Brian Kritzman - Professor of Fine Arts & Design, Wayne State University
April 15, 2013, Lamees worked with Brian in the same group
I worked with Lamees for about 2 years the major outcome was an exhibit about design anthropology at Wayne State University. In that time she consistently impressed me with her thorough understanding, smart transference of knowledge and sensitive visual abilities. A wonderful combination of attributes and one of the nicest people you will meet.
Mike Denning - Director Professional Military Graduate Education, University of Kansas
August 1, 2013, Mike managed Lamees directly
During her time as a social scientist with BAE Systems and the Dept of Army, Lamees was highly regarded for her discipline, research rigor, critical thinking, and overall professionalism. She was highly adaptable in a myriad environments -- a skilled academic in the classroom; a cultural expert amongst Iraqi tribal leaders; and a valued staff member in an Army Division. Lamees is value added to any team and I offer her my highest endorsement.
James C. Carlson - Civil Affairs Sergeant, HHC 354 CA BDE, Department of Army
November 29, 2018, Lamees worked with James in the same group
Both Lamees Sweis and I worked in a cultural advisory role with the US Brigade in charge of operations in Baghdad Province in 2010 - 2011. During this time, Lamees planned, designed and executed research projects, including both research and analysis protocols, that provided socio-cultural understandings and recommendations to the Brigade Commander and Staff. While working in Baghdad, Lamees demonstrated an impressive ability to develop and conduct research that influenced the Brigade Commander's decision making process. These efforts included defining research objectives, analyzing knowledge gaps, determining the methodological feasibility of research, formulating research questions, selecting collection and analysis methods, and developing appropriate research instruments such as interview protocols and surveys using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, conducting interviews and focus groups, and performing procedural analysis of the data. Lamees also demonstrated a professional-level ability to present research findings through the means of a number of deliverables that included formal papers, matrices, and PowerPoint slides and presentations. She also routinely analyzed the area of operations against socio-cultural data, and this enabled her to write weekly information papers and to conduct weekly formal PowerPoint briefings for the Brigade Staff on a range of socio-cultural issues of importance to the success of the supported unit's mission.
During our time working together in Baghdad, Lamees contributed positively to the overall effort. I always knew her to be responsible, reliable, and able to meet deadlines, and she consistently communicated complex subjects in a way that was both easy to understand and relevant to the supported unit’s mission. While she demonstrated an ability to conduct mixed methods research, her true strength was as an ethnographer. I was particularly impressed by her ability to take a balanced approach to ethnographic research by looking at such things as the relationship between research subjects and their physical environment, local languages and their role in how people make sense of things, and between patterns of behavior and material culture. Her moral compass was also strong which was of particular importance given the environment within which she conducted her research. She always took the application of ethics at all stages of her research quite seriously and made sure that those with whom she worked were well versed in ethics from the perspective of social science and the field of anthropology. She also demonstrated an impressive amount of intellectual ability and curiosity with a penchant to tackle complex issues to a degree that I have seldom seen thus far in my military career. Aside from the aforementioned research, an example of her intellectual inclinations was her establishment of a discussion group that held meetings to discuss current issues within Arab and Islamic culture.
Due to our time spent working together, I feel confident that Lamees Sweis would be successful in the pursuit of her career interests.