5 questions for ... Robert Price

Educational credentialing, work experience and security clearance keys to success

TU’s first director for the Center of Homeland Security explains how TU will prepare Maryland's citizens for homeland security jobs.

Price, who came to TU in December, is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army. He most recently served as program manager in the planning and funding of the Base Re-alignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

What is the Center for Homeland Security’s mission?

Homeland Security is about the integration of people, technologies and processes. We provide homeland security and emergency/disaster management capabilities through applied research, subject matter expertise, education, training, program management and consulting.

How will the center address BRAC's impact on the Maryland economy?

RESI conducted research that determined BRAC will provide more than 45,000 jobs with average wages of nearly $65,000 to Maryland. The goal is to reduce the number of new workers moving to Maryland to reduce the impact on infrastructure. The Center for Homeland Security intends to prepare secondary, high school, community college, four-year college students and even military veteransalready living in Maryland to fill these coming jobs.

How would the center prepare them?

We are developing an integrated program in which students will gain work experience through a paid internship and obtain appropriate educational credentials—such as TU’s online master’s degree in homeland security management—while going through the lengthy security clearance process. We anticipate that TU will play a major role in the credentialing component, with the center coordinating efforts with TU's various colleges, such as the College of Education and the Jess and Mildred Fisher College of Science and Mathematics.

.

Can you elaborate on how middle school and high school students will get involved?

In particular we want to serve at-risk and underrepresented youth by collaborating with programs already working with those populations. It’d be similar to an Advanced Placement credit program, but for homeland security. We’d make sure matriculation agreements were in place so their coursework could translate as credits at TU and at other local and community colleges.

Is this integrated plan—educational credentialing, work experience and security clearance acquisition—relevant only to BRAC?

No. Although BRAC analysis demonstrates that high-tech jobs are coming to the area, it will affect the homeland security field in general. The center’s objective is to assist TU's academic side to produce results that address a wide variety of employers’ wants and needs. The landscape of high-tech jobs is changing. The center wants to make sure that TU's colleges are informed as to what's going on so they can effectively produce graduates that businesses want.

Story by Stuart Zang/Photo of Robert Price by Patrick Smith (The Towerlight)

[back to main article index]