|
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
flanked by APA psychologists during a break in the action
at the conference. L-R: Dr. Janice Laurence, Admiral James
Loy, Dr. Peter Hancock, Dr. Geoff Mumford. |
Psychological science was well represented at a
homeland security leadership and workforce development conference
held November 16-18 at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Headquarters in
New London, CT. The conference, "Charting a Course for Homeland
Security Strategic Studies", brought together diverse
perspectives representing senior military service institutes, the
intelligence community, academic researchers and educators, think
tanks, international organizations, the private and corporate
sector, and state and local governments.
The first day and a half was devoted to plenary and
keynote addresses to help provide a framework for the breakout
groups that followed for the next day and a half. Within that
framework the 150 or so participants heard a variety of perspectives
from Capitol Hill (Dr. John Gannon, Majority Staff Director for Rep.
Chris Cox on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security), from
Think Tanks (Mr. Michael Wermuth, Director of Homeland Security for
RAND Corp) and from Regional Military Commands (Colonel Eugenio Pino,
Director, Training and Exercises, US Northern Command). Perhaps the
most memorable, and certainly the most personal, insights were
offered by Ambassador Prudence Bushnell (Dean of the Leadership and
Management School at the Foreign Service Institute within the
Department of State), who was serving as Ambassador to Kenya when
the Nairobi embassy was bombed on August 7, 1998, killing 213 people
and wounding close to 4000. As Ambassador Bushnell revealed, the
Nairobi embassy had in fact been targeted by Bin Laden's Al Qaeda
network in large part because the group assumed it would get more
publicity for killing a woman ambassador. Both in her formal
presentation and in sidebar conversations, she repeatedly noted the
need to prepare for the psychological environment in which homeland
and national security personnel were required to operate. For a
complete list of speaker biographies, click here
*[PDF 240K].
The charge of the conference, concentrated across
seven workgroups that met in multiple sessions, was to begin
thinking about guiding principles, core competencies, and education
models/venues that should be considered in the education of future
homeland security leaders. Several APA member psychologists were
invited to attend the conference to help raise awareness of the
critical role social and behavioral sciences should play in the
overall effort. Steve Breckler, Executive Director for Science, and
Geoff Mumford, Director of Science Policy, represented APA. Also in
attendance were Dr. Roxane Cohen Silver, the only psychologist
serving on the Academe and Policy Research Senior Advisory Committee
at DHS; Dr. Janice Laurence, representing the Society of Military
Psychology; Dr. Peter Hancock, representing the Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society; and Dr. Felice Levine, representing the American
Education Research Association. Dr. Baruch Fischhoff, who had been
invited to represent the Society for Risk Analysis as
President-Elect, was unable to attend the conference but agreed to
serve on a board of editors to help shape the final work product.
Also unable to attend, but lending intellectual capital during the
planning phase, was APA member Dr. Susan Brandon, OSTP Assistant
Director for Social, Behavioral and Educational Sciences.
On the final day, each workgroup reported out to a
panel consisting of Admiral James Loy, Deputy Secretary of Homeland
Security, Paul McHale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland
Defense, representatives of the National Security Council, and
federal, state and local emergency managers. In closing comments, Admiral Loy thanked the
co-sponsors and participants and embraced the recommendations of the
workgroups. He committed DHS to follow through by making a home for
homeland security strategic studies within the Department. We were
pleased that many of the APA-member recommendations regarding
inclusion of topics in scientific psychology (e.g., risk analysis,
perception and communication; human factors in the design of new
technologies; understanding social networks; judgment and
decision-making; performance under stress) were endorsed by many of
the non-scientists present. Science Policy Director Geoff Mumford
has been asked to assist in editing the final work product and will
endeavor to make sure that scientific psychology retains a prominent
role as this nascent homeland security continues to move forward.
 View
the conference objectives and process [PDF
20K]
View
the conference agenda [PDF 40K]
Read
speaker and panelist biographies [PDF
240K]
Back
to SPIN November 2004
|
