Edward Alden blogs on border security, visa policy and immigration issues. He formerly served as Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times and as project director for the Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy. Alden is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), specializing in U.S. economic competitiveness, and is currently directing the CFR Independent Task Force on U.S. Trade Policy. Alden is the author of The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11.
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Chris Battle blogs primarily on Gov’t 2.0; radical ideology and the Internet; the “politics of homeland security”; immigration; crisis communications; and strategic communications strategies within the homeland security environment. He also serves as editor of the Security Debrief blog. After September 11th, Battle worked as an adviser during the creation of the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security. After the Department officially stood up in 2003, Battle was appointed Director of Public Affairs and later Chief of Staff for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Battle led public affairs campaigns promoting operations that ranged from weapons and human smuggling to financial crimes to national crack-downs on illegal immigration. Prior to his service at DHS, Battle was Chief of Congressional and Public Affairs at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Battle is a partner at the Adfero Group, where he leads the firm’s Homeland Security Strategic Communications Practice.
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Robert Blitzer blogs on law enforcement, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, emergency management, and public health and medical emergency response. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in Charge of the Office of Emergency Operations and Security Programs, in the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Department of Health and Human Services. He also served as an FBI Special Agent for 26 years. Mr. Blitzer is currently a vice president and homeland security senior fellow atICF International. He is also a senior fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.
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Michael Braun blogs primarily on narcotics trafficking and its relationship to terrorist organization and terror financing; federal law enforcement; and intelligence matters. Braun brings decades of experience in law enforcement and drug policy expertise. Recently, Braun retired as the Chief of Operations (domestic and international) with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Prior to 2003, Braun headed the Office of Special Intelligence and later led the entire Intelligence Division. He was also appointed by the Deputy Attorney General to serve as the first interim director of the new Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Intelligence Fusion Center. Braun was also responsible for leading the formative development of this multi-agency, national drug intelligence center that supports the national drug strategy and our nation’s war on terrorism.
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Dr. Steven Bucci blogs primarily on cyber security and homeland defense issues. Bucci, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense at the Department of Defense, is a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation for all issues involving Homeland Security and Defense. Bucci brings years of leadership at the highest levels of our Government in response to ongoing threats to America, including various leadership positions during his 28 years in the U.S. Army and Military Assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He is a recognized expert on cyber security as well as the interagency and private-public processes as they involve the defense of US interests domestically.
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Frank Cilluffo blogs on homeland security and counterterrorism policy, including counter-radicalization, intelligence, and cyber threats. He previously served as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and before that was appointed by the President to the newly created Office of Homeland Security, where he served as a principal advisor to Tom Ridge. Cillufo is currently Associate Vice President at The George Washington University and Director of the university’s Homeland Security Policy Institute.
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Dr. Joseph Clark blogs on military doctrine, national security strategy, and organizational learning. Clark is a policy analyst at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute. Clark has written on counterinsurgency doctrine, piracy, police intelligence, and the US Army’s ability to innovate doctrine in the face of strategic failure in Vietnam and Iraq. In addition to his position at The George Washington University, Dr. Clark is an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
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Rich Cooper blogs a variety of homeland security matters, with a particular focus on emergency perparedness and response and the role of the private sector in national homeland security policy. Cooper led efforts to build private/public partnerships to improve emergency preparedness as the Business Liaison Director in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Private Sector Office. Prior to his work at DHS, he served as the Senior Policy Advisor at NASA Headquarters within both the Office of the NASA Administrator as well as its Office of Education and Public Affairs Office. He is currently vice president of Research & Emerging Issues for the National Chamber Foundation (NCF) and is a principal with Catalyst Partners, a homeland security consulting firm.
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Akram R. Elias blogs on international cultural affairs and intelligence as they relate to terorrism and homeland security matters. Elias has over 22 years of professional experience as a consultant in the areas of public diplomacy, cross-cultural training, and communication. He has worked extensively with the U.S. Department of State and is the President of Capital Communications Group, Inc., a Washington D.C.-based firm that provides services in public diplomacy, cross-cultural communication, and international business networking.
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Marty Ficke blogs on transnational organized crime; smuggling; terror financing and terrorist/criminal conspiracies at ports; and federal law enforcement strategies. Ficke has more than 30 years of federal law enforcement experience, most notably as the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In this capacity, he oversaw the El Dorado Financial Crimes Task Force, considered one of the premier financial crimes investigative organizations in the nation. He is currently the Director of Operations for SES Resources.
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George Foresman blogs primarily on resiliency; emergency preparedness; and crisis response strategies. Foresman has more than twenty years of public safety and crisis response experience. He served as the first Under Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As the number three official at DHS he led efforts to harmonize national readiness through the creation of integrated all-hazards domestic prevention, protection, response and recovery capabilities. Prior to his work for DHS, Foresman served as the Assistant to the Governor of Virgina on preparedness as well as the Homeland Security Adviser in Virginia, a cabinet level position in the Administration of former Governor Mark Warner. From 1999 to 2003, he served as a member and vice-chair of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Corporate Crisis Response Officers Association.
Dr. Marc Frey blogs primarily on homeland security policy, aviation and border security, law enforcement, and counterintelligence. Frey is the former Chief of Staff for the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), working with policies regarding aviation and border security, travel and trade facilitation, and international information sharing and law enforcement cooperation. He also served DHS as Director of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and Senior Advisor to the Department’s Chief Security Officer. He is currently Senior Director at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP.
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Jeff Gaynor blogs on critical infrastructure and national resilience. He created and served as the Director of the Emergency Response Senior Advisory Committee and Critical Infrastructure Task Force, Homeland Security Advisory Council. Mr. Gaynor also served as Secretary of Defense Staff as Special Assistant for Homeland Security; Acting Principal Director for Security and Information Operations and Director of Year 2000 (Y2K) Operations. He is a (ret.) U.S. Army Colonel and the founder of American Resilience Consulting, LLC.
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Stephen Heifetz blogs primarily on aviation, transportation and maritime security, immigration and border security, and homeland security policy. Heifetz is the Former Deputy and Acting Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Policy Development. He has also served with the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency and is a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP.
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Justin Hienz writes about radicalization, al Qaeda, aviation security, and religious and Middle Eastern affairs. He formerly worked with Adfero Group’s Homeland Security strategic communications practice and a security consulting firm in the Arabian Gulf. Hienz is an independent writer and editor and is also Security Debrief’s editor.
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Janice Kephart blogs on border and identity security and programs; the implementation of 9/11 Commission recommendations, especially as they pertain to terrorist travel; and leadership and organizational issues concerning the Department of Homeland Security. She previously served as counsel for the 9/11 Commission and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Technology, and she is currently Director of National Security Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
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Chris Krebs blogs on critical infrastructure protection issues, particularly matters related to Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) re-authorization and compliance. He formerly served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection and is currently Vice President for Dutko Global Risk Management, a division of Dutko Worldwide.
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Randall Larsen blogs on weapons of mass destruction proliferation, bioterrorism, military strategy and operations, and counterterrorism. He previously served as the executive director of the Congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, the founding director of The Institute for Homeland Security, and as the chairman of the Department of Military Strategy and Operations at the National War College. He is currently the chief executive officer of the WMD Center, the national security advisor at the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and a senior fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.
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Dr. Matthew Levitt blogs on counterterrorism, countering violent extremism and combating the financing of transnational threats. Previously, Levitt served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and before that as an FBI counterterrorism analyst. Levitt is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and holds fellowships with the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) and the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. Levitt is the author of the forthcoming book, Hezbollah’s Global Reach: The Worldwide Presence of the “Party of God.”
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Robert Liscouski is founder and Managing Director of Edge360, an enterprise risk management and technology solutions firm and a founder of Steel City Re, a firm specializing in reputation risk and intangible asset risk management. Previously, Director of Information Assurance, The Coca-Cola Company and President and CEO of Content Analyst Company, LLC, a developer of text analytics software.
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Anthony Macisco blogs on security as it relates to supply chain issues, cross-border concerns, bank security and general issues affecting critical infrastructure and key resource (CIKR) sectors. Previously, he served with the U.S. Customs Office of Investigations, where he co-created the Americas’ Counter-Smuggling Initiative ACSI program, which is the forerunner to the current Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program. Macisco is currently a partner with The Densus Group, an international consulting firm specializing in public order management techniques for foreign and domestic government agencies.
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Ronald Marks blogs on national security, domestic intelligence and national intelligence issues. He spent 16 years at the Central Intelligence Agency as both a clandestine services officer and a Congressional liaison to five Directors of CIA. Marks is a Senior Fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and Adjunct Professor for Intelligence and National Security at the National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs.
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Lynn Mattice blogs on business intelligence and counterintelligence, risk identification, analysis and mitigation, and risk and information control systems. He formerly served as Vice President and Chief Security Officer for Boston Scientific and as a Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Intellectual Property Law Institute. He is currently Managing Director of Mattice & Associates and a Senior Fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.
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Nadav Morag blogs on intelligence, counterterrorism and Middle Eastern affairs. Morag formerly served as Senior Director for Domestic Policy and as Senior Director for Foreign Policy at Israel’s National Security Council, where he worked with a team of other senior officials from the Israeli Military, Domestic Security Service, Mossad, Foreign Ministry and Police. He is a faculty member and Deputy Director for Policy Research at the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS), United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and is a Senior Fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI).
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Julie Myers Wood blogs about a variety of immigration, national security and transnational crime issues. Myers Wood began her government service as a career prosecutor, and her views are shaped by her law enforcement work at four different cabinet agencies – Justice, Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Security. From January 2006 to November 2008, Myers Wood served as Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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David Olive blogs on the homeland security industry and management issues related to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Olive is the Moderator of the Washington Homeland Security Roundtable, Inc. a non-profit organization comprised of private sector companies involved in the homeland security marketplace, and is a principal with Catalyst Partners, a top government relations and public affairs firm specializing in homeland security matters.
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Jeff Robertson blogs on crisis management, maritime security, immigration, border security, and homeland security strategic communications. He last served in government as CBP’s Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs – the principal communications executive responsible for public relations, messaging, branding, media relations and communication strategy. As part of Adfero Group’s Homeland Security Practice, Jeff provides strategic communication and messaging advice to a broad array of homeland security, national security and law enforcement organizations and companies.
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Sam Rosenfeld blogs on protestor management, security sector reform, and the intersection of security and financial issues. Rosenfeld is a former British Army infantry officer who served for 11 years in many of the world’s most contentious areas, including Iraq, Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Sierra Leone. As the Staff Officer for Close Protection at the Iraq Survey Group, he created and commanded the military executive protection teams responsible for protecting many of the Iraq Study Group and other high-value personnel in Iraq. He is the chairman of the Densus Group, a use-of-force and private security consulting and training firm.
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Steve Serrao blogs about issues related to fusion centers, law enforcement information sharing, intelligence management and compliance issues. Serrao served as Captain in the New Jersey State Police for 25 years working in the homeland security, counterterrorism and intelligence arenas. Serrao is currently Director of Product Management, Americas Region for the Memex solutions team at SAS.
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Patrick Shen blogs about immigration policy and homeland security. He previously served as Policy and Planning Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as Chief Immigration Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as Special Counsel for Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practices in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Shen is currently a partner in the Fragomen immigration law firm, where he is senior member of the firm’s Corporate Compliance Committee.
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Wendell Shingler blogs on matters related to critical infrastructure; facilitiy security; private security; surviellance; and federal law enforcement. Shingler is the former Executive Director of the National Incident Response Unit at U.S. Immigrations & Customs Enforcement. He also served as the Director of Homeland Security’s U.S. Federal Protective Service, which is resonsible for the security of federal government buildings. Prior to his service at DHS, Shingler was a senior executive of of the U.S. Marshals Service. As the Marshals Service, he served in a variety of senior management positions, ending his tenure as the Deputy Assistant Director for Judicial Security. In this position, he was responsible for the physical security of the nation’s judicial employees and facilities
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Erroll Southers blogs on aviation and transportation security, violent radicalization and counterterrorism matters. Southers is a former FBI Special Agent, President Barack Obama’s first nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Transportation Security Administration, and Assistant Chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence at the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department. Southers is currently Associate Director of the National Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) and Managing Director of the Counter-Terrorism and Infrastructure Protection Division at TAL Global Corporation.
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Seth Stodder blogs on homeland legal issues, surveillance and data privacy matters, border security, immigration policy, and supply chain security. Stodder served as Director of Policy and Planning for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and as Counselor/Senior Policy Advisor to CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. He is currently President and CEO of Palindrome Strategies, LLC, a Senior Fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, and a Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
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Jeffrey Sural serves as counsel in the Legislative & Public Policy Group at Alston & Bird, LLP. He will focus his practice on homeland security and transportation matters on Capitol Hill and in federal government agencies. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Sural served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, appointed by Secretary Michael Chertoff in October 2007. There, he served as the Secretary’s primary liaison to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was responsible for advising the Secretary on congressional actions, legislative strategy and hearing preparation.
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L. Vance Taylor blogs primarily on critical infrastructure matters, with a particular focus on port and water critical infrastructure concerns. Taylor is a principal with Catalyst Partners who has worked to advance the mission of homeland security on Capitol Hill and in the private sector. One of only approximately 250 people in the nation with a Master’s degree in Homeland Security, Mr. Taylor combines specialized educational training with real-world experience to leverage successful outcomes for clients and stakeholders.
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David Trulio writes about homeland security policy, domestic and international coordination, and defense issues. He formerly served as Special Assistant to the President and the Executive Secretary of the Homeland Security Council, and is currently a private sector security expert and a Senior Fellow at The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.
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C. Stewart Verdery, Jr. blogs on a diverse range of security policy issues. Verdery served as the first Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where he supervised policy development at agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration. He is the founder of Monument Policy Group, a public policy and homeland security consulting firm.
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