Edwin Sapp

Ed Sapp has been writing, editing, and teaching in the business environment for over half a century. His experience encompasses the fields of law, national intelligence, finance and budget, literature, “head-hunting,” freelance publications, job search counseling, and career transition counseling. 

A Tar Heel, he was educated at the University of North Carolina (UNC) –– Chapel Hill (a BA in English with minors in math, music, philosophy, and psychology) – followed by a doctorate (in law) at UNC and a Masters in English at Johns Hopkins University. A graduate of the 12-month Industrial College of the Armed Forces National Security Management Course and the Air War College (both equivalent to Masters of Science degrees), he has continued his education with numerous management and technical training courses in a variety of subjects. From the law firm of Sapp and Sapp, he entered the Air Force JAG, then Intelligence, homeland defense, and ultimately pursued a 29-year civilian career at the National Security Agency (where he was professionally certified as an Intelligence Analyst, Computer Programmer, Human Resources Specialist, Editor, Acquisition Manager, and Budget Officer), interrupted by a four-year recall to active duty where he was promoted to colonel on the Air Staff as an advisor to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Air Force Intelligence.

The National Security Agency sent him to CIA for four years to train intelligence community analysts in computer programming, operations research, and information science techniques, including the core principles of
lean manufacturing and six sigma efficiencies. He was competitively selected for a year-long Fellowship on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Assistant, first to Representative Gunn McKay (Utah – Social Security and Military Support) and then Senator Robert Morgan (North Carolina – the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence). His last eight years at NSA were spent defending a $1.4 billion joint service RDT&E budget before the Congress while simultaneously serving in the Air Force Reserve as the senior Air Force liaison (an active duty position) to Lieutenant General James Thompson, Commander First US Army, for emergency preparedness and homeland defense issues involving 13 states and the District of Columbia, interacting daily with three regions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At NSA he wrote reports, studies, the Director’s testimony before the Congress, and a vast array of senior management correspondence. He supervised an aggregate of 90 officers hand-picked from all four branches and guided them through a three-year career development program to become general officers (including one who later became the highest ranking female general officer in the Army) and later was Deputy Director of the Ivy Bells Program (supervising time-sensitive translation of foreign language intelligence information). Professor Sapp has been teaching college-level writing for the past 50 years at a number of institutions, including the University of Maryland’s University College (where he served as the chair of the 400-level Professional Writing Courses until 2018 and was the author of the text book until recently used in the university’s Writing for Managers course). He also teaches at Norwich University, where he has developed courses in the management of dispersed teams, change management, cyber-security communication, and communication theory). He also has taught at Georgetown Graduate School of Business, Johns Hopkins, Anne Arundel Community College, Prince George’s Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the University of Alaska (in subjects ranging from psychology to English literature and what he calls the “survival skills” of advanced business, technical, and managerial writing). He trained recruiters at a local head-hunting firm (Technical Talent Locators) for a year, producing a 350-page recruiting and sales training manual for the firm. Then he was hired by Computer Sciences Corporation to write contract proposals for their ventures
in northern Virginia.

As a freelance writer, he wrote a newspaper column (“My House”) for two years and a national magazine column with the same title; and has published over 150 stories and articles in many national magazines on subjects ranging from religious conversion to new surgical techniques, antique automobile restoration, intelligence analytic techniques, acquisition management processes, and job search strategies in the 21st century. The “My House” series describes the adventures of his wife Jeannie, their eight children, and assorted pets (including a watch dog and several attack cats –– when anything happens, the dog watches and the cats have attacks, according to Professor Sapp).

For the past decade, his church volunteer positions have included an Employment Specialist at the local, area, and regional level as a Ward (local congregation) and Stake (regional/diocese) Specialist and at two Regional Employment Resource Centers of the LDS Church, working with clients from six states and the District of Columbia. During this period, he assisted over 8,000 students and clients obtain work at higher salaries with well over a 90 percent success rate. Most recently, he served as a Military Relations Specialist as a member of the Military Relations Committee of the DC North Mission of the LDS Church with the responsibility of assisting military and civilian families in transition, including guidance in their job search efforts. Currently he oversees the administration of a self-reliance training program (with job security, financial independence, and education/training components) for the 4,000-plus members of a regional component of his church.