Jim Kvach retired as Chief Scientist of the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (AFMIC) in March 2006 after fourteen years in the position, which involved medical intelligence assessments and forecasts on foreign civilian and military health care systems, infectious disease occurrence, environmental health risks, life science technologies, and Homeland Defense/Homeland Security. In 2006, Jim created Kvach Consulting, which provides scientific and technical advice and assessments on chemical, biological and radiological defense, biotechnology, nanotechnology, international public health, and information technology. Following retirement, he became Chief Technology Officer for the Chemical Biological Radiological Technology Alliance (CBRTA), a quasi-governmental organization, which brought Federal Government and US industry together for research, development, and prototype development. Jim continues to lecture on international public health issues and serve as a scientific and technical consultant for the US intelligence community.

Jim was born in Lorain, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in microbiology in 1968 and a Master of Science in microbiology from Miami University in 1973. He received a Ph.D. in microbiology from Miami University in 1977, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University the following year.

Before coming to DIA in 1985, Jim spent 8 years in academia as a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health, and George Washington University's School of Medicine and Health Sciences where he taught and conducted laboratory and field research on leprosy. Prior to his assignment at AFMIC, Jim headed the Life Sciences Branch (1988-1992) at DIA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and served as a senior scientific and technical analyst (1985-1988). He retired from the United States Air Force Reserves in July 1996 after 26 years of active and reserve duty as an Air Intelligence Officer.