Donell Harvin
Dr. Donell Harvin is a homeland security and public health emergency subject-matter expert, and serves as faculty in Georgetown University’s Emergency and Disaster Management Masters Program and the Applied Intelligence Masters Program within the School of Continuing Studies, and teaches terrorism studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Services (SFS) and public health in the Master of Science in Health & the Public Interest (HAPI) program.
Dr. Donell Harvin is a homeland security and public health emergency subject-matter expert, and serves as faculty in Georgetown University’s Emergency and Disaster Management Masters Program and the Applied Intelligence Masters Program within the School of Continuing Studies, and teaches terrorism studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Services (SFS) and public health in the Master of Science in Health & the Public Interest (HAPI) program. Concurrently, he has been appointed as a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he oversees the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear & Explosives (CBRNE) research and training program, focusing on disaster-related capacity building activities within Ukraine.
He is a homeland security analyst for MSNBC and NBC, and Politico where he provides commentary on a wide range of issues including domestic extremism and terrorism, mass attacks and intelligence. Additionally, he serves as a subject-matter expert for several international organizations including the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT), INTERPOL Counterterrorism Directorate, the Naval Post-Graduate School, Center for Homeland Security Executive Education Program (EEP), where he conducts executive-level seminars in emergency management, terrorism and threat mitigation.
Dr. Harvin’s public safety career spans over 30 years and includes executive roles in fire/EMS, law enforcement and forensics, countering WMDs, homeland security and intelligence. He is the former Chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence for the Government of the District of Columbia (DC), where he oversaw the National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Center (DC's Fusion Intelligence Center). As the Executive Director of the fusion center, he oversaw the District's operational intelligence and response to the Insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021. As a result, he testified in front of the House Select Committee for January 6th, where his testimony was aired publicly during the televised hearings. Throughout his operational career, he has been involved in major incidents including 9/11 as a member of FDNY, the Sandy Hook school shooting, the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol and most recently, WMD disaster-related capacity building activities within Ukraine.
Dr. Harvin holds an undergraduate degree in Fire and Emergency Services Management, graduate degrees in Emergency Management (MPA), Terrorism Studies (MA), and Environmental Science (MPH) and is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) specializing in environmental epidemiology and public health disasters. For his dissertation, he was appointed as a research fellow at the Mason Lab of Cornell University School of Medicine where he conducted experiments, gathered data, and performed shotgun DNA sequencing of pathogens that he had sampled from emergency response vehicles across the country. His research goal was to establish the baseline microbiome of the environment that first responders work in, and gain insight into potential exposure pathways for pathogens that may be introduced into emergency response vehicles.
Follow him on:
LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-donell-harvin-drph
Bluesky at @donell-harvin