Leadership in Homeland Security

Program Session: September 23 – 28, 2018

The Program

The Leadership in Homeland Security program is designed by Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Crisis Leadership specifically for the National Guard and their partner organizations. The program equips senior leaders with the resources and capabilities to produce an effective response. This program emphasizes the critical role of the National Guard and their partner organizations as the backbone of the nation’s leadership cadre for providing the essential intermediate response to large, complex, multi-jurisdiction, multilevel, multisectoral events.

The Curriculum

The Program on Crisis Leadership seeks to improve society’s capacity to deal with natural disasters; infrastructure, technology, and systems failures; emergent infectious disease; and terrorism. Professors Dutch Leonard and Arn Howitt have researched, studied, and analyzed leaders and organizations facing crisis situations for over a decade. Their book Managing Crises: Responses to Large-Scale Emergencies gives students a clear understanding of the different types of disasters governments confront and of the key challenges governments face in preparing for and responding to these events.

The Leadership in Homeland Security program will assist the National Guard, their partners, and other agencies in developing leadership skills and organizational capabilities to respond to 21st century homeland security emergencies.

Through intensive case study-based discussion of recent events, participants will develop concepts and frameworks for the design and execution of response in complex, multi-jurisdictional and multisectoral environments. Throughout the discussions, the central questions will focus on leadership: what do leaders need to do before an event, how do they need to operate during an event, and how do they make the greatest possible contribution to the nation’s security?

The Faculty

Arnold M. Howitt, Executive Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy.

Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard, Baker Professor of Public Management at Harvard Kennedy School and Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Who Should Attend

Participants from the National Guard and their partners will be nominated to attend the Leadership in Homeland Security program. For more information about the nomination and application process, please email ng.ma.maarng.mbx.homeland-security-institute@mail.mil