2026 Homeland Security Summit | Potomac Officers Club
RegisterWHAT
The Department of Homeland Security is facing an increasingly complex threat environment, where nation-state-backed threat actors utilize emerging technologies to disrupt peace. To strengthen national security, the Trump administration has prioritized record investments in homeland defense, providing DHS and its components with the resources needed to counter evolving digital and physical threats.
At the 2026 Homeland Security Summit, decision-makers from across DHS and innovators from industry will take the stage to discuss how the government can leverage data and advanced technologies to safeguard the nation’s borders and critical infrastructure.
Panels will analyze key DHS initiatives, including utilizing AI for investigative intelligence, deploying edge capabilities for border defense, building federated data fabrics for advanced analytics and adopting counter-UAS to defeat weaponized drone use. The summit will also cover the role of public-private partnerships to strengthen security ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
Keynote Speakers
Paul Courtney (Pending Approval)
Chief Procurement Officer
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Sean M. Curran
Director
U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
Troy Edgar
Deputy Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Bobby Thompson
Acting Associate Director for Threat Hunting
U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Speakers
Yusuf Abdul-Salaam
CEO
Xpect Solutions
Dave Abel
CEO
Protora
Jay Alalasundaram
Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC), Software Applications and Services (SAS)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Julie Brewer
Executive Director Office of Innovation and Collaboration, Science and Technology Directorate [S&T]
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
CAPT Chad R. Brick
Inaugural Chief, CG-RAPTOR
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
Chris Casey
Research & Development Director
T-Mobile
Anthony C. Crane
Executive Director – C-UAS Defense Capability Group
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Baibhav "BoBo" Devkota
Executive Director
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Devin Dickerson
MongoDB
Matthew Elliston
Assistant Director Enforcement and Removals Operations
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Shawn Fallah
Chief - Supervisory Criminal Investigator
DHS/HSI
Christine Gadsby
Chief Security Advisor
Blackberry
David Getman
Sr. Director, Product Management
Corelight
Russ Hott
Assistant Director, ERO - Public Safety Partnership Division
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
David J. Kaufman
Vice President and Director, Safety and Security
CNA Analysis & Solutions
Bob Kolasky
SVP, Critical Infrastructure
Exiger
Chris Kraft
CIO
U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
Cathy Lanier
SVP, Chief Security Officer of NFL
NFL
Kris Levin-Snow
AVP, DHS
AT&T
Christopher Ling
CEO
Ericsson Federal
Adam Luke
Principal Deputy Under Secretary, DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Eric McLoughlin
Assistant Director
Homeland Security Investigations
Richard Miller
Chief Growth Officer
Nokia Federal Solutions
Phil Miller
Senior Vice President, Law Enforcement & Judiciary Programs
Procentrix
Kristen Nero
National Security Group Lead
Databricks
Charles O'Brien
Senior Vice President, Civil Solutions
SOSi
Opeyemi Oshinnaiye
Chief Technologist
ITC Federal
Christine Palmer
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Citizen Security and Public Services Sector
Peraton
Corey A. Price
President, | Former Executive Associate Director, ICE - Enforcement and Removal Operations
Buckeye Solutions, LLC
Mary Rupert
C-UAS Technical Manager
LMI
Johnnie Sharp
Technical Executive Director
MANTECH
Ruynard Singleton
Executive Director, PMO Directorate
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Kern Smith
VP of Global Presales
Zimperium
Randy Soper
Senior Director, Federal Data & AI Lead
Slalom
Scott St. Pierre
CIO
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
Molly Strausbaugh
Director, Scientific Content & Commercial Chemistry
CAS
Robert A. Thorne
Deputy Chief Information Officer (Acting)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Jerry Tipton
Exec Director
SAIC
Roberto Vaquero
Office of Field Operations Executive Director
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Dr. Lauren Wind
Acting Deputy Chief Technology Officer
U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
John Woods
VP & DHS Client Exec.
CACI
Agenda
| 7:00am | 8:00am | Networking Reception |
| 8:00am | 8:10am | Welcome & Opening Remarks |
| 8:10am | 8:40am | Opening Keynote - Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar |
| 8:40am | 9:05am | Morning Keynote |
| 9:05am | 9:30am | Morning Keynote- Bobby Thompson |
| 9:30am | 10:00am | Networking Break |
| 10:00am | 11:00am | Panel A: Safeguarding the Homeland: Coordination for Counter-UAS Operations- Mary Rupert (Moderator), Christopher Ling (Panelist), Cathy Lanier (Panelist), Tony Crane (Panelist) |
| 10:00am | 11:00am | Panel B: Connecting the Dots: AI, Entity Resolution/Link Analysis, and the Future of Investigative Intelligence - Opeyemi Oshinnaiye (Moderator), Baibhav "BoBo" Devkota (Panelist), Devin Dickerson (Panelist), Chris Kraft (Panelist) |
| 10:00am | 11:00am | Panel C: One Mission, Many Components: Building a Federated DHS Data and Identity Fabric- Randy Soper (Moderator), Kristen Nero (Panelist), David Getman (Panelist), Adam Luke (Panelist), Dr. Lauren Wind (Panelist) |
| 11:00am | 11:10am | Break |
| 11:10am | 12:10pm | Panel A: Modernizing the Homeland Security Mission: Edge Capabilities for the Border and National Events- Kris Levin-Snow (Moderator), Ruynard Singleton (Panelist), Richard Miller (Panelists), Scott St. Pierre (Panelist) |
| 11:10am | 12:10pm | Panel B: Mission Ready: Building Trust Through Technology Validation- Jerry Tipton (Moderator), Julie Brewer (Panelist), Roberto Vaquero (Panelist), Capt. Chad R. Brick (Panelist), Jay Alalasundaram (Panelist), Kern Smith (Panelist) |
| 11:10am | 12:10pm | Panel C: Mission Ready: The Next Generation of Homeland Security Operations- Phil Miller (Moderator),Shawn Fallah (Panelist),Molly Strausbaugh (Panelist), Rob Thorne (Panelist), Eric McLoughlin (Panelist) |
| 12:00pm | 1:30pm | Networking Lunch |
| 12:25pm | 1:15pm | Lunch Panel: Code and Drones: DHS's Parallel Fights to Build Cyber Talent and Field Unmanned Systems- Dave Abel (Moderator), Yusuf Abdul-Salaam (Panelist), John Woods (Panelist), Christine Gadsby (Panelist) |
| 1:30pm | 2:30pm | Panel A: Our Soil, Our Rules: Public-Private Collaboration on Security in Lead-Up to LA28- Chris Casey (Moderator), Johnnie Sharp (Panelist), Matthew Elliston (Panelist) |
| 1:30pm | 2:30pm | Panel B- Protecting the Homeland from Complex Security Threats- Charles O'Brien (Moderator), Corey A. Price (Panelist), Russell Hott (Panelist) |
| 1:30pm | 2:30pm | Panel C: Mission Confidence-Building Trust in Homeland Security Technologies- Bob Kolasky (Moderator), Christine Palmer (Panelist), David J. Kaufman (Panelist) |
| 2:30pm | 2:40pm | Networking Break |
| 2:40pm | 3:05pm | Afternoon Keynote: Director Sean Curran |
| 3:05pm | 3:30pm | Mid-Afternoon Keynote- Paul Courtney (Pending Approval) |
| 3:30pm | 3:55pm | Closing Keynote |
| 3:55pm | 4:00pm | Closing Remarks |
