Albuquerque, NM, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) is pleased to announce that Trent Mills, Ph.D., U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.), has joined its team to help drive innovation across ARA and lead efforts to transition cutting-edge technologies to the Warfighter.
As the former Special Assistant to the director of DARPA and senior strategist for the Director of the Army Staff, Mills brings decades of operational, academic, and strategic planning experience. His deep understanding of defense technology development will be instrumental in aligning the company’s research and development efforts with customer priorities, including through close coordination with DARPA and other key stakeholders.
“At ARA, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation to solve our nation’s toughest challenges,” said Jim Kainz, ARA Senior Vice President, Growth. “Dr. Mills’ proven leadership and strategic insight will support our mission to deliver transformative capabilities to our customers.”
Mills will oversee initiatives that keep ARA at the forefront of emerging technologies, with an emphasis on pioneering research and development in areas such as autonomous systems, bioscience, energetics, energy, information technology, material science, and advanced sensor technologies.
Throughout his career, Mills focused on aligning government action with mission-driven innovation in domains ranging from cyber resilience and artificial intelligence to food security and soldier welfare.
Prior to his work with DARPA, Mills was commissioned into the Army as a Transportation officer with assignments in Germany, Hungary, and Virginia. He then taught English Composition and Literature at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point before returning to the field as an Army strategist. His operational experiences include planning and problem framing challenges at U.S. Army Central, Multinational Forces-Iraq, Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, and the UK Army Headquarters supporting British Army future concepts, research, and experimentation.
Mills holds a B.A. in English from Gonzaga University, an M.A.in English from Washington State University, an M.S. in National Security and Strategy from the Naval War College, and a Ph.D. in English (Rhetorical Theory) from Georgia State University.
“I’m honored to join ARA at a time when strategic thinking and advanced technologies are more important than ever to national security,” Mills said. “I look forward to working with this exceptional team to accelerate innovation and deliver mission-critical capabilities.”
About ARA
Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) was founded in 1979, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to offer science and engineering research to solve problems of national importance. ARA delivers leading-edge products and innovative solutions for national defense, energy, homeland security, aerospace, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing. With over 2,300 employee-owners at locations in the U.S. and Canada, ARA offers a broad range of technical expertise in defense technologies, civil engineering, computer software and simulation, systems analysis, biomedical engineering, environmental technologies, and blast testing and measurement.
- Trent Mills, Ph.D., U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.)