Another fascinating zoom meeting this past week. We receive such great information; I hope everyone continues to tune in! 

We had Dr. Gina Scott Ligon, Professor of Management and the Jack and Stephanie Koraleski Chair of Collaboration Science in the College of Business Administration at UNO.  She is the director of NCITE and has won over 55 million dollars in competitive grants and contracts during her career, including the largest single federal award in UNO’s history.  She has a BS and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in industrial and organizational psychology. Dr. Ligon shared with us details regarding the Department of Homeland Security Grant at UNO and what it is, how they won it and what the benefits of that is to Omaha.  Much of the research involves preventing the next Oklahoma City type bombing, a repeat of 911, Boston marathon type bombings and what we are doing in Omaha to be a part of that prevention.  UNO not only won the largest federal grant in its history but also the largest social science grant in 2020.  Dr. Ligon co-wrote the grant. 
 

NCITE stands for National Counterterrorism Innovation Technology and Education center.  Its mission is to provide counterterrorism professionals within the Homeland Security access to innovation, Technology and Education based on relevant user inspired problems identified by HSE professionals. Dr. Ligon explained what the Centers of Excellence of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is and how UNO won the grant.  DHS was set up after 911 to protect the Homeland.  There are many aspects to it, and it is considered the R&D for Homeland Security by supporting the operational components called the Science and Technology.  Within that is a program called The Office of University Partnerships which designates different universities to be Centers for Excellence for Homeland Security for specific missionary.  While UNO is charged with the mission of counterterrorism research and prevention, they are also the trusted agent to be able to award all of the DHS federal grant dollars associated with terrorism research.  She noted the benefits to the University by getting this grant. Code: Research is cool. Revenue for the state that they can use to give scholarships, fund faculty which is funding that doesn’t have to come from the state.  Also, the ability for the students to contribute to solving a serious problem which gives them financial incentive to study national security with significant resources.  Another benefit is the ability to have a full time federally funded positions to support the work.  Getting the grant also had an impact on the way Nebraska was viewed.  The long-term goal is to encourage students to start businesses in Omaha with a National Security Focus.  Her hope is that Rotary will share their story and show that Omaha believes in this project.  She also mentioned that part of the mission for UNO is to make sure that they reach out to the best researchers internationally which involves three minority serving institutions in their network.  This would help make sure there is diversity on the team. 

There was much more but you have to join us!  See you (sort of) next week!

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