Emergent Threats and Strategic Hardening Tactics
presented by Dr. Jenni Hesterman, Colonel, US Air Force (retired)
Dr. Hesterman's presentation will give up-to-the-minute information regarding emergent terrorist and criminal threats. She will unveil the 9 things we're doing wrong in security in 2024 and offer unique hardening tactics for soft target venues and events.
Dr. Hesterman is the principal investigator on a new project entitled Soft Target-Specific Standards: Current Challenges and Future Implications for the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE), a DHS Security Center of Excellence at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. This research addresses the absence of specific security standards for soft targets such as cultural properties, entertainment, sports and other public venues. While general security standards provide a foundational framework, the unique characteristics and vulnerabilities of these locations and events may call for context-specific measures for the most effective protection. While onsite, Dr. Hesterman will speak with conference attendees to gather information for this work. We are excited to support NCITE's research on this topic of importance to our community!
Dr. Jennifer Hesterman is a retired Air Force colonel who served in three Pentagon tours and in multiple command positions in the field. Her last assignment was Vice Commander at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, where she led installation security, including the protection of Air Force One. She is the recipient of the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service medal with 5 oak leaf clusters and the Global War on Terrorism Service medal.
After her military retirement in 2007, Dr. Hesterman worked as a cleared contractor in Washington, DC performing operational research on international and domestic terrorist organizations, transnational threats, organized crime, human, drug and weapon trafficking, and the terrorist and criminal exploitation of the Internet. She was recently security lead on a 3-year contract to develop an assessment tool and deploy security best practices within the Department of Transportation. In addition to providing vulnerability assessments for critical infrastructure, houses of worship, schools, shopping venues, credit unions, airports, stadiums and businesses, Dr. Hesterman designs and instructs graduate level security courses for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, Department of Defense. She advises the Homeland Security Training Institute at the College of DuPage in Chicago; the Crisis Response Journal and two DHS Security Centers of Excellence, the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE) at University of Nebraska and Soft-target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat Reality (SENTRY) at Northeastern University. Dr. Hesterman is an expert witness and conducts forensic security vulnerability assessments to support legal proceedings.
She holds a doctoral degree from Benedictine University, Master of Science degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Air University, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State University. She was a National Defense Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. where she studied the terror-crime nexus; her resulting book, Transnational Crime and the Criminal-Terrorist Nexus, won the Air Force Research Award for 2004. She is a 2006 alumnus of the Harvard Senior Executive Fellows program and was a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University from 2016-2018.
An academic author for the Taylor & Francis Group, Dr. Hesterman’s book Soft Target Hardening: Protecting People from Attack was the ASIS Security Industry Book of the Year for 2015. The second edition was the ASIS Security Industry Book of the Year for 2019, and the Social Sciences Book of the Year for Taylor & Francis. She also authored Soft Target Crisis Management (2016) and The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus (2013), as well as 33 journal and magazine articles.
Dr. Hesterman is a sought after public speaker, with over 90 keynote, guest speaking and training events in the U.S. and abroad for ASIS, FBI, DHS, DoD, state and local law enforcement, Fortune 10 companies, Major League Baseball, and numerous associations.
