Washington, D.C. - Today, the United States Secret Service announced that Dr. Lina Alathari has been named as a 2020 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalist. The Partnership for Public Service announced 27 candidates, all federal employees who serve the public good and are addressing many of our country’s greatest challenges.
Dr. Alathari serves as the Chief of the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), where she oversees the center’s targeted violence behavioral research program The findings from these projects have identified behaviors, motives, and triggers of individuals who engage in various forms of targeted violence to include school violence, workplace violence, terrorism, attacks against government officials and facilities, and mass attacks in public spaces. These research efforts inform and continue to build on existing best practices in the field of threat assessment. Most notably, NTAC recently released Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. To date, the most comprehensive report on targeted school violence ever conducted.
Dr. Alathari also oversees NTAC’s training and consultation programs. She and her team have delivered over 1,200 training sessions on preventing targeted attacks to more than 83,000 law enforcement officers, educators, mental health providers, government officials, faith-based leaders, and other public sector and private organizations across the United States. Dr. Alathari has testified before congress and provides guidance to government agencies, K-12 schools, universities, and corporations on threat cases and establishing threat assessment programs.
To learn more about NTAC and the critical role of threat assessment, visit www.secretservice.org.