Overview

The NCR-CIP was established in March of 2004.Its purpose it to provide the analytic foundation for securing infrastructure services that are essential to the NCR economy and community.

History

In late 2003 and early 2004, the NCR Senior Policy Group (consisting of the homeland security advisors to the Governors of Maryland and Virginia and to the Mayor of the District of Columbia as well as the Director of the Office of NCR Coordination of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) initiated the National Capital Region Critical Infrastructure Project (NCR-CIP) to help develop a strategic framework for critical infrastructure protection on a regional level.

A consortium of six NCR universities was organized and led by GMU-CIPP to assess the state of risk management in an initial eight sectors, and explore the role of public agencies and private businesses, as well as citizens and communities in critical infrastructure protection in the NCR.

This research was supported by grant # 03-TU-03 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Urban Area Security Initiative, and grant #2003CKWX0199 by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services Program.

Goals and Objectives

The ultimate goal is to establish more secure, resilient infrastructure in the National Capital Region with respect to:

• National Security
• Economic Security
• Public Health and Safety
• Public Confidence

The specific objectives of NCR-CIP is to

• Develop a planning baseline and framework for a NCR Regional Infrastructure Protection Plan – modeled on the NIPP – including:
• Review current tools & practices in each of the 8 sectors and identify disparities
• Identify additional tools, incentives and framework for governments and industry
• Advance actionable recommendations to enhance regional analysis and decision-making for greater security and resiliency

Approach

Enhancing critical infrastructure in the region requires that owners and operators adopt specific steps - collecting threat information, assessing vulnerabilities, considering consequences, developing business continuity plans, and making prudent investments to improve security postures.  In response to these needs, we provide detailed and actionable information that the region's stakeholders may use without further effort, delay, or study.  Beyond providing essential information to government leaders in the NCR, work on the project must also provide context for partnerships between the public and private sectors, essential because so much critical infrastructure is in private hands.

In the short term, based on our efforts, we hope our work immediately leads to improvements in critical infrastructure security in the NCR. In the longer term, we seek to support and implement the risk management strategy of the District, Maryland, and Virginia for the NCR.

Organization and Staff

The project is managed and coordinated by the following CIPP staff:

John A. McCarthy, Principal Investigator
Jerry Paul Brashear, Ph.D., Project Manager
Larry Clark, James Creel, Kathleen Emmons, Ph.D., Jessica Milloy, Christine Pommerening, Ph.D., Jordana Siegel and Kevin (Kip) Thomas

The University Consortium (UCIP) consists of over 40 senior researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and research associates:

George Mason University – Farrokh Alemi, Ph.D., Vikas Arya, Ph.D., Brien Benson, Ph.D., Marcus Bowman, Ami Carpenter, Shaoming Chen, Osita Chidoka, Mike Giberson, PhD., Jonathan Gifford, Ph.D., Sean Gorman, Ph.D., Gerry Hanweck, Ph.D., Mark Houck, Ph.D., Saul Japson, Adriana Kocornik- Mina, Raj Kulkarni, Todd La Porte, Ph.D., Andy Loerch, Ph.D., Arnauld Nicogossian, M.D., Patrick O’Neill, Anoop Singhal, Ph.D., Laurie Schintler, Ph.D., Ted Smith, Roger Stough, Ph.D., Mohan Venigalla, Ph.D., Shanea Watkins, and Wayne Williams.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University –
Frederick Krimgold, D. Tech., Director, Disaster Risk Reduction Program, Advanced Research Institute; John Bigger, Keith Critchlow, Tom Grizzard, Ph.D., Kitty Hancock, Ph.D., Nicholas Konz, Lamine Mili, Ph.D. Natasha Udu-gama, and Michael Willingham, Ph.D.

University of Maryland –
Gregory Baecher, Ph.D., Chairman, Department of Civil Engineering; Phil Tarnoff, Director, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology

University of Virginia –
Gregory B. Saathoff, M.D., Executive Director, Critical Incidents Analysis Group; Monica T. Williams, Thomas M. Guterbock, Ph.D., Anna MacIntosh, Robin Bebel

James Madison University –
George Baker, Ph.D., and Stephen Stewart, Ph.D., College of Integrated Science and Technology; Cindy Jane Allen, Institute of Technical and Scientific Communication

Howard University –
Kathleen Kaplan, Ph.D., Department of Systems and Computer Science

Independent Advisors –
P.J. Aduskevicz, Jeanne Geers, Terrence P. Ryan, Paula Scalingi, Ph.D., Benjamin Stafford, Lee Zeichner, Esq., and Thomas F. Zimmerman, Ph.D.