COL John R. Brinkerhoff, USA (RET) 
Senior Homeland Security Fellow and Board Member
COL John Brinkerhoff is former Acting Associate Director for National Preparedness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 1981 to 1983 under President Reagan, where he was responsible for policy formulation and program oversight of the Civil Defense Program, National Mobilization Preparedness Program, Continuity of Government Program, and the National Defense Stockpile Program. Colonel Brinkerhoff was also Deputy Executive Secretary of the Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board under the National Security Advisor.  He is also a former adjunct research staff member of the Institute for Defense Analyses. 

Prior to joining FEMA, COL Brinkerhoff served as the Department of Defense Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Reserve Affairs. He retired from the Army in 1974 after 29 years service, which included tours in Korea, Germany, and Vietnam. COL Brinkerhoff holds a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy, an MS in Civil Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, an MA in Geography from Columbia University, and an MSA in Operations Research from George Washington University.  He has written two books and numerous articles.

David W. Kirkpatrick
Senior Education Fellow
David W. Kirkpatrick of Douglasville, Pennsylvania is U.S. Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow on Education.  Kirkpatrick is charged with education reform policy development and implementation, and will contribute a weekly education reform update published on the Foundation website. 

Kirkpatrick has previously served as President of the Pennsylvania State Education Association;  Editorial Board Member of the Texas Education Review; Director of Policy and Legislation for the Association of Pennsylvania State Colleges and University Faculties; multiple positions with National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) affiliates; Distinguished Fellow of the Blum Center at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Senior Fellow for Teacher Choice at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution in Arlington, Virginia; and Editor-in-Chief for Insider Update, the weekly internet service of School Reformers.Com; among other achievements. He is a life member of the NEA and the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

He is a former public high school history teacher and social studies department chairman, and was a teaching fellow at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.   Kirkpatrick holds a B.S. in Education from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (North Adams State College), an M.A. in History from Lehigh University, and was a William Robertson Coe Fellow at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. 

He has published numerous books and articles, including Choice in Schooling, Loyola University Press, 1990.