Biography

Kirsten M. Koepsel, Director, Intellectual Property and Industrial Security, is responsible for looking at policy issues relating to counterfeiting and piracy, computer crime, theft of intellectual property by employees, protection of data submitted to the US government, the security clearance backlog and tax.

Koepsel joined AIA after finishing her LL.M. at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology. Her LLM coursework included the protection of patents and copyrights internationally, computer crime, as well as technology transfer. Prior to that, she worked for the University of Texas at Arlington supporting the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center. Her area of expertise was implementation of environmental management systems and improving manufacturing processes.

Kirsten also worked for over 11 years at General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems as an engineer in both research and development and manufacturing and for various aircraft programs including the F-16, F-22, STOVL, VTOL and the National Aerospace Plane (NASP). Areas of concentration were high temperature metals, metal matrix composites and the effect of hydrogen on materials.

Koepsel also earned a JD at Franklin Pierce Law Center concentrating on intellectual property and a bachelor of science in metallurgical engineering from the University of Tennessee. She also holds two degrees from Kansas State University in grain science and microbiology. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at UNH School of Law. She teaches courses in counterfeiting.