Dr. Kathleen L. Kiernan | Kiernan Group Holdings

Dr. Kathleen L. Kiernan
CEO and Founder

Dr. Kathleen Kiernan is the founder and CEO of KGH. She is a 29-year veteran of Federal Law Enforcement. She previously served as the Assistant Director for the Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) where she was responsible for the design and implementation of an intelligence-led organizational strategy related to explosives, firearms, and illegal tobacco diversion, the traditional and non-traditional tools of terrorism.

Dr. Kiernan is a recognized expert in strategic thinking, strategy development, and facilitating critical incident management exercises for senior leaders across government and private sector organizations. These include national and international level policies related to criminality and terrorism; Active Shooter/Active Threat; Insider Threat, unconventional threats impacting the warfighter; anomalous behavior detection; continuity of operations and crisis management and crisis communications. In addition, Dr. Kiernan has served as a SME for Risk Assessment and Gap Analysis efforts for some of our nation’s most critical assets. She was the Principal Investigator for an international project related to suicide bomber methodology; the results of which informed national level risk mitigation policies and the development of behavioral detection training, as well as countermeasure investment.

She has developed and trademarked four approaches to complex national level issues:
- Fuciferi Versuiti® (AKA Crafty Bastards): A highly specialized, metric-based analytical process created to provide multidisciplinary problem solving and custom-tailored solutions for the world’s most complex current and emerging threats and challenges.
- Emerging Technology Innovation CenterTM (ETICTM): Identifies, exploits, and often recombines technology capabilities across the virtual (cyber) and physical trade space.
- PWP®: Preparedness Without Paranoia, a community-based program that provides a common sense educational and training approach to preparedness at the intersection of fear and fact for active threats in consonance with national level standards and guidance.
- G.O.T. Preparedness®: An integrated Learning Management System (LMS), grounded methodologically in adult learning principals for online education related to Active Threat Readiness and Workplace Violence Prevention. The approach includes field ethnography and digital story telling as educational precepts.
- Dr. Kiernan is the recipient of a number of national awards to include the Women of Influence-Public Sector award; the American Security Today Platinum Award for Best Educational Program in Homeland Security in 2017, 2018, and 2019; and the Illinois Security Professionals Association Excellence in Emergency Management in 2019. Other highlights of Dr. Kiernan’s credentials include: Chair of InfraGard, now Emeritus, member of the Army Science Board, where she led a panel exploring the transition of law enforcement training and technology to the warfighter; member of the Air Force Strategic Studies Board; former Chair of the Domestic Intelligence Council for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA); graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute (Class 26); and a Senior Fellow at the George Washington Homeland Security Policy Institute.
- Dr. Kiernan is an adjunct faculty member of the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. She is also a member of the AFCEA Intelligence Committee, Co-Chair of the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) Resilience Council, and member of the ASIS International Academic Council. Kiernan is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Police Foundation Center for Mass Violence Response Studies and a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Advanced Red Teaming at the University of Albany, SUNY.