Table of Contents
- CINA MSI Activities
- CINA Scholar Summer Interns
- CINA Scholar’s Impactful TSA Summer Internship
- CINA Distinguished Speaker Series
The following compilation describes workforce and outreach efforts of the CINA DHS Center of Excellence at George Mason University. As you review this report, you can select these phrases noted below to review stories in each separate section.
CINA MSI Activities
CINA MSI Summer Programs offer life transforming opportunities, a DHS introduction
The CINA Center proudly supported four university cohorts this year through the DHS Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). We once again had an abundance of strong proposals, and we selected teams from the University of North Texas, Jackson State University, University of the District of Columbia, and the New York City College of Technology.
“There are so many jobs out there that people have no idea about. This opened my eyes to so many opportunities I didn’t know existed, especially within the scope of government and DHS.”
Despite the ongoing face to face and virtual meeting limitations, these student and faculty researchers made great progress on projects ranging from data and network analytics to academic program development.
To learn more about CINA’s student and faculty enrichment and training partnership opportunities, contact CINA Workforce Development and Education Program Director, Deanna Sue Austin dausti@gmu.edu.
CINA Scholar Summer Interns
During summer 2021, two CINA Scholars were selected for research internships with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans (OSPP).
Using only unclassified, open source data, George Mason University students, Isaiah Hall and Jay Suarez worked both independently and on a project team to examine cell phone data and privacy issues.
CINA Scholar’s Impactful TSA Summer Internship
CINA scholar, Tasheonna Walton, an Information Systems and Operations Management major at George Mason University, was selected for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) internship in summer 2021.
During the internship, Walton assisted and collaborated with TSA-DHS Performance Management members through a variety of opportunities. She participated in meetings and discussion with TSA customers and performed basic data analysis, reviewing data sets to identify inconsistencies and provide improvement recommendations.
CINA Distinguished Speaker Series
The CINA Distinguished Speaker Series, which pivoted to a virtual and then hybrid format, highlighted experts among various fields that included:
- Celina Realuyo: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Economy, Security and Transnational Organized Crime in the Americas
- Diana Dolliver: Cryptocurrencies and Criminal Investigations: From Transaction to Seizure
- Jeffrey Hardy: Illicit Trade in the Forms of Trademark Counterfeiting and Copyright Piracy
- Crysta Price: Finding Trafficking Networks in Commercial Sex Ads
- Gretchen Peters: How Organized Crime Weaponized Social Media
- Marie Tillyer: Place-Based Improvements for Public Safety: Public Regulation, Private Investment, and Changes in Crime at Micro-places Across 6 US Cities
Review the other sections of this report below