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Today's Featured Biography

Keith F Amacker

Captain Keith F. Amacker US Navy (Retired) is the former Director of Homeland Security Studies for Tulane University’s School of Continuing Studies. He became school’s first director in 2006 after the university approved his concept of a homeland security studies degree program and resigned on 1 April 2014

Before doing so, he served in Afghanistan as a Strategic Planner for the Commander, Security Transition Command, Afghanistan. He conducted interagency coordination and planning with NATO, the UN, and various ministerial agencies of the Afghan government while providing strategic oversight and analysis for planning associated with successful completion of security benchmarks as set forth in the Afghan National Development Strategy and the creation of the Afghan National Internal Security Strategy.

A native of New Orleans, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1972 and retired in 2002 holding the rank of captain. During his thirty year career, Captain Amacker served in a variety assignments both afloat and ashore. His service at sea included assignments in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets as well operations in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. His last four years of service were spent in Washington DC where he served in the Office of Secretary Defense and as commanding officer of a major shore command at the Washington Navy Yard. On 12 Sept 2001 at the request of FEMA Urban Search and Rescue, his command provided manpower, logistics support and housing for 340 FEMA fire and rescue personnel during Pentagon rescue and recovery operations and later at FEMA’s request, provided that same level of support to FEMA at the World Trade Center site in New York.

Captain Amacker earned his commission through Tulane University’s Naval ROTC unit while earning a Bachelor of Arts in education from the University of New Orleans. During his first shore tour, he earned a Masters in management from Pepperdine University. Additionally, during the course of his naval career, he attended the Naval War College and various other Navy technical and tactical schools.

After his retirement, he returned to New Orleans and worked in education until August 2005 when the engineering failure of the 17th Canal flood wall in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, flooded and destroyed his home. He departed for Afghanistan in January 2006 and returned to New Orleans after his home was rebuilt and the university agreed to adopt and offer his degree program in the School of Continuing Studies. The success of the undergraduate program prompted the university to request that a master’s degree program be developed. In the spring of 2009 Captain Amacker led a team of faculty who developed and received university approval for its first ever masters in professional studies and designated homeland securities as the multi disciplinary subject of the degree. The program kicked off in 2010.

In his capacity as director, Captain Amacker works with various agencies of government and the private sector dealing with homeland security issues. While managing a rapidly expanding and highly successful degree program, he has served as an evaluator for emergency response exercises, a panelist for a university sponsored panel on terrorism and organized a symposium on all hazards preparedness. In 2008 the Aspen Institute sponsored a series of round tables to assess New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and New Orleans’ preparedness for another 9/11-scale attack and another Hurricane Katrina-scale natural disaster. Their goal was to identify best practices, identify any gaps in preparedness; and to determine how to close any such gaps. The Aspen Institute requested that Tulane co sponsor the New Orleans event and CAPT Amacker serve on the New Orleans panel and the Houston Panel. In 2012 Herr President Albrecht Broemme of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief invited him to the 8th European Civil Protection Congress held in Bonn from in Sept 2012. He served on a panel that discussed the development of competencies as key to successful civil protection interventions and how new and innovative methods and tools can assist training of intervention forces. In 2013 the Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security was chosen by the Coast Guard to be included in their Advanced Education Program.

Captain Amacker is a member of the US Naval Institute and the Military Officers Association of America.

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