Ex-DHS chief of staff to head new tech center

Retired Maj. Gen. Bruce Lawlor, the first chief of staff at the Homeland Security Department, has been named director of the new Center for Technology, Security, and Policy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The center will conduct academic research, enhance existing related graduate programs in the area, and develop new educational courses and executive-focused programs related to national and homeland security, according to a Virginia Tech press release. 

Lawlor will be responsible for developing the center’s educational, research and outreach programs, according to the release. These tasks include establishing internal and external advisory boards, hiring adjunct professors and promoting the center.

Lawlor was most recently chairman and chief executive officer of Centuria, a homeland security holding company with service and technology subsidiaries. 

He was one of five senior White House staff members who wrote the plan to create DHS. As chief of staff, he managed the department’s policy decision-making, coordinated department operations and provided oversight for implementation of the secretary’s decisions.

Lawlor also was the first commanding general of the Defense Department’s Joint Task Force Civil Support, which plans and integrates the DOD consequence management support to civil authorities following a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosives event in the and its territories.