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Homeland Security Expert Matt Mayer to Give Lecture at the School of Public Policy

Matt Mayer

The Davenport Institute at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy presents a lecture by Matt Mayer, visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Titled "Homeland Security and Federalism," the lecture will take place at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17 in room 171 at the School of Public Policy.  

As a fellow, Mayer currently leads the Heritage Foundation's Homeland Security and the States Project, which seeks to decentralize elements of homeland security from the federal government to state and local entities. Previously, he served as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security and has since written Homeland Security and Federalism: Protecting America from Outside the Beltway, an insider's account of what’s wrong with America’s homeland security effort and how to fix it.

Mayer is also an adjunct professor at Ohio State University, where he teaches a course comparing responses within the transatlantic alliance to terrorist threats.  A prolific writer, Mayer has published several public policy articles in the last year on homeland security issues, and is working on a book, Decentralizing Homeland Security: Protecting America from Outside the Beltway. He was a 2007 Lincoln Fellow with the Claremont Institute and a 2003 American Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

At the Department of Homeland Security, Mayer performed multiple key roles under the leadership of Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff. In his final position with the department, Mayer served as the counselor to the deputy secretary. In that role, he advised the secretary and deputy secretary on all policy and operational issues facing the new agency. In addition, Mayer engaged in the creation and issuance of key policy programs, including the re-tooling efforts at Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), immigration and border programs, maritime and port security programs, and transportation security programs.

Mayer also served as the head of the Office of Grants and Training, where he led the department's efforts to transform domestic preparedness to meet the demands of the ever-changing threat environment. Mayer oversaw and managed the development of the National Preparedness Goal and Target Capabilities List, and also spearheaded the movement to allocate grant funds on a risk and need model.

Mayer came to Homeland Security from Colorado where he served Gov. Bill Owens as the deputy director for the Department of Regulatory Agencies. Mayer co-developed Colorado's award-winning regulatory notice system that uses electronic mail to notify stakeholders of all proposed regulations before those regulations become final.
Mayer graduated cum laude from the University of Dayton, with a double major in philosophy and psychology. He received his law degree from the Ohio State University College of Law.

"Mayer’s perspective on the roles of state and local governments in defense of the homeland is part of the great American tradition of self reliance dating from the Revolution through the Civil Defense effort of World War II," says Pauletta Walsh, assistant dean for advancement and alumni affairs at the School
of Public Policy. "Students attending will have an opportunity to examine these issues facilitated by a leading expert in a field that continues to have great national importance.” 

The event is free and open to the public. For more information about events at the School of Public Policy, click here.