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Dr. Kathleen L. Kiernan is a 29-year veteran of Federal Law Enforcement and is the CEO of Kiernan Group, an international consulting firm which supports federal and civil 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 Master's of Science degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College in Washington, D.C. She also holds a Master's 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 was recently named as a Senior Fellow for the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, and is a member of the Army Science Board.

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 a Council Vice President for ASIS, International, with oversight of 5 Councils to include Global Terrorism, Defense Intelligence, Military Liaison, Economic Crime and Academic Institutions. 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. She has presented training on Critical Incident Management and Explosives response protocol on a worldwide basis, and serves as an adjunct professor at several academic institutions.

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 a team in the Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review (QICR). In addition, she is leading a multi-disciplinary team for the Department of Defense and practitioner community related to interoperable communications and command and control under the auspices of the ACTD program.