Kathleen Higgins
Assistant to the NIST Director for
Homeland Security
NIST


Talk Title: "Public Safety & Security: Traditions and Challenges"

Abstract

Measurements and standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are used to set minimum performance requirements for many types of public safety and security equipment and to identity opportunities for equipment improvements and innovations. This makes NIST an important link in the vendor-to-market chain. Case studies of three technologies -- ballistic body armor, metal detectors, and CBRN respirators -- illustrate the process of standards development and the role industry plays.

Biographical Sketch
Kathleen M. Higgins' career in criminal justice and public safety began soon after she earned her B.S. in chemistry from the University of Rhode Island. As a freshman toxicologist in the state's Department of Health, she was assigned to analyze evidence submitted by the police and the medical examiner. She earned a Masters degree in Forensic Chemistry at Northeastern University, did course work at Brown University in the fields of drug abuse and medical-legal autopsies, and co-founded a private forensic laboratory in Boston. She also lectured at the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Center and at Northeastern University, where she was made coordinator of the graduate and undergraduate forensic science programs.

In the late 1980s Ms. Higgins left the field of forensic science to manage materials-development programs for the U.S. Postal Service Engineering and Development Center, including one that produced the improved papers, inks and self-sticking adhesives of today's postage stamps. She earned a Meritorious Service Honor Award for her efforts, but public safety and criminal justice remained her passion, and in 1994 she accepted an invitation to serve as Director of the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Under Ms. Higgins' leadership OLES has grown from a handful of programs with a budget of $1.1M to more than 50 active projects and a budget of nearly $60 million. She has been widely recognized for her efforts. In 2001 NIST's parent agency, the Department of Commerce, awarded her its Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement. And in 2002 George Washington University honored her with the prestigious Arthur S. Fleming Award for her extraordinary service to the Federal Government and the nation. In November of 2003, she was appointed the Assistant to the Director for Homeland Security and as such chairs the Homeland Security Strategic Working Group at NIST. In June 2005, Ms. Higgins joined the Senior Executive Service within the Federal government workforce.

Ms. Higgins is the author of several forensic science journal articles, a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and a member of several professional organizations, including the ASTM E54 Committee on Homeland Security Applications (Chair), the International Association for Identification, the National Fire Protection Association, the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (member of the Homeland Security Committee). She was also recently appointed as the Chair of the US delegation to ISO's Strategic Advisory Group on Security

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