Charles Konsitzke
Team Lead
Mr. Charles Konsitzke is the Associate Director of the UW Biotechnology Center and the Team Lead for the UW MIA RIP. Charles has been employed at the University of Wisconsin – Madison for 18 years. He has facilitated over $100M in research and administrative operation costs over his career at UW-Madison, and is exceptional at strategizing and developing all levels of research and non-research activities.
His family and extended family have served over 300 years within the military and participated in over a dozen conflicts from the Korean War through current conflicts.
He founded the UW Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project in 2015 after assisting with the identification efforts for Private First Class Lawrence S. Gordon in 2014. Mr. Konsitzke led the team in the successful recovery efforts of 1st Lieutenant Frank Fazekas near Buysscheure, France in summers 2016 and 2017, 2nd Lieutenant Walter B. Stone near Quercamps, France in summer 2018, as well as the team’s most recent American MIA service member attempted remains recovery mission in Western Europe in summer 2019, the efforts of which are ongoing.
Christopher A. Bradfield, PhD
Biological Principal Investigator
Dr. Chris Bradfield is a Professor in the Department of Oncology, and Director of the UW Biotechnology Center. Dr. Bradfield’s involvement with the UW MIA project is focused on the development of field identification analysis to improve accuracy and reliability, as well as to reduce site effort so that an increased number of projects can be completed. In his other research, Bradfield leads a transdisciplinary team of population health scientists, geneticists, molecular biologists, and clinician scientists to study the role of Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) sensors in environmentally-influenced diseases such as cancer and obesity. Their overarching goals are to increase understanding of PAS family signaling pathways and to develop interventions and therapeutic strategies to improve human and environmental health.
Dr. Bradfield traveled with the team in summer 2019 to assist with an attempted remains recovery mission in Western Europe, the efforts of which are ongoing.
Gregg Jamison, PhD
Field Principal Investigator
Dr. Gregg Jamison is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha. He received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Jamison is an archaeologist with broad interests including the origins of cities and states, prehistoric technology and craft production, and experimental and ethnoarchaeology. His primary research focuses on the Indus or Harappan Civilization (2600-1900 BCE) of ancient Pakistan an India, one of the world’s earliest and most unique urban societies. Dr. Jamison is the author of multiple peer-reviewed research articles and co-editor of two recently published edited volumes on ancient administrative technologies and current south Asian archaeological research. He has conducted fieldwork in India, Pakistan, Oman, France, and throughout the midwestern United States, especially Wisconsin.
Dr. Jamison joined the team in summer 2018 and traveled to the vicinity of Quercamps and La Wattine, France to assist with the successful recovery of the remains of 2nd Lieutenant Walter B. Stone, and again in summer 2019 to another location in Western Europe on an attempted remains recovery mission, the efforts of which are ongoing.
Kathleen Alfin, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (DPAA)
Dr. Kathleen (Kate) Alfin is the UW-Madison Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Research Partner Fellow, working as a full-time historian through the “Hub and Spoke” research program. In cooperation with the UW MIA RIP, her work supports the mission of the DPAA. As a historical research fellow, she responds to research requests placed through the DPAA. Dr. Kate Alfin received her PhD in History from UW-Madison in 2023. Her dissertation examined the deployment of an African American army unit to Liberia during the Second World War and her research interests center around the history of race, gender, and sexuality in the American military. A retired US Army officer and Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Dr. Alfin previously served as an Assistant Professor of History at the United States Military Academy. During her tenure at USMA, she taught courses on African history and the history of the US Army, led the History Department’s counseling and advising section, and received the History Department’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Lauren Jentsch
Student Lead Researcher
Ms. Lauren Jentsch is the Student Lead Researcher for the Project. She provides guidance and resources to student volunteers in their work on cases and manages whole-team efforts. Ms. Jentsch is currently studying Political Science and Legal Studies with certificates in Public Policy and Gender/Womens’ Studies. Ms. Jentsch eventually hopes to join a career in law and public service. She joined the MIA Project in Fall 2023, drawn to the historical research aspect of the cases and the Project’s impact on local Wisconsinites.
Ryan Wubben, MD
Field Physician
Dr. Ryan Wubben serves as the team physician for the MIA program. Dr. Wubben is a Clinical Associate Professor with the UW School of Medicine and Public Health; and is an Emergency Physician in the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine. As a board-certified emergency physician, he works full time with the UW Med Flight program and has also been the medical director of Med Flight since 2008. Dr. Wubben received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana with an emphasis on archaeology, before moving on to medical school here at UW-Madison. As an undergraduate, he did a field school with the SMU-in-Taos program at Pot Creek Pueblo outside of Taos, New Mexico where he learned the essentials of archaeological excavation. He then went on to spend two summers at Grand Canyon National Park working in Resources Management doing archaeological survey work in preparation for prescribed burns.
Dr. Wubben traveled with the team in both the summers of 2016 and 2017 to Northern France to assist with the successful recovery of the remains of 1LT Frank Fazekas, in summer 2018 to France again, this time to assist with the successful recovery of remains of 2LT Walter B. Stone, and in the summer of 2019, he traveled to Western Europe to assist with the team’s most recent MIA service member remains recovery attempt mission, the efforts of which are ongoing.
Denis Alfin, Historian
Denis Alfin is a part-time Researcher for the UW-Madison Missing-In-Action Recovery and Identification Project. Denis received an M.A. in history from UW-Madison in 2018, studying under Dr. John Hall. He served fourteen years as an active-duty US Army officer, including duties as an aeromedical evacuation pilot, an assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy (USMA), and as the Army Health Clinic SOUTHCOM deputy commander in Doral, Florida. While at USMA, he taught courses on American, Religious, and Foreign Policy History and received the Excellence in Teaching Award.
Denis left active military service in March of 2024 and returned to Madison with his wife, Kate, and son, Charlie. He serves in the Army Reserves as a Contemporary Historian for the United States Army Center for Military History. Denis is working toward becoming a physician in Wisconsin and hopes to matriculate into medical school in 2025.