Dr. Kathleen L. Kiernan is a 29-year veteran of Federal Law Enforcement and is the CEO of Kiernan Group Holdings, an international consulting firm which supports public and private sector clients. She previously served as the Assistant Director for the Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) where she was responsible for the design and implementation of an intelligence-led organizational strategy to mine and disseminate data related to explosives, firearms and illegal tobacco diversion, the traditional and non-traditional tools of terrorism.
Dr. Kiernan has a Doctorate in Education from Northern Illinois University (with highest honors) and a Masters of Science degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College in Washington, D.C. She also holds a Masters of Arts degree in International Transactions from George Mason University in Virginia. In 2001, Dr. Kiernan was recognized as an outstanding scholar by Northern Illinois University and as an outstanding alumni in 2005. She is a Senior Fellow for the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and a faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University and for the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. Dr. Kiernan is an alumnus of the Army Science Board where she led a panel exploring the transition of law enforcement training and technology to the warfighter.
Dr. Kiernan has been involved with the Intelligence Community for over a decade, and served as the ATF representative to the Counterterrorism Center (CTC) at CIA during 1993-1995. She is the National Chair for the InfraGard Program, a public-private alliance with over 42,000 members representing all 18 critical infrastructures and key resources. She Co-Chairs the Homeland Security Intelligence Council (HSIC) for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) and she is the former Chair of the DCI’s Law Enforcement Working Group (LEWG), an initiative designed to bridge the communities of intelligence and law enforcement. Dr. Kiernan is a senior member on the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Terrorism subcommittee, an Intelligence Fellow (2001), and graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute (Class 26), Member of the Board of Reagents of the Potomac Institute, and the DNI’s SHARP Program (2006/7). She has presented training on Critical Incident Management and explosives response protocol on a worldwide basis.
Dr. Kiernan led a nationwide Intelligence Community project involving the active interdiction of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) throughout the law enforcement and public safety communities, and led a team in the Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review. Dr. Kiernan is a Special Advisor to the Director of the Combating Terrorism Task Force in the Department of Defense.
