Civic Engagement

Smith to Educate 600 U.S. Customs and Border Protection Leaders 

High-potential civil servants started coming to the Smith School in summer 2014 for a custom executive education program that will support the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in its mission to prevent terrorists and potential weapons of mass destruction from entering the country.

Under a $7.2 million, five-year agreement, Smith’s Office of Executive Programs (OEP) will direct the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Leadership Institute through at least 2019. The school will educate 120 managers (GS15s) each year for a total enrollment of 600 students.

“The Smith School is honored to serve the people and government of the United States by administering the Leadership Institute,” says Gary Cohen, Smith’s assistant dean of executive programs.

Smith’s regional connections will help the school meet the needs of government administrators in the program. “Our suite of classrooms in the university’s BioPark, a potential site for Institute classes, will enable us to deliver world-class teaching close to the Port of Baltimore — an entry point critical to Homeland Security,” Cohen says.

The courses encompass strategic thinking, leadership communication and business management and prepare career civil servants to lead at the highest levels in federal government administration.

“As Homeland Security’s largest law enforcement agency, Customs and Border Protection and its leaders are preparing for an increasingly volatile and uncertain environment,” says Joe Thomas, Smith’s academic director for the Leadership Institute, and a senior faculty member in Smith’s advanced executive coaching program.

He says the institute’s impact will be far-reaching for the agency, which has more than 60,000 staff worldwide. “Border Protection agents in the field and officers at our nation's points of entry deserve leaders who create a climate of respect and empowerment,” he says. “The mission and people demand nothing less.”

Liz Barron, OEP senior director of custom programs, says Smith has the practical focus, strategic leadership expertise and management skills to help Customs and Border Protection execute its mission.

“The agency deals every day with more than one million people — most of them behaving within the law, but some who are a real danger to field officers and our nation. Smith is proud to be able to help these public leaders shape the agency for an age when immigration, terrorism, money laundering, cyber intellectual property crimes and human trafficking are persistent and fast-changing challenges.”