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Critical Infrastructure Higher Education Initiative

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Christie Jones

Interim Director and Education Program Manager

The Critical Infrastructure Higher Education Initiative (CI HEI) was a highly successful five-year partnership between the Center for Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security (CIP/HS) at George Mason University and  the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP).  In support of OIP’s efforts to construct a comprehensive higher education system to produce and sustain the nation’s critical infrastructure workforce, CI HEI created and disseminated critical infrastructure security and resilience (CISR) higher education materials including curricula, case studies, and reading resources.  These interdisciplinary educational resources were completely free and available for use by academic institutions across the country and around the world.

Since its inception in 2012, CI HEI course materials have been used in 23 undergraduate and graduate courses by 15 colleges and universities across the country and in programs and disciplines as varied as engineering, business administration, homeland and national security, emergency management, urban planning, and public policy. A total of 28 course syllabi were developed – 13 standalone courses (including the Foundational of CISR modularize courses), 5 certificate courses, and 8 courses making up a Masters of Public Administration concentration.  In addition, 6 case studies and 3 classroom/ table top exercises were created. All resources were developed through collaboration with external subject-matter experts from the public and private sectors as well as the academic community; the courses cover topics such as resilience, risk management, information sharing, cross-sector dependencies and interdependencies, and cybersecurity.

Though CI HEI ended in September 2017, the educational materials and resources are still freely available for download and use by any academic institution or training facility focused on critical infrastructure security and resilience.  The staff of CI HEI is pleased that CHDS will now be housing these materials of their website – https://www.chds.us/ed/items/17183. Please note, CHDS does not provide technical assistance related to CI HEI or its materials and will be unable to answer inquiries about the materials themselves.

General descriptions are listed for the available materials; for more specific information, please follow the links. All course materials are non-proprietary and available for free download on this page.