities that make possible "double-dipping" for entitlement payments. Authentication is needed and used to stop identity theft, password-guessing to gain computer access, as well as the theft of password tokens and smart cards.

Orlans discusses different types of biometrics, along with fingerprints, that prove enlightening. Hand geometry, palm prints, facial and voice recognition, iris and retina scanning, signature and keystroke dynamics open a world of study.

Interesting too, are esoteric biometrics, those still in early experimental and development stages. The potential is as diverse as the number of the body's measurable parts. Woodward and Orlans discuss vein patterns on the back of the hand, facial thermography or heat, DNA, sweat pores, hand grip, fingernail bed and body odor - all unique to any given individual. The shape of the ear, (it is said to be near impossible to meet with two ears which are identical in all their parts), a person's gait, skin luminescence, brain-wave pattern, foot and foot dynamics, are destined to become a part of "your body as password."

One challenge facing government is the sheer number of border crossings, Higgins said. Fifty million people enter this country every July and August, 18 per second, 24 hours every day. Facial recognition is vital for security, heightened in this age of terrorism.

Woodward provides an in-depth case study of Super Bowl surveillance in 2001. Tampa police used facial recognition as 20 surveillance cameras scanned spectators' faces at America's pre-eminent sporting event. Algorithms were used to measure facial features from the scanned images. Digitized, they were sent to search databases of suspected terrorists and known criminals from law enforcement files.

Woodward said the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attack, came to the United States with valid travel documents. "At least three were known to the Central Intelligence Agency and the Immigration and Naturalization Service." The agencies were advised to be on the lookout for Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, implicated in the USS Cole bombing. But when databases were checked, they had already passed procedures and were in the country. The FBI searched, "but it was like looking for two needles in a haytack," said Woodward. The pair is believed to have been on American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon. Had facial recognition with their digitalized images been in place, it would have kept Almihdhar and Alhazmi from entering the country, said the author.

In response, President George W. Bush on May 14, 2002, became the first U.S. president to refer to biometrics and to endorse its use by government. The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, in part, would require foreign visitors to carry a travel document. "Biometric identification of fingerprints or facial recognition" would deny fraudulent entry into America.

"The Department of Defense is very serious about biometrics, doing independent testing and evaluations more aggressively at a center in Clarksburg, W.Va.," Woodward said.

Business is also turning to biometrics. Financial institutions are using biometrics for improved customer services and enhanced security. Credit unions and some kiosks use fingerprint readers. MasterCard has been evaluating biometrics since 1995 and believes fingerprint technology is the best way to reduce credit card fraud, saving the industry billions of dollars. Woodward shows how casinos use boimetrics to spot undesirables as well as preferred customers. Hand geometry readers control access to restricted areas where money is concentrated.

Woodward's knowledge of the law manifests itself in his book as he delineates the balance between domestic security and civil liberties. As lead writer who dominates the latter half of the book, Woodward has an impressive legal-economic background. His doctorate is from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a Thouron Scholar at the London School of Economics and a graduate of the Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Woodward has given testimony before Congress and has worked for the CIA.

Woodward provides a study of the feasibility of a national identification system and its legal implications. Some see it as part of a solution to illegal immigration, while some lawmakers fear negative public reaction. A national ID card is sure to stir controversy and heated debate, he said.

Woodward explores these and other privacy issues such as Big Brother concerns, the policy on religious objections, public safety verses civil liberty, and constitutional considerations that involve biometrics. "With any new technology, public understanding of its operation and uses may mitigate many of the fears about Big Brother," he said.

This book is rich with footnotes, citing research data and court cases, to help the reader learn more about biometrics. Web sites are interspersed throughout its 19 chapters, and appendixes outline resources used in each chapter. The authors also offer a list of publicly held companies that offer biometric services.

The book will appeal to the professional as a reference, since each chapter stands alone. Biometric cognoscenti can skip chapters and go to those of their particular interest. For the individual wanting to learn, a start from the beginning leads the reader to uncover the complete biometrics picture.

For Woodward, law and biometrics are quite different from the quiet weekends spent at a Shenandoah Mountain retreat with his wife, Shirley, who served a year as law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The couple's favorite hobby is to don hip boots to fish for "brookies," as Woodward calls the brook trout that frequent mountain streams near their cabin.

Dorothy Zippay Yagodich is a 1952 graduate of CHS.

Former Charleroi man aids effort with biometrics... By Dorothy Yagodich, For The Tribune-Review, August 14, 2005
John D. Woodward returned from a May visit to Iraq with direct input from military personnel fighting the war on terrorism on how biometrics could better support their needs.

Biometrics is the technology of using parts of the body as measuring instruments to confirim identity.

Woodward, the author of the 2003 book "Biometrics" and director of the Department of Defense Biometrics Management Office, visited Camp Victory with Col. Terry Schmaltz, deputy commander of the National Ground Intelligence Center.

Woodward, formerly of Charleroi, and Schmaltz visited sites that employ biometrics to assess the effectiveness of DoD's biometrics efforts there.

"One of the greatest privileges while in-country," said Woodward, "was meeting with military personnel learning about successes in collecting fingerprints from detainees, and how their efforts have achieved matching national security threats using the Automated Biometric Identification System."

As a result of Woodward's visit with key personnel in Iraq, many improvements in information sharing can be implemented to enhance the process.

One such measure is the Biometric Identification System for Access, a $75-million DoD project that assists in-force protection initiatives for U.S. installations in Iraq.

Local foreign-nationals and other non-U.S. citizens who wish to work on U.S. bases must be granted access. A security system that ensures identity uses BISA that collects facial, fingerprint and iris data from employees. This information is then placed on a smart card. To be admitted, employees scan their card and place their finger on a wireless biometric reader at the entry station.

The need for improved security at overseas installations originates from a memo sent in May by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

Woodward said it took 35 days after the memo for a functional prototype demonstration for collected biometric data to be implemented. It was done with the help of BISA and members of anti-terrorism and homeland defense, intelligence, policy, central command, and the multi-national force in Iraq.

According to DoD officials, the initial BISA systems were to be fielded in Iraq beginning in July, with the remainder phased in throughout the summer and early fall. BISA will reach full operational capability by the end of October, according to Woodward's information.

DoD's biometrics support U.S. efforts in the global war on terrorism, said Min Chong, a program manager at the Biometrics Management Office, speaking at an information assurance workshop held in June at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

"Working with capable and dedicated people," Woodward said, "has catapulted the DoD into the forefront of the nation's biometrics efforts to protect our war fighters and our country from national security threats around the world."

For his visit to Iraq, Woodward flew into Kuwait on a commercial flight, then on to Baghdad International Airport on a military C-130 flight. He found Baghdad "hot, with the temperature at 100 degrees but no humidity," adding, "when you wear the body armor and helmet in the heat, it gets very hot and you are soon drenched in sweat."

Woodward said he felt "extremely fortunate" that the two weeks he spent in Baghdad were "extremely quiet."

Improvised explosive devices placed on or near roads are the biggest killers of troops in Iraq. "Accordingly, you are most nervous when you go out on a convoy -- when you can be targeted in your vehicle," Woodward said.

Precautions can be taken, such as posting gunners, ensuring route security, driving in an unpredictable way and looking for any unusual activity. "However, you are still vulnerable," he said.

"I have the greatest respect for the men and women serving in the U.S. military in Iraq," Woodward said. "They have a dangerous, demanding job under tough conditions. They perform their work with dedication and a sense of humor. I came away with a heightened appreciation of the quality, professionalism and determination of the U.S. military."

Woodward agreed with a statement by Schmaltz: "The troops are true American heroes."

So it was "with mixed emotions" that Woodward departed in mid-July from DoD Biometrics and accepted a position as associate director of RAND Corp.'s Intelligence Policy Center, working in RAND's Arlington, Va., office. RAND is a public policy research organization headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., with offices in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. The Pittsburgh office has a staff of 85.

Woodward is the son of Olga Woodward, of Fallowfield Township. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. As a Thouron Scholar at the London School of Economics, Woodward received his master's degree in economics. He received his bachelor's degree in economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The 1977 graduate of Charleroi High School is married to the former Shirley Cassin. The couple resides near the nation's capital.

Dorothy Zippay Yagodich is a 1952 graduate of CHS.