Colonel
Gavigan
is a nationally and internationally recognized specialist
in terrorism. He is a former Assistant Adjutant in the Army
National Guard and has over forty-two years of service to the
country.
He is a consultant and Deputy Sheriff in Bristol County where
he heads the “Special Operations Division” and
holds the rank of Colonel.
He Commanded the Bristol County Special Operations Unit that
responded to the World Trade Center in New York in September
2001 and assisted the New York Police Department at “Ground
Zero.”
He received specialized training in terrorism at the California
Specialized Training Institute, US Army Military Police School,
US Army Special Forces Terrorism Instructor School, US Army Chemical
School, and National Emergency Management Agency. He is a graduate
of the ATF Post Blast Explosive Investigation School.
Colonel Gavigan was the first officer to travel to Lithuania
to train their Special Forces in anti-terrorism. He has made
presentations at the International Symposium on Terrorism at
the University of Illinois at Chicago and the National Hazardous
Materials Conference in Sacramento, California.
Aaron
Richman
Aron Richman is the Co Director for the Institute
of Terrorism Research and Response in Philadelphia and Israel,
where
he is
responsible
for the global Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center’s
intelligence and research projects.
He specializes in emergency planning and training for incidents
of weapons of mass destruction and suicide bombings. Richman
has conducted various research projects dealing with best practices
in terror response and command considerations for such incidents.
Mr. Richman comes from a career in military and law enforcement
in the Middle East. After serving military tours in Israel,
he was recruited to the Central Command of the Israel National
Police where he worked in various capacities at a command level
to include, narcotics, counter terrorism and operations.
Currently, Richman is managing a number of international projects
in the field of counterterrorism and emergency management to
include programs sponsored by the European Union and NATO.
The two separate research projects address emergency management
and the response to a weapon of mass destruction incident for
the European Union and NATO forces.
Eamon
Doherty, Ph.D.
Dr. Eamon Doherty is the Cybercrime Training Lab Director as
well as an assistant professor in the Petrocelli College of
Continuing Studies in Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU).
Dr. Doherty has a certificate in PDA Forensics as well as a
certificate in Computer Security and Forensic Administration.
He has also written a book with coauthors who are investigators
and security practitioners. The book is titled, “eForensics
and Signal Intelligence for Everyone”. Dr. Doherty
has also created three new ½ day classes for law enforcement
officers and security practitioners and published a variety
of those class materials made during a Department of Justice
grant. These classes are “PDA Forensics”, “Cell
Phone Forensics”, and “Introduction Electronic
Eavesdropping Device and Wiretap Detection.”Dr. Doherty
has also created 3 semester long online classes for the
National Guard and the university through a grant
to develop classes for the certificate in Computer Security
and Forensic Administration.
The classes MADS 6638 Computer
Security Administration, MADS 6637 Computer Seizure and Examination,
MADS 6611 Current Issues in Cybercrime, are available online
to both National Guard personnel as well as FDU. Dr. Doherty
is also a member of the National Military Intelligence Association.
John
D. Hunt
John Hunt is the Vice President of Advanced Sciences and
Technologies Global Preparedness Solutions Division. He served
over twenty-six
years with the New Jersey State Police. His experience includes
serving as Commanding Officer of the Field Operations, Intelligence,
Emergency Management and the Homeland Security Branch-Special
Operations Sections. He was appointed as the New Jersey Deputy
State Director of Emergency Management and was designated
the Commanding Officer of Operation LEAD – Louisiana Emergency
Assistance Deployment, New Jersey’s deployment of over
six-hundred emergency personnel to New Orleans after Hurricane
Katrina. He has international experience as a speaker, providing
presentations in many countries. Domestically, he has offered
security and emergency management briefings and presentations
throughout the United States to include numerous occasions
in Washington, D.C.
Colonel Raanan “Rani” Tal, (Ret.), retired after
serving 25 years in the Jerusalem Police Department. During
his career he held various positions that included intelligence
and plainclothes units and the head of the Rapid Response
Unit. As Precinct Commander, Colonel Tal contained some of
the fiercest
rioting in the Old City of Jerusalem during the years of
2001-2002. Today, Tal is the public sector liaison for the
Institute of
Terrorism Research and Response.
Dr. Shane Fitzpatrick
Dr. Shane Fitzpatrick is Associate Professor of Political
Science and International Studies at Centenary College Hackettstown,
NJ where he teaches courses on the subject of global terrorism.
He earned his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland
in European Security Studies. A former Soviet analyst for
the
Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, Dr. Fitzpatrick serves as
a Level II Counterterrorism briefing analyst for the New
Jersey
Department of Homeland Security and continues to be a consultant
lecturing for the institute for Law Enforcement and Emergency
Services Education (iLEESE) based in New Jersey. He is a
specialist on the problem of terrorism emanating from Chechnya
and neighboring
regions. His most recent presentations and publications have
focused on necessary tactical planning and responses to terrorist
attacks on schools and hospitals.
Mary
Kay Stratis
Is
a resident of New Jersey, received her formal
education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, earning a BA
in Secondary Education Mathematics/Science and an MAT in
Secondary Education Mathematics, is a retired high school
mathematics teacher.
She married Elia Stratis in 1969 and
they had three children, Lia, Christopher and Sonia born
in 1975, 1978 and 1981. Elia was killed in the terrorist
bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. In the
years since that life-changing event, Mary Kay has seen her
children through elementary, secondary and college educations,
devoting her time and energy to their well-being while engaging
in activities directly connected to education, church, grief
counseling and the organization Victims of Pan Am Flight
103. Mary Kay is currently a member of the Board of Trustees
of Fairleigh Dickinson University and is Chairman of the
Board of The Victims of Pan Am Flight 103.
Thomas
M. Hodgson
Sheriff of Bristol County Massachusetts
In 1994, Sheriff Hodgson, a former Maryland Police Lieutenant
for Special Operations, joined the staff of the Bristol County
Sheriff’s Office and served as Deputy Superintendent of
Investigations. He also served five years as a Councilor-at-Large
on the New Bedford City Council.
Upon assuming the role of High Sheriff of Bristol County, Sheriff
Hodgson immediately set out to implement his goals for corrections
reform, public safety and raising the standards for the Bristol
County Sheriff’s Office to enhance the primary mission
of care and custody of inmates.
Sheriff Hodgson has been successful in bringing together a number
of Law Enforcement/Public Safety agencies through the establishment
of a Law Enforcement Collaborative, consisting of Bristol County
Police Chiefs, State Police and UMA Dartmouth Police, to share
intelligence and resources. The Bristol County Sheriff’s
Office is a member of the SouthCoast Anti-Crime Team (SCAT) utilizing
the combined resources of the Sheriff’s Office and Police
Departments to control the proliferation of drugs in the area
and other criminal activity. In support of these efforts the
Sheriff has also established a Warrant Apprehension Unit, Drug
Task Force, Gang Unit and has assigned staff to the federal departments
of DEA and ICE.
In 1998 the Sheriff went to the Justice Department in Washington
D.C. to be briefed on the growing national concern regarding
terrorist activities and weapons of mass destruction. Since then
he has become a leader in Homeland Security issues and has brought
together public safety officials from Local and State Police,
Fire Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), National
Guard, Coast Guard, other federal agencies, EMS and hospital
groups, along with other stakeholders from the private sector
to form the Bristol County Homeland Security Task Force with
the mission of preparing Bristol County Critical Incident Response
Plans. It has always been the Sheriff’s belief that Public
Safety First Responder Groups can best serve the community when
working in a collaborative effort. The Sheriff has been invited
to address groups throughout the country on the subject of anti-terrorism
and the Bristol County Homeland Security Task Force, in addition
to coordinating several training exercises.
A certified Explosive Detection canine (Bomb Dog) was added
to the BCSO K-9 Division as a component of the Response Plan.
Through grant funding, Sheriff Hodgson designed and purchased
a state-of-the-art Mobile Command Unit (Incident Command Center)
containing sophisticated communication and other equipment that
is available to every community in the County. Incident Command
Center training for Police, Fire and Public Safety agencies is
on-going. Through his long-term association with Steve Emerson,
widely acclaimed terrorism consultant and author of “American
Jihad”, the Sheriff has been able to enhance the important
task of gathering intelligence information and disseminating
this information to first responder groups.
