Letter from the Editor: A New Direction in Homeland Security

After almost 15 years in state government, I have decided to resign my employment at the State of Michigan and enter the academic world on a full time basis.  While I may reflect on this decision in future posts, I will only say here that I have gotten an enormous amount of satisfaction and pleasure from working as an instructor in Concordia University’s Homeland Security Program.  As such, I feel very fortunate that the university has made me a generous offer of a full time faculty position in which I can continue the fine work of teaching and pursue a terminal degree.

Additionally, I will have the great pleasure to direct the university’s new Homeland Security Simulation Lab!  The Sim Lab will provide a realistic training and exercising environment for homeland security professionals and lay persons in a variety of homeland security related disciplines.  The facilities and systems in which the university has invested will take the exercise to a new level that will render the standard tabletop obsolete.  I anticipate huge interest when the facility opens later this year.

I hope to write and post more here at the HLSR blog.  This past 6 months it has been difficult to find time to devote to blogging, as I have been teaching and finishing my work at the state. I look forward to developing this resource further as a service to my students, colleagues and to the wider audience that cares about homeland security as a field of study.

Very Respectfully,

JPN