Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
President
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Mr. Gaffney formerly acted as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during the Reagan Administration, following four years of service as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy. Previously, he was a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee under the chairmanship of the late Senator John Tower, and a national security legislative aide to the late Senator Henry M. Jackson.
Shaun Seifert
Chief Financial Officer
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Mr. Seifert manages and coordinates the various business activities with respect to the Center’s operations, and oversees the Center’s internship program. He has previously served on the staff of the Ways and Means Committee and House Committee on the Budget. He has a BA in Economics and an MBA.
Jim Hanson
Executive Vice President
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Mr. Hanson served in US Army Special Forces and conducted Counter-Terrorism, Counter-Insurgency and other operations in more than a dozen countries. Jim joined the Center to provide the expertise of a practitioner of the art of war. He is also a seasoned fighter in the war of ideas and is helping lead the Center to an information operations strategy that takes full advantage of the new media environment.
Fred Fleitz
Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs
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Mr. Fleitz served in U.S. national security positions for 25 years at the CIA, DIA, Department of State and the House Intelligence Committee staff. During the administration of President George W. Bush, Mr. Fleitz was chief of staff to John Bolton, then Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. During his tenure with the House Intelligence Committee, he was the staff expert on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs and briefed key National Intelligence Estimates on these issues to committee members. After he left government in 2011, he founded and served as Director of the Langley Intelligence Group Network (LIGNET), Newsmax Media’s global intelligence and forecasting service. Fleitz is a regular commentator on Secure Freedom radio and has appeared on the Fox News Channel. Mr. Fleitz is the author of Peacekeeping Fiascoes of the 1990s (Praeger) and is working on books on intelligence reform and the Iranian nuclear program. Mr Fleitz holds an MA in Political Economy from Fordham University and a BA in Politics from Saint Joseph’s University.
Clare Lopez
Vice President for Research and Analysis
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Ms. Lopez is the Vice President for Research and Analysis at the Center for Security Policy, a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Canadian Mackenzie Institute. In 2016, she was named to Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign national security advisory team. Since 2013, she has served as a member of the Citizens Commission on Benghazi. Formerly Vice President of the Intelligence Summit, she was a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms. She was named a 2011 Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute.
Already an advisor to EMP Act America, in February 2012 Ms. Lopez was named a member of the Congressional Task Force on National and Homeland Security, which focuses on the Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) threat to the nation. She serves as a member of the Boards of Advisors/Directors for the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, the United West, and the Voice of the Copts. She has been a Visiting Researcher and guest lecturer on counterterrorism, national defense, and international relations at Georgetown University. Ms. Lopez is a regular contributor to print and broadcast media on subjects related to Iran and the Middle East and the co-author of two published books on Iran. She is the author of an acclaimed paper for the Center, The Rise of the Iran Lobby and co-author/editor of the Center’s Team B II study, “Shariah: The Threat to America” as well as The Tiger Team’s “The Secure Freedom Strategy: A Plan for Victory Over the Global Jihad Movement.” She co-authored “Gulen and the Gulenist Movement” with CSP’s Vice President for Outreach, Christopher Holton, and “See No Shariah: ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ and the Disarming of America’s First Line of Defense” with Frank Gaffney, CSP President.
Lopez received a B.A. in Communications and French from Notre Dame College of Ohio and an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. She completed Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia before declining a military commission to join the CIA.
Ben Lerner
Vice President for Government Relations
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Mr. Lerner manages the Center’s educational efforts and interactions with the federal government. He also manages coalitions and projects addressing national security law, homeland security, nuclear deterrence, American sovereignty, and energy security, and is responsible for the researching and drafting of policy publications in these and other areas. His articles have appeared in The American Spectator, The Washington Times, Townhall, The Washington Examiner, and inFocus Quarterly, and he has been a guest lecturer at the U.S. Army War College, where he has discussed the legal/ethical issues surrounding the military’s use of unmanned systems. Prior to joining the Center, Mr. Lerner served as counsel on energy, environment and homeland security issues in a government relations firm, held a senior government relations role with a foreign affairs advocacy organization, gained experience in both the House and Senate, and served as a senior adviser on a congressional campaign. He holds a law degree from Georgetown University, and received his bachelor’s degree in political science, with highest distinction, from the University of Michigan.
Christopher Holton
Vice President for Outreach
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During Mr. Holton’s years with the Center, he has directed the Center’s Divest Terror Initiative and Shariah Risk Due Diligence Program. He has been involved in education and outreach in more than twenty states regarding divestment of taxpayer supported pension systems from foreign companies that do business with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Sudan, and the Syrian Arab Republic. In addition, he has been involved in state level counterterrorism and countershariah initiatives in dozens of states.
In 2005, he was a co-author of War Footing, published by the US Naval Institute Press. In 2008 he was a co-author of Shariah, Law and Financial Jihad: How Should America Respond? In 2015, Holton co-authored, along with the Center for Security Policy’s Clare Lopez, The Gulen Movement: Turkey’s Islamic Supremacist Cult and Its Contribution to Civilization Jihad in America.
Holton’s work has also been published by National Review, Human Events, The American Thinker, Family Security Matters, Big Peace, World Tribune, World Net Daily, NewsMax, and TheHayride.com. He has appeared on television on the O’Reilly Factor, the Glenn Beck Program, CNBC’s Squawk Box and Fox and Friends. On radio he has guested on the Laura Ingraham program, the Michael Reagan show, the Brett Winterble show, the Roger Hedgecock program, the Michael Medved show, and the Jim Bohannon show.
Christopher has been a frequent guest speaker at Tea Party, Republican and other gatherings from Florida to California.
Before joining the Center, Christopher was President of Blanchard and Company, a two hundred million dollar per year investment firm, and editor-in-chief of the Blanchard Economic Research Unit.
Christopher now blogs at TerrorTrendsBulletin.com and Shariahfinancewatch.org. He is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/christopher.holton.94 and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Ikhwannot.
Tommy Waller
Director of State Legislative Outreach
Tommy Waller is Director of State Legislative Outreach at the Center for Security Policy. Mr. Waller came to the Center after twelve years as an Infantry Officer in the Marine Corps and service spanning multiple deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, and South America. His assignments have ranged from conducting basic infantry operations, special operations and reconnaissance in combat environments to assignments in staff planning, logistics, training support and professional instruction. His formal education includes numerous military schools and colleges, a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Tulane University and executive education in high stakes negotiation from the Wharton School.
David Yerushalmi, Esq.
General Counsel
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Mr. Yerushalmi is a lawyer specializing in litigation and risk analysis, especially as it relates to geo-strategic policy, national security, international business relations, securities law, disclosure and due diligence requirements for domestic and international concerns. David Yerushalmi has been involved in international legal and constitutional matters for over 25 years. David Yerushalmi is today considered an expert on Islamic law and its intersection with Islamic terrorism and national security. In this capacity, he has published widely on the subject including the principle critical scholarship on Shariah-compliant finance published in the Utah Law Review (2008, Issue 3). This work and the empirical investigation known as the Mapping Shariah project in America was the focus of a recent monograph published by the McCormack Foundation and the Center for Security Policy.
Adam Savit
Vice President for Media Production
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Mr. Savit administrates media projects across a range of formats, including books and monographs published by the Center for Security Policy Press, video production for the Center’s YouTube channel and website production and maintenance. He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University specializing in the history of the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Nancy Menges
Editor-in-Chief of The Americas Report
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Mrs. Menges, the co-founder of the Menges Hemispheric Security Project, is in charge of the weekly edition of CSP’s Americas Report. Fluent in Spanish, she holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has studied at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. Her postgraduate degree has been earned from the University of Maryland. She has testified in Congress and submitted CSP’s statement regarding US-Colombian relations to the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
Kyle Shideler
Director of the Threat Information Office
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Kyle Shideler is the Director of the Threat Information Office (TIO) at the Center for Security Policy. Kyle has previously served as a Director of Research and Communications, Senior Researcher, and Public Information Officer for several organizations in the field of Middle East and terrorism policy since 2006. He is a contributing author to “Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Terrorist Network: America and the West’s Fatal Embrace,” and has written for numerous publications as well as briefed legislative aides, intelligence and law enforcement officials and the general public on national security issues.
Alex VanNess
Director of the Middle East Peace and Security Policy
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Alex VanNess is the Director of the Middle East Peace and Security Policy at the Center for Security Policy. Prior to coming to the Center, Mr. VanNess worked as an Intern for Congressman Doug Lamborn and then later as a member of staff for Congressman Tom McClintock of California. He writes extensively on issues relating to U.S. defense spending, the U.S./Israel strategic relationship, and the existential threats posed by Islamic fundamentalism. His articles have appeared in such publications as The American Thinker, Breitbart News, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, RealClearReligion, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Post, The Washington Times, and The Jerusalem Post, among others. Alex holds a degree in Political Science and Peace & Conflict Studies from Wayne State University and has studied Jewish Law and Philosophy at Shor Yoshuv Rabbinical College in New York.
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