San Diego has a rich heritage of collaboration. Since the turn of the century, its civilian community has provided unique natural resources and enduring relationships enabling the U.S. Navy to base the “Gibraltar of the Pacific” in San Diego’s harbor. More recently, that same collaborative culture nurtured the dramatic growth of our nation’s most dynamic clusters of science and technology innovation. In response to terrorist attacks on September 11th, individuals and organizations throughout San Diego began exploring how they might best respond to this new threat.

The San Diego region brings considerable intellectual and physical assets to our nation’s war against terrorism. Many of those same assets - a strong military presence, an active international border, a vital commercial and Navy port, a regional nuclear reactor, world leadership in fields such as biomedicine, biotechnology, computing, communications, energy, environment, defense and space technologies, and tourist attractions of global renown - also make San Diego an attractive target for terrorist attack. For these reasons, internal discussions on university campuses, in executive boardrooms, on military bases, and among regional public health and safety agencies would not suffice. Nor would they conform to San Diego’s collaborative culture. Because these sectors overlap in so many ways, their members began working together on a regional basis as the most coherent and effective manner to respond to the new era of “homeland security.”

On April 5, 2002, Congressman Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Research and Development, joined by fellow Committee member Congresswoman Susan Davis, convened a “Summit” on Homeland Security. Corporate executives, university leaders, local government officials, and “first responders” from emergency, public health, and non-profit organizations participated in this discussion. They committed the San Diego region to seek designation as a “test bed” and center of excellence for the development, evaluation, and certification of new technologies, research and development, and other tools in support of counter-terrorism and homeland security.

At the meeting’s conclusion, San Diego State University (SDSU) President Sstephen Weber and University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Chancellor Robert Dynes agreed to a request from Representatives Duncan Hunter and Susan Davis that the two universities take a joint leadership role in coordinating regional responses to the scientific, technological, and operational challenges associated with this initiative. In this capacity the two universities serve as “neutral brokers,” reaching out across the community’s diverse institutional sectors to involve participation of interested public and private organizations in developing the San Diego Regional Network for Homeland Security (RNHS).

San Diego is extremely fortunate to have a robust and forward-looking public health and safety infrastructure. Built around the concept of an “all hazards” response, it has been working for several years to manage the kinds of preparedness problems we now face. Building on this platform, RNHS seeks to evaluate first response capability and needs, and develop strategies to fill the gaps between them - either through regional partnerships leveraging local resources or by working together to pursue funding opportunities at the state and federal level.
It approaches these efforts as an informal and neutral organization - working inclusively as possible to involve the diverse array of public and private organizations, large and small, interested in homeland security issues. It functions primarily as an open, information sharing network promoting communication and identifying opportunities for shared participation in regional initiatives. In this regard, the fundamental mission of RNHS is to build on existing relationships of trust and understanding across institutional sectors throughout the region. It does so in the belief that such relationships are the most valuable and resilient resource in building regional preparedness.

Following the April 5th Summit, SDSU and UCSD hosted a series of “town hall” meetings to gather community intelligence about how, where, when, and with whom to proceed. These meetings highlighted regional priorities and a consensus view that RNHS advance those priorities through action-oriented working groups. Specific working groups have been formed to address the following priorities:

• biological & chemical terrorism
• port & border security
• information technology & cyber-security
• critical infrastructure
• public health and safety/education, training, & communications

Volunteer professionals chair these working groups which include representatives from San Diego’s diverse institutional sectors. They engage first responders in developing “user-oriented” initiatives to “fill gaps” between the region’s preparedness capabilities and needs. The working groups do not “direct” regional activities but act as networks reaching across organizational boundaries, sharing information broadly, and leveraging regional resources. This helps ensure that working groups address members’ concerns and that the RNHS agenda complements the independent activities of participating regional organizations. More importantly, the working group process strengthens relationships of trust that prepare our region to work more effectively in response to critical incidents.

The members of the San Diego RNHS are devoting their intellects, energies, and resources to enhance the preparedness capabilities of the San Diego region for the near and long term, against disasters natural or deliberate. We also hope that our work will serve as a useful model for other communities throughout the United States, as we come together in response to the homeland security challenges of the 21st century.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Regional Network Co-Chair, UCSD – Dr. Mark Thiemens, Dean, of Physical Sciences
Executive Director – Dr. Ed Furtek, (858) 534-0888, efurtek@ucsd.edu

Regional Network Co-Chair, SDSU – Dr. Dolores Wozniak, Dean, College of Health & Human Services
Executive Director – Barry Janov, (619) 594-4524, bjanov@foundation.sdsu.edu