August 4, 2015 – Apprio Executive Vice President of Homeland Security, Mike Pena, is no stranger to real-world homeland security threats and national emergencies. Pena has an extensive 35-year career in first response, emergency preparedness, homeland security and facility protection. Pena’s background includes first responder experience with the New York City Fire Department’s Special Operations Command and FEMA, as well as homeland security and critical infrastructure protection experience with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. Pena shared his expertise as a guest writer for a recent issue of HSToday.
In the article titled “Managing Emergencies with National Security Implications,” Pena discusses how developing plans for terrorist acts incorporates a new challenge for emergency managers and one that many are not prepared to handle. He says that challenge is working with classified information.
“Whether it is a security clearance or a need-to-know basis, emergency managers are confronted with this reality more frequently in today’s every changing world,” Pena writes. “Emergency managers have limited, if any, access to classified information required for their planning purposes. Sometimes even less information is available during an incident that involves an ongoing investigation.
“Emergency managers and responders need the information and tools to protect people in the United States,” Pena adds. “Some emergency management and first responder agencies have taken great strides for inclusion within the intelligence community.”
The full article can be seen at http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/kmd/hst_20150607/#/10.
