Our directors have decades of experience in critical infrastructure protection.
Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, Director. Ambassador Henry (Hank) Cooper was Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) during the George H.W. Bush administration and President Reagan's Chief Negotiator at the Geneva Defense and Space Talks. Also serving as Assistant Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, he backstopped U.S. bilateral negotiations with the Soviet Union and led the development of President Reagan's space arms control policy; and, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, oversaw the Reagan modernization program for USAF strategic and space systems. Currently, Ambassador Cooper is Chairman of the Board of High Frontier, a non-profit, non-partisan educational corporation, formed to examine the potential for defending America against missile attack and Chairman Emeritus of Applied Research Associates, Inc. Ambassador Cooper holds a Ph.D. from New York University in Mechanical Engineering, and BS and MS degrees from Clemson University, also in Mechanical Engineering. He serves as a technical resource for Resilient Societies on matters of ballistic missile defense and international arms control.
Richard H. Humphreys, Director. Richard (Rick) Humphreys studies issues associated with the U.S. electric grid following a 35+ year career in the defense industry. Rick spent the bulk of his career with the Boeing Lasers and Electro-Optics group in California and Lockheed Martin’s Laser and Sensor Systems group outside of Seattle, Washington. At both Boeing and Lockheed Martin Rick served in various management roles, primarily as Program Manager. As Program Manager, Rick was responsible for leading teams of engineers and scientists in advancing High Energy Laser technology. Rick’s teams were successful in advancing fiber laser technology from laboratory proof of concept to fielded weapon systems. Rick earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT in Chemical Engineering courtesy of the Air Force ROTC program. During his Air Force career, Rick was stationed at the Air Force Weapons (now Research) Lab, New Mexico and Ft. Meade, Maryland. Rick continued in the Air Force Reserves and ultimately separated with the rank of Major.
Richard M. Krieg, Director. Richard Krieg is Editor of The Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy based in Washington DC. The peer-reviewed Journal provides a cross-sectoral platform for critical infrastructure and community resilience. He has extensive background in the public health, healthcare and philanthropy. He is former Commissioner of Health for the City of Chicago, Associate Dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and Director of Policy Analysis for the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, an association of 142 hospitals in the Greater Chicago area. He was President and CEO of The Horizon Foundation in Columbia, MD, a $100 million health philanthropy launched by Johns Hopkins University. He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Health Policy and Administration from the University of Chicago and completed the mid-career Executive Program at the Harvard Business School. His consulting activities include two FEMA-funded grants addressing the community impacts of a terrorist nuclear strike in the National Capital Region.
Mary D. Lasky, Secretary and Director. Ms. Lasky is the Chairman of the InfraGard Electromagnetic Pulse Special Interest Group (EMP SIG) and has been the Program Manager for Business Continuity Planning for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She is lead editor and an author of Powering Through: From Fragile Infrastructure to Community Resilience, an action guide on preventing and mitigating grid failure. Ms. Lasky is a past president of the Community Emergency Response Network Inc. (CERN) in Howard County, Maryland; while she was president, CERN received two FEMA grants to research preparation for nuclear attack. She is a Past President of the Central Maryland Chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP). Previously at the Applied Physics Laboratory, Ms. Lasky has held a variety of supervisory positions in Information Technology and in business services. For many years, she was adjunct faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, teaching in the graduate degree program in Technical Management. Ms. Lasky is a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP).
Thomas S. Popik, President, Director, and co-founder. In addition to leading Resilient Societies, Thomas Popik serves as a Principal Investigator on critical infrastructures, specializing in vulnerability assessment, comparative risk analysis, and economic modeling. He has testified before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Canadian Parliament, and the legislatures of multiple U.S. states and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Economist, Reuters, and USA Today. In his commercial sector work, Mr. Popik is a principal of Geosegment Systems Corporation, a market research firm specializing in the U.S. banking and mortgage industries. Mr. Popik holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. In his early career, Mr. Popik served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, with a final rank of Captain. Mr. Popik was also a co-founder of the Academy for Science and Design, New Hampshire's charter high school for science and math education.
William R. Harris, Director Emeritus. Mr. Harris is an international lawyer specializing in arms control, nuclear non-proliferation, energy policy, and continuity of government. He worked on Hot Line upgrades, creation of linked Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers (1982-84), and was a co-drafter of arms limitation treaties in 1986-87, 1991, and 1993. Mr. Harris worked for the RAND Corporation and in a variety of assignments for the U.S. Government. Mr. Harris holds a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.