Counteterrorism Heroes Honored at HSToday Vacation Awards
Homeland Safety At the moment’s annual Vacation Hero Awards honor those that have made lasting contributions to our nation’s safety and risen to satisfy myriad challenges, recognizing those that have devoted their careers to creating our nation safer throughout the homeland safety enterprise and those that have used their skills, dedication, or platform to contribute to a safer nation.
Listed below are the winners within the border safety and customs and immigration discipline. (Learn the complete checklist of HSToday Award winners and Mission Award winners.)
HOMELAND SECURITY PERSON OF THE YEAR
The GTSC Homeland Safety At the moment Individual of the Yr is awarded to individuals who serve the homeland safety mission in an exemplary trend. These people have immediately improved, executed, and/or engaged the right folks, businesses, or departments essential to tangibly enhance the nation’s prevention, safety, mitigation, or response capability to make America safer.
PERSON OF THE YEAR: LOCAL
Sergeant Michael Satter, Deputy Director, Kansas Metropolis Regional Fusion Heart, Kansas Metropolis Missouri Police Division
His management and persistence to enhance private-sector outreach helped result in his choice as a member of the Nationwide Fusion Heart Affiliation’s Government Board and an April 2022 appointment as co-chair for the Central Area, the place he immediately represents 16 of the 80 fusion facilities within the nationwide community. In 2022, Satter delivered a number of instructional shows on the federal, native, and personal partnership ranges. He served as a keynote presenter and coach on the Nationwide Fusion Heart Affiliation Annual Coaching Occasion and the Nationwide Homeland Safety Convention to coach and share finest practices for bettering info sharing and academic initiatives for private-sector companions to enhance menace reporting and evaluation. Satter took the result in interact with non-public, native, state, and federal businesses to seize correct regional knowledge. He helped evaluation the evaluation on, and syntheses of, info that led to Kansas Metropolis’s metropolitan space being awarded the federal designation as an City Space Safety Initiative (UASI) metropolis in 2022. Satter is a acknowledged principal contributor for cover and resiliency planning within the multi-state (Missouri and Kansas) area. He served on a number of regional committees such because the Mid-America Regional Council’s Regional Homeland Safety Coordinating Committee, together with key participation on regional terrorism and bio/agriculture conferences to facilitate non-public and public understanding of threats, dangers, and penalties. His insights have been instrumental in these committees creating menace mitigation methods and plans. Satter skillfully championed outreach and engagements with giant private-sector lifeline vital infrastructure organizations within the area. By way of his outreach, Satter facilitated dialogue, planning, and data sharing that enhanced the safety degree and resiliency of those giant non-public organizations. He served because the lead municipal anti-terror outreach coordinator with the siting and safety growth of the long run largest knowledge middle within the U.S. owned by Meta. He supplied key outreach and collaboration between Kansas Metropolis and personal stakeholders to incorporate the NFL for the 2023 NFL Draft. He facilitated non-public, native, and federal engagement, outreach and data sharing with vital infrastructure stakeholders reminiscent of Evergy vitality and AT&T communications.
Satter’s contributions within the self-discipline of outreach and engagements comprehensively improved the data sharing, coaching, and training capacities of all he has interacted with at federal, state, native, and personal associate businesses and organizations. His contributions point out his professionalism, dedication, and tireless efforts to enhance group security, safety, and resiliency.
MOST INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN TO INCREASE SECURITY
Folks across the nation are working to search out inventive and fascinating methods to assist the general public perceive and put together for any eventuality. Educating the general public about homeland priorities, threats, and vulnerabilities is a vital a part of the safety equation. The Most Modern Marketing campaign to Enhance Safety acknowledges a federal, state, native, or private-sector marketing campaign that has elevated consciousness and preparedness for a menace that requires the partnerships to mitigate and stop bodily or cyber assault, catastrophe preparedness, human trafficking, infrastructure safety, supply-chain safety or any menace to the nation.
Division of Homeland Safety Workplace for Bombing Prevention: Douglas DeLancey, Technique Department Chief
Douglas DeLancey is Technique Department Chief at Workplace for Bombing Prevention, the place the
Bomb-Making Supplies Consciousness Program (BMAP) represents the most effective methods to detect and report suspicious buying behaviors within the U.S. A key program of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company’s OBP, BMAP informs and educates retailers and the general public about recognizing bomb-making supplies, suspicious buying behaviors, and the reporting of suspicious exercise.
The BMAP workforce led efforts in 2022 for CISA to collaborate with the FBI on Operation Flashpoint, a joint marketing campaign between CISA and the FBI to construct consciousness in communities throughout the U.S. for stopping bomb assaults. The initiative goals to encourage companies and the general public to voluntarily report suspicious actions, reminiscent of shopping for giant quantities, or a mix of, chemical compounds and supplies that can be utilized to construct bombs. At the moment, roughly 250,000 companies throughout the nation promote or distribute on a regular basis supplies that can be utilized for lethal functions. Bomb-making supplies are available at magnificence provide shops, {hardware} shops, pool provide shops, sporting items shops, dwelling facilities, and elsewhere.
Home violent extremism is on the rise throughout the U.S., and extremists more and more plot and assault utilizing improvised explosive units (IEDs). Terrorists, criminals, and others usually construct IEDs from widespread home items utilizing directions discovered on the web. Unhealthy actors can simply buy sufficient of sure chemical compounds and different supplies which are readily available in shops to construct home-made explosives. Applications that encourage voluntary reporting of suspicious exercise can assist avert future incidents involving such IEDs.
The Operation Flashpoint marketing campaign has two principal targets:
1. Construct consciousness – Decreasing the specter of IED assaults by limiting entry to explosive precursor chemical compounds (EPCs). This implies serving to companies detect the illegitimate acquisition, theft, or diversion of EPCs on the retail degree.
2. Encourage suspicious exercise reporting – Offering companies with coaching and steering to report suspicious exercise to police, in line with the Nationwide Suspicious Exercise Reporting Initiative (NSI); and encourage reporting to the FBI’s tipline for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at 1-855-CALL-FBI (1-855-835-5324).
The BMAP workforce has spearheaded wide-ranging marketing campaign efforts to spotlight the hazards of EPCs. As an illustration, the workforce performed greater than 8,000 outreach efforts to make point-of-sale retailers conscious of EPCs. The workforce additionally developed movies and Spanish-language supplies to make numerous audiences conscious of bomb-making supplies, threats and assets.
BMAP’s outreach workforce has labored with FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinators, CISA’s Discipline Drive, representatives from CISA’s Workplace for Bombing Prevention, and its state, native, tribal, and territorial companions on Operation Flashpoint. BMAP visits companies and group leaders, offering coaching and outreach supplies. Throughout 2022, BMAP and the FBI held quite a few consciousness occasions that featured media, legislators, retailers and plenty of others in areas together with Orlando, Fla., Fort Collins, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz. Concurrently, the BMAP workforce performed a advertising and marketing marketing campaign that reached 700,000 companies by way of an e-mailing and mailing marketing campaign. The BMAP workforce utilized a database of open-source info on companies that promote or inventory explosive precursor chemical compounds and bomb-making supplies.
From “mother and pop” {hardware} shops to big-box retailers, residents and companies all through the nation play a key function in serving to forestall a possible bombing assault, because the bomber can use chemical compounds and supplies readily available in shops. Bomb assaults are a major menace: In 2021, the U.S. Bomb Information Heart reported 1,876 bomb threats, 4,935 suspicious or unattended packages, and 381 bombing-related incidents throughout the U.S. Recognizing these threats early can assist legislation enforcement take motion to attempt to forestall assaults. Operation Flashpoint helps retailer house owners, managers, and workers spot suspicious actions associated to bomb making. Because the eyes and ears on this group, residents and enterprise house owners alike can be taught what to look out for and when to alert legislation enforcement to giant purchases of probably harmful chemical compounds or combos of things utilized in do-it-yourself explosives.
CITIZEN OF MISSION
The Citizen of Mission award goes to a person who devotes their private time, vitality, and assets to work for causes associated to homeland safety. Volunteers, nonprofit leaders, company workers — anybody is eligible for nomination so long as they dedicate time and devoted effort to supporting the homeland mission.
RC Smith, Board Member, INLETS
The Citizen of Mission is awarded to somebody who has volunteered their time and repair in help of the homeland safety mission. So after the final decade of a distinguished 
A member of the volunteer-run InfraGard since 2011, he joined the Maryland chapter board of administrators the place he furthered the collaborative info sharing between DHS and different federal businesses by designing and internet hosting conferences at LM websites. He began a protection industrial base (DIB) working group in protected area the place the rivals might collect and share menace issues whereas facilitating the FBI and different intel businesses to share menace updates to the particular business. He attended and graduated from the FBI Residents Academy and serves as a member of the Baltimore chapter’s Alumni Affiliation. There he has maintained and furthered relationships with industries with related menace challenges and furthered dialogue on resolutions.
Moreover, Smith has helped plan and ship the INLETS coaching since 2013. INLETS is a nonprofit created to help legislation enforcement investigators and analysts with modern coaching on probably the most related subjects by probably the most skilled people doable. There, he serves on the INLETS board of administrators and chairs the benefactor program, which he designed to acknowledge and reward those that serve our communities.
By way of all these official positions, Smith can be a famous pen turner. In that quiet function, he humbly designs distinctive, handcrafted, one-of-a-kind writing devices for people who serve our nation or help those that do. As an illustration, his pens have been requested by organizations who introduced them as tokens of appreciation to Col. Oliver North and Gary “Lt. Dan” Sinise. In his personal principled method, he has by no means bought a pen for revenue however relatively as a private present to people with a servant’s coronary heart.
In his “day jobs,” Smith turned a U.S. Marine shortly after graduating highschool. He served a 21-year profession with distinction all through the Pacific after which because the Senior Enlisted for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As soon as getting into civilian life, he joined Lockheed Martin the place for 25 years he has served in bodily safety, disaster administration and counterintelligence roles at a number of services within the DMV. For over 45 years he has led, facilitated, and guarded defenders of our nation.
For his 45 years of supporting the nationwide safety mission overseas and at dwelling, as a U.S. Marine and as a protection contractor, in designing substantive coaching packages, and creating distinctive presents of appreciation, RC Smith is a Citizen of Mission. He has lived his life in “Oscar Mike” trend. That navy phonetic alphabet stands for “On Mission.” And if RC, that’s the method he lives — with focus, objective, and intention.
ORGANIZATION OF MISSION
Built-in Neighborhood Options to Energetic Violence Occasions (ICSAVE)
Residing and dealing inside their respective communities, they actively attempt to develop built-in preparedness and response practices and techniques to forestall or mitigate the bodily, psychological, non secular and monetary affect of incidents ranging in severity from widespread office and leisure accidents to violent mass casualty incidents. Thus far, they’ve supplied lifesaving training to over 160,000 Arizonans.
EXCELLENCE IN OUTREACH
A lot of partnership requires information and understanding. Communication between business and authorities to realize the perfect services requires outreach in all levels: necessities constructing, request for info, efficient business days, outreach by way of engagement and far more. The Excellence in Outreach award acknowledges the company, division, or person who has excelled at partaking, explaining and educating to profit the mission of securing the nation.
FEDERAL
Curtis Tilley, Department Chief, Workplace for Bombing Prevention, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company
Department Chief Curtis Tilley on the Division of Homeland Safety’s Workplace for Bombing Prevention, throughout the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, constantly shows the company’s core values of honesty, professionalism, and public service. He 
Tilley’s revolutionary methods have been key within the workplace’s worldwide engagements with Canada, Mexico, Romania, and the United Nations to assist construct counter-IED core capabilities and improve consciousness of terrorist threats. This technique referred to as for a shared method to safety during which the partnering nations work collectively to deal with threats to vital infrastructure and citizenry. He led the workplace’s outreach efforts with Public Security Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police within the Past the Border initiative to boost understanding of the bomb menace atmosphere and share info and coaching merchandise to assist improve cross-border vital infrastructure safety and resilience. Tilley, in cooperation with the Division of State’s Export Management and Associated Border Safety (EXBS) Program, led the worldwide collaboration efforts with the Mexican authorities to share bombing prevention practices and consciousness coaching merchandise. The advantages of the yearlong outreach effort have been realized when the Workplace for Bombing Prevention delivered coaching to members of the Mexican Secretariat of the Navy, Secretariat of Protection, Ministry of Safety and Citizen Safety, Federal Protecting Service and the Nationwide Coordination of Civil Safety. Tilley was instrumental within the workplace’s efforts to guard life and demanding infrastructure by constructing capabilities inside most people and throughout the private and non-private sectors to forestall, defend towards, reply to, and mitigate bombing incidents. The OBP Coaching Department beneath his management not too long ago reached a milestone of coaching its 150,000th particular person in bombing prevention.
EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING
This award acknowledges a company’s distinctive efforts in constructing partnerships and capability for entities to have the ability to higher detect, forestall and reply to a spread of threats.
INLETS
Utilizing this mannequin, the workforce has created agendas which are equally vital to each the non-public and public sectors. INLETS has reached over 10,000 attendees from greater than 1,000 businesses and firms, over 20 InfraGard chapters, 30 state fusion facilities, and 40 establishments of upper training from 47 states and 7 nations. A one-day program on lively shooters was requested by way of the non-public sector together with faith-based organizations, faculties, and retail corporations. Whereas among the many most typical subjects provided by tons of of entities, this agenda averages 150 attendees from 100 entities and firms touring from seven states for the one-day program. Equally, the workforce presents a one-day program on cyber-based monetary establishment fraud. With a mean of 120 attendees touring from the 4 largest monetary establishment markets, they be taught from legislation enforcement and business consultants on the present and rising threats. After the onset of the pandemic, the workforce recognized and labored with a tutorial associate to make use of these similar presenters in webinar packages (INLETS On-line) in order that the attendees might safely preserve their skilled growth whereas complying with well being division and firm insurance policies. And previously two years, the workforce has centered on returning to conventional coaching platforms.
The five-day program (2021-22) is thought to be the perfect violent crime and terrorism coaching obtainable. Known as “an expertise, not a coaching,” this system averages 9.3 out of 10 with 175 attendees from 100 businesses throughout 15 states in three time zones. It’s obligatory coaching for quite a lot of police businesses. In 2023, it heads to New Orleans for its third go to. Newly added centered coaching features a 4-day agenda particularly on murder investigations (2021, 2022) with a 9.7 survey analysis. Utilizing that very same format, new for 2023 are investigative social media and tech assets and one other on behavioral menace evaluation. With the educational associate, these packages are additionally being evaluated for educational credit score along with CEUs. By way of 2022, INLETS has been collaborating on increasing the coaching facet of this system to incorporate investigative help. And INLETS is creating a platform to help legislation enforcement with chilly case consultations and investigative family tree set for late 2023. This workforce, made up of federal, state, and private-sector colleagues, has been afforded nice alternative to efficiently help, collaborate, and practice attendees from the federal, state, and private-sector communities.
MISSION AWARDS
Annually, Homeland Safety At the moment honors shining stars in the neighborhood who’re making their very own distinctive, invaluable contributions to advance the mission of preserving America safer from myriad threats. Their robust dedication to mission touches each a part of their work, from day-to-day operations to particular tasks and work in the neighborhood.
Sean Haglund, Affiliate Director, Division of Homeland Safety Workplace of Bombing Prevention
Haglund skillfully led OBP in 2022 throughout a time of serious safety issues that included an exponential spike in bomb threats concentrating on Traditionally Black Schools and Universities (HBCUs). Greater than 30 of the 101 HBCUs acquired 49 bomb threats in January and February alone. Haglund demonstrated distinctive management, creativity, and collaboration whereas main the workplace to develop and implement mitigations to counter the menace and improve resilience. Haglund led the workforce to evaluate the menace panorama, coordinate response efforts, host coaching seminars, tailor merchandise and assets to varsities, and supply key capacity-building and preparedness help to stakeholders.
Extra particularly, Haglund led OBP efforts to reply to the threats towards HBCUs by:
- Serving to lead a bomb menace discussion board with the Atlanta College Heart Consortium, a nonprofit working on behalf of Clark Atlanta College, Morehouse Faculty, Morehouse College of Medication, and Spelman Faculty. It’s the world’s oldest and largest affiliation of HBCUs. The dialogue supplied vital steering for managing bomb threats whereas preserving college students, facility, and employees secure from hurt.
- Testifying earlier than the U.S. Home Committee on Oversight and Reform about OBP’s capability to reply to rising threats, together with offering an unlimited array of assets that assist forestall bomb assaults
- Overseeing the supply of 27 programs that skilled 1,253 folks
- Growing a bomb menace plan template for universities, a mass bomb menace consciousness job support, and co-developing a CISA tabletop train bundle
- Publishing a bulletin (referred to as the TRIPwire Consciousness Bulletin) that explains how to reply to mass bomb menace campaigns
Haglund drove technique for a variety of free, revolutionary, capacity-building packages that now function the prototype for find out how to forestall, defend towards, reply to, and mitigate using explosives. As an illustration, he oversaw OBP’s Counter-IED Coaching and Consciousness effort — a spread of internationally accredited trainings in a number of codecs delivered to individuals from the general public, main companies, and high-profile businesses in any respect ranges of presidency. OBP skilled 18,000 folks this 12 months alone, bringing the full variety of folks OBP has now skilled to 150,000 — a outstanding achievement.
Moreover, Haglund helped spearhead the expansion of the Bomb-Making Supplies Consciousness Program, which is laser-focused on stopping IED assaults early, when adversaries attempt to purchase the mandatory supplies. This included collaborating carefully with the FBI on Operation Flashpoint, an initiative that raises consciousness amongst retailers throughout the U.S. of the hazards of home violent extremists and others buying explosive precursor chemical compounds from shops. The affect: Retailers and other people throughout the nation now learn about Operation Flashpoint, together with the 8 million individuals who watched a section about it on NBC Nightly Information with Lester Holt earlier this 12 months. Such efforts have led extra folks to report suspicious exercise that may be related to bombs.
Haglund additionally led strategic efforts in lots of different areas. This included growth of OBP’s Annual Working Plan, which guided the workplace’s actions to extend capability, velocity supply, use innovation and enhance efficiency. Moreover, in 2022, he helped lead a rewrite of Presidential Coverage Directive 17 (PPD-17): Countering IEDs, the coverage that guides our nation to counter IEDs and safe the U.S., its allies, companions and pursuits from IEDs.
Haglund has been the driving drive behind OBP’s key efforts to extend preparedness, scale back danger, and finally save lives and make the U.S. a safer nation.
Shawn McDonald, Program Supervisor, Counter-Unmanned Plane Programs (C-UAS), Division of Homeland Safety Science and Expertise Directorate
With the menace capabilities of UAS quickly advancing across the globe, McDonald’s work — and significantly his efficient program management — are on the forefront of the homeland safety enterprise rising to satisfy this problem. McDonald and his workforce execute their tasking inside a whole-of- authorities construction, chaired by DHS, to satisfy C-UAS threats as granted by way of the Stopping Rising Threats Act of 2018. This act protects designated coated services or property throughout each DHS and Division of Justice missions and supplies authorities from detecting by way of finally seizing and destroying UAS threats. He leads his workforce in executing these duties by conducting fast and agile analysis, growth, take a look at and analysis of constantly evolving C-UAS applied sciences towards equally quickly evolving UAS applied sciences.
The workforce Shawn has assembled to execute this work embody not solely his S&T program employees, but additionally a large assortment of federal and state authorities laboratories, analysis facilities, and useful workplace stakeholders, private and non-private college analysis services, and best-in-class, vendor-agnostic business companions. Since 2018, McDonald’s workforce has been answerable for quickly figuring out and deploying preliminary C-UAS functionality to vital discipline areas and different coated property, reminiscent of a USCG operational website, a port of entry alongside the southern U.S. border, and a website throughout the nationwide capital area. They’ve recognized, assessed, and transitioned prototype C-UAS capabilities to the FPS and USCG. They usually have established a U.S.-wide prototype drone detection community to allow C-UAS-authorized DHS Part operators to view and analyze near-real-time drone detection knowledge. Starting this 12 months, McDonald’s workforce is transitioning extra C-UAS pilot capabilities to DHS elements for operational use, in addition to initiating growth and modernization of superior multi-modal detection applied sciences to assist your entire homeland safety enterprise preserve tempo with small UAS threats.
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