Pacific Executive Leaders Program

Background:

Homeland Security in the Pacific Area has continued to become an evolving and increasingly important issue for the nation. Local, state, tribal and federal government agencies and the private sector are at the forefront of our nation's homeland security mission. Being at the forefront in a rapidly changing environment requires continuous education for our nation's homeland security leaders. All require a deeper understanding of the current and emerging homeland security issues, public policy debates, the terrorist threat and evolving best practices.

In 2011, The Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and other entities in the Pacific area, explored, researched, developed and delivered an executive level education program known as the Pacific Executive Leaders Program Pilot (Pacific ELP Pilot) for officials in the Pacific area. The Pacific ELP Pilot was modeled after CHDS’ Executive Leaders Program (ELP) and is offered at no cost to qualified homeland security officials as well as the private sector. Based on the results of its previous efforts and the Pacific ELP Pilot, CHDS in conjunction with the sponsor and other entities in the Pacific area, will be delivering two executive level offerings in the Pacific in early 2013, known as the Pacific ELP.

CHDS has delivered numerous executive education seminars for local jurisdictions, the state, and the territories on the unique aspects of emergency management and homeland security in the Pacific. Additional Mobile Education Team seminars (MET) were conducted for the State of Hawaii and the Pacific area Governors, in August of 2012.

The Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA provides the educational opportunity for our nation's homeland security leaders to develop the strategies, policies and organizational elements needed to defeat terrorism in the United States.

Overarching Goal and Objectives:

• To provide an educational forum to enhance senior leaders' capacity to identify and resolve homeland security problems as well as an opportunity to build networks among the nation's local, tribal, state, federal government and private sector homeland security officials.
• To strengthen the national security of the United States by providing a non-degree graduate level educational program that meets the immediate and long-term needs of leaders responsible for homeland defense and security.
• To assist local, state, tribal, federal government and private sector executives in building capacity to defeat terrorism and build emergency management capabilities.

Curriculum:

This program consists of a weeklong session in residence. Topics to be covered may include but are not limited to; foundational aspects of homeland security and the threats, proceeding to describe the nature of the threats, legal and cultural aspects of preventing, preparing for the threats, the collaborations necessary to effectively manage the information sharing, threat recognition, protection measures, and plans in preparation for action and recovery.

Each of the one-week seminars will offer presentations on selected topics around leading in networks, and the nature and scope of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management issues which are used to assess the strategic application of the resources of the local, state, tribal, territorial and federal jurisdictions to address those issues. Each session will cover such topics as intelligence, critical infrastructure, border/immigration, threat recognition, crisis and risk communications, incident management and fear management and public health aspects as well as emerging issues. All of the topics will be discussed on a strategic, policy, and organizational design level with particular attention to intergovernmental planning challenges. The participants will consider complex issues and case studies, and work through problems that enable them to strengthen working relationships across regions, agencies, and local-state-federal jurisdictional and private sector lines.

Program Structure:

Each session will be conducted over a four and one-half day period in Hilo, Hawaii. Registrations will be held on Sunday evening, with each session beginning on Monday morning and concluding at Noon on Friday.

Participants must commit to attending the entire session. Participants consist of approximately twenty-five senior local, state, tribal, territorial, federal government, military, non-governmental organizations and private sector officials with homeland security and or emergency management responsibilities. The program is designed to accommodate the busy schedules of participating executives and will not require the workload of traditional graduate level education programs.

The instruction will be a combination of presentations and facilitated discussion between faculty, participants and subject matter experts. The in-residence week will be structured around a Monday through Friday timeframe. Each day will begin at 8:00 a.m. and end by 4:00 p.m. with the exception of Friday which will end at 12 noon . The NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security will cover the cost of travel and lodging to each of the sessions. The hotel accommodations will be covered Sunday prior to beginning the seminar through Friday. Accommodations will be made for those traveling from the territories due to the distance and limited travel options.

Selection Criteria:

The selection criteria look at the relevancy and level of applicants' positions and homeland security/emergency management responsibilities and the homeland security/emergency management experience and knowledge they will bring to the program. This is very important since the sessions are facilitated roundtable discussions and debates where participants learn from one another. In addition, a major objective of the program is to establish relationships between executives across disciplines, agencies, organizations and levels of government so that they can utilize the network to develop new homeland security policies, strategies and plans to solve problems. Therefore, the selection criteria will also look at the potential benefit of relationship building to the applicant.

The program is fully sponsored for accepted candidates. This includes travel, per diem, and lodging in accordance with federal travel regulations. The sponsorship does not include work time or time spent away from the agency.