NMPED – Black Education Act

Plasma physicist and developer of community-centered anti-oppression flourishing futures, Professor James, an expert innovator, has demonstrated outcomes to further the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Coast Guard, Air Force, and the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics STEM and workforce initiatives.

Industry and academic experts routinely leverage plasma physics and expertise as the Air Force Institute of Technology Chief Workforce Officer for over 10,000 in-person and remote members. He is the lead “Healthy to Innovative” spaces integrator and STEM-mindedness cultivator for over 3,000 professional society members. Dr. James is a consummate academic and military service professional empowering hiring, project development, and innovative climates for over a thousand individuals over the past 27 years. His plasma physics and workforce development expertise is routinely sought by experts such as DOE Office of Science’s Workshop on Fusion Energy Development via public-private partnerships for the White House, the Fusion Energy Company’s Advisory Board, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Fusion Energy and Nonproliferation Workshop SME, and Inertial Fusion Energy Basic Research Needs – Workforce Development Crosscut Panel.

Professor James also served as a founding member of New London’s Science, Technology, and Mathematics Magnet School and a member of the Nuclear Energy Advisory Council for the state of CT.

Royce is a recently retired Coast Guard Captain (O6) as a member of the Permanent Commissioned Teaching Staff at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy with an earned academic rank of full professor. With a doctorate in plasma physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, a master’s in plasma physics from the Applied Physics Department at Columbia University, and a B.S. in physics with minors in music and mathematics from New Mexico State University, Royce has expertise in both our burgeoning fusion/plasma ecosystem and leadership, workforce development, and community futures development.

A US Coast Guard active duty military member with over 28 years of enlisted and over service, Royce has served as the Coast Guard Academy Plasma Lab (CGAPL) director for over fifteen years. In that time, more than 34 undergraduate, 8 master’s, and three Ph.D. students, plus a PostDoc, have matriculated through CGAPL with 24 associated student presentations at national conferences and six publications.

In 2025, Professor James established the Howard University Plasma Lab (HUPL) as its executive director. HUPL is a nexus for problem-posed hands-on undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and researcher (early career to emeritus) exploratory pedagogy. The lab’s focus is on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) physics and other applications that positively impact our communities. HUPL is where investigations into plasma physics experiments are required to identify and conceive solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s scientific challenges. Experiments currently take shape in four general research areas:

• Fusion energy and (high temperature and density) plasma propulsion diagnostic development on the Helicon plasma Experiment (HPX)
• Low-temperature and density plasma water treatment investigations
• Space plasma and weather studies
• Cosmochemistry research into the origins and evolution of our solar system

Helicon plasmas in a low-pressure regime and a discharge plasma in the standard temperature and plasma (STP) regime are being explored with typical magnetic, particle, optical, and emissive probes and other diagnostics that will be developed as learning tools and for use in experiments. CGAPL utilizes a Quantel 2.5 J high-energy laser for Thomson Scattering, as they continue to expand their data collection ability. These purchases are moving the lab toward the development of invaluable diagnostics on the Helicon Plasma Experiment (HPX) to yield real-time, simultaneous measurements of electron plasma temperature and density can be measured with a high degree of accuracy using a high-energy laser beam pulse.

Research at HUPL leverages working relationships with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Naval Research Lab (NRL), and Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Air Force Research Lab’s Directed Energy Joint Technology Office (DE-JTO), the Coast Guard, and other stakeholders have contributed in resourcing these initiatives.

American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics Organizing Collective Committee: this grassroots Organizing Collective Committee (OCC) was assembled to better ascertain DPP’s current STEM-workforce development health and move forward in creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive DPP. Generally, plasma physicists are not subject matter experts in issues of climate and STEM-workforce development, so the OCC recommendations for outside support are vital. In particular, the OCC connected outside subject matter experts to study the climate within plasma physics via the division. OCC has determined that more specific STEM-workforce development training is required to unpack this data effectively. The OCC encourages the DPP to implement evidence-based near-term actions that promote a positive climate, such as training in cultural competence for all members, psychological safety, and bystander intervention for program managers and principal investigators; enacting new internship and funding opportunities for historically marginalized groups; and adopting a human relations code & bias incident policy at institutions and technical meetings.

Leading change: Professor James created a “Modied Healthy to Innovative Framework” from Dr. Kimberly McLear’s “Healthy to Innovative Framework” (HTI®Framework) that begins with psychological safety, followed by moral courage, cultural competence, community, justice, mission readiness, and finally innovation. The Modied HTI® Framework is highly versatile in its application to both groups and institutions. Professor James and Dr. McLear have extensively taught and guided its application. From years of experience, Royce created a theory of change that centers on the transformative development of Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) and the HTI®Framework for implementation by the OCC. This theory of change employs the Modied HTI®Framework in a three-phase approach: planning, early implementation, then assessment and improvement, with a DTS logic model as the evolutionary driver for each of the three.

Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Chief Workforce Officer (CWO): develops, implements, executes, and influences policies related to the workforce by guiding, facilitating, and evaluating critical processes on behalf of the institute. AFIT, like much of the military, faced issues of division, extremism, and marginalization that stifled servicemember cohesion, mission readiness, and innovation. As the CWO, Royce:

• Guided the institution to develop equitable hiring and enrollment management strategies for recruitment and retention of talented students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds with an emphasis on AFIT’s climate as the central catalyst.
• Cultivated solid professional relationships across the AFIT and Air Force community through engagements with personnel
• Advised the Director and Chancellor on sensitive/confidential issues to achieve mission goals.
• Taught, mentored, and advised personnel to develop knowledge, competencies, strategies, and actions to foster psychological safety in the workplace to realize STEM-workforce goals. Exports resulted in comprehensive and integrated action plans to support the AFIT strategic plan and designed assessment methods and techniques to measure progress toward desired outcomes.