National Preparedness Leadership Initiative trains TSA executives

Leonard Marcus, lecturer on public health practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) that he co-directs, were mentioned in a December 8, 2016 Boston Globe Magazine cover story about issues facing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Charged with providing security for passenger and freight transportation in the United States, the TSA screens about 2 million travelers daily, according to the article.

The NPLI, a collaborative effort of Harvard Chan School and Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), has conducted week-long training sessions for 125 of the TSA’s top executives. These were spearheaded by Peter Neffenger, a Coast Guard vice admiral and a HKS graduate, who participated in the NPLI in 2008 when he was a captain in the Coast Guard. This summer Neffenger became head of the TSA.

The NPLI has trained over 700 leaders from a range of agencies and researched government disaster response, from hurricanes to infectious disease outbreaks.

Read the Boston Globe Magazine article: Inside TSA, the agency we love to hate

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