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Management and Defense Program on the Pulse of Homeland Security
By Michelle Nery
A partnership between the School of Management (SOM) and the Defense Leadership
and Management Program (DLAMP) has produced a timely product. While a student
in DLAMP, Robert Vaul, a civil servant with the U.S. Army’s Training and
Doctrine Command, analyzed four alternatives for homeland security, one of which
included the creation of a new National Homeland Security Agency. This alternative
was proposed in a Feb. 15, 2001, report by the Hart-Rudman U.S. Commission on
National Security/21st Century and appears to have provided a conceptual framework
for the recently established cabinet-level office for Homeland Security.
“Vaul’s report was prescient in looking at the need for such a homeland
security-focused organization months before the Sept. 11 attack,” says SOM
professor Russell Reston. “The final paper outlined steps the United States
should take to better prepare itself against attack. One of the solutions included
appointing a director for Homeland Security, which President Bush did immediately
following the attacks.” Although it is unknown whether the president or his
advisors had seen the document, the work being accomplished through the DLAMP
is clearly on the pulse of the nation’s defense needs.
With its three-pronged mission of providing academic, professional military,
and assignment learning experiences, DLAMP provides training for civilians who
fill approximately 3,000 key leadership positions throughout the Department of
Defense (DOD). These positions hold responsibility for people, policy, programs,
and other resources of broad significance or for support of joint war-fighting
capability.
The SOM and DLAMP partnership started at the Center for Innovative Technology
in 1998. “The program is unique in terms of blending theory and practice
in the context of the DOD environment,” says Dave Harr, SOM senior associate
dean. “The benefit of having the program in its infancy at George Mason was
the close proximity to the homes of our students. It also provided a real academic
unity,” says DLAMP Director Angela Allgood.
Program participants are required to complete up to 18 advanced graduate-level
courses specially designed with a defense focus to develop familiarity with the
broad range of subjects facing defense leaders. The graduate curriculum consists
of required courses in accounting and finance, economics, human resources, information
systems, quantitative tools, law and public policy, and international policy;
electives in related areas including logistics, intelligence, and acquisition;
and the capstone course.
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