Marlon Ferguson

Chief Executive Officer

Marlon Ferguson, a decorated U.S. Navy veteran, joined NAVREF in 2022 as CEO with over 30 years of diverse business management/development, non-profit leadership, and community and government relations experience. Before joining NAVREF, Marlon served as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Regional Director for United States Senator Bob Casey. He acted as the Senator's ambassador to the community, government, corporations, constituent groups, and leaders.

Marlon is an altruistic, servant leader whose life's motto is "leave the world better than you found it." He believes that effective organizations are candidly collaborative, fierce in their advocacy, and must be in the trenches with clients to provide superior outcomes.

Marlon holds a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper Graduate School's Executive Leadership Academy.

Hawk Tran, MPH

Chief Operating Officer

Hawk Tran joined NAVREF in 2014 with a background in military health affairs, epidemiology, and public health administration. After his service in the United States Army Medical Service Corps, Hawk worked in public health focusing on STD/HIV Epidemiology where his main activities included disease investigation, applied intervention, as well as community health education. A short-term Army assignment at the Pentagon within the Office of the Secretary of Defense brought Hawk to Washington, DC where he resides today. Hawk holds a Master of Public Health degree from American Public University, a B.A. in International Relations from Florida International University, and a graduate certificate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the University of South Florida. He is also a graduate of the Health Administration Officer Program at Ft. Sam Houston, TX, and the Tropical Medicine Course at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, MD.

Derwood Haskell, JD

General Counsel

Woody Haskell joined NAVREF as General Counsel after retiring from more than 30 years’ service in VA’s Office of General Counsel (OGC). During his VA career, Woody provided legal advice and services to agency officials at the highest level and in virtually every segment of VA operations, including several years of service on OGC’s Specialty Team Advising Research. He has an impressive record representing VA in employment law and intellectual property rights litigation. He served in the United States Marine Corps infantry reserve and U.S. Army JAG Corps reserve. Woody is a graduate of Bates College and New England Law.

Priscilla West, MPH

Development Advisor

Priscilla West joins NAVREF with over 30 years of experience in research administration and program development. She served for ten years as Executive Director of VERANNE, the VA nonprofit corporation serving northern New England. Prior to that, she was Associate Director of the Clinical Research Office at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Cancer Center. She is dedicated to helping VA nonprofit corporations make optimal use of local and national resources, so they can reach their maximum potential in serving Veterans. Her personal passion is broadening and facilitating Veteran access to clinical trials, capitalizing on the rich administrative and data resources available through both VA and NPC organizations.

Ms. West is a graduate of Bates College and holds a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Yale University.

Peter Martin

Program Support Specialist

Peter Martin joins NAVREF to serve as program support specialist after spending time in the education sector. Peter attended the University of Denver where he earned his BA in International Studies with focuses on human rights, non-governmental organizations, and security. After graduating in 2019, Peter spent time abroad teaching English in both vocational and secondary schools in the suburbs of Paris. After his arrival to the District, he quickly enveloped himself in the DC community by service as a media and communications intern for Green Neighbors DC, helping proliferate community climate action within the city. Bolstered by credentials in Spanish and French, Peter last served as content specialist for foreign language standardized testing.