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    National Intelligence Summer Academy (NISA)

    Are you thrilled or fascinated by the field of intelligence – spying and counter spying?

    Are you considering a career in the U.S. Intelligence Community? Did you know that the U.S. Intelligence Community is made up of 18 separate agencies? Sign up for an intense and exciting five days of learning from highly qualified Master’s and Ph.D. University of North Georgia instructors and practitioners from July 17-21, 2023.

    This Academy will:

    • Lift the veil of secrecy on the hidden world of intelligence, exploring the history, challenges, and controversies.
    • Provide a context for understanding the important role intelligence has played in our nation’s history and continues to play today.
    • Provide foundational knowledge of intelligence, setting the stage for possible careers in the field.
    • Provide opportunities to learn from the Academy’s instructors include academia, practitioners, and guest speakers
      • Hear from experts that have worked with the CIA, FBI, and the former Soviet Union KGB.

    NISA artwork

    Program Details

    Level: High School 
    Grades: Rising 10-12
    Dates: July 17-21, 2023

    I just wanted to thank you for such an informative and exciting academy and for choosing me to be a part of it. It was an incredible experience and I am very grateful for your work to put this on. Your passion for the intelligence field and we as future leaders were really inspiring. It has definitely given me a lot to think about for college decisions

    NISA Participant, 2022

    Why at UNG?

    If you are interested in an intelligence career, UNG has the following related academic programs.

    • Strategic and Security Studies
    • Modern and Classical Languages
    • Criminal Justice Intelligence Minor
    • Institute for Environmental & Spatial Analysis
    • Cybersecurity, Computer Science, and Information Systems

    Where?

    UNG’s Cumming Campus. Round-trip motor coach travel from Cumming campus to and from Cumming campus to Dahlonega campus on last day of the Academy.

    Fee for Participants: $149

    The fee defrays the expenses of all on-campus meals, course materials, and the motor coach travel on the last day of the program. UNG awards a limited number of scholarships to students who would otherwise be unable to attend due to financial limitations. For more information, email heath.williams@ung.edu.

    Note: Students are responsible for the cost of daily travel to and from the Cumming campus and any incidental purchases of snacks and beverages.

    Who is Eligible?

    • 50 U.S. high school students who will be sophomores, juniors or seniors in fall 2023.
    • Priority consideration given to students with a weighted cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
    • Priority consideration also given to students who have studied a strategic language (such as Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) in school or elsewhere.
    • 10 Georgia high school teachers may audit the course.
      • Teachers who would like to audit the course, please Contact Heath Williams

    Application Open

    December 1, 2022

    2023 National Intelligence Summer Academy Application

    Application Deadline

    April 15, 2023

    Contact Information

    Heath Williams,
    Director, Federal Liaison & Military Education Coordinator
    Price Memorial, 220, Dahlonega
    706-867-4476
    heath.williams@ung.edu

    NISA Brochure 2023 (PDF)

     

    Their humility stopped them from seeking fame or fortune because their love of country sparked their exploits.

    Brian Kilmeade

    George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

    Program Information

    • Course Topics
      • The Intelligence Community (IC)
      • History of U.S. Intelligence
      • Roles and Missions of U.S. Intelligence Agencies
      • Role of the Director of National Intelligence
      • Role of Congress as an Oversight Body to the IC
      • Basic Roles and Functions of the Intelligence Field
      • Polygraph Demonstration
      • Explore Intelligence Sources and Methods of Collection
      • Current Challenges to Collection Methods
      • Discovering Other Sources and Types of Intelligence
      • Adversarial Intelligence Agencies
      • Art of Concealment Devices and Making a Device
      • Analyze the Stages of the Intelligence Cycle
      • Distinguishing Between Raw and Finished Intelligence
      • Role of an Intelligence Analyst
      • Sharing of Information Between U.S. Intelligence Agencies
      • Role of Fusion Centers
      • Art of Disguise and Deception
      • The Ethical, Moral, and Legal Considerations of Intelligence
      • Legal Constraints and Challenges to Collection of Intelligence Domestically and Abroad
      • An Introduction to Cybersecurity
    • Course Instructors

      Dr. Edward L. Mienie
      Executive Director, Strategic Studies Program & Partnerships and Professor of Strategic & Security Studies, University of North Georgia

    • Guest Speakers

      Jack Barsky

      Jack Barsky’s life marks him as one of a kind. He was born in Germany, became a chemistry professor, was recruited by the KGB, spent 10 years in the United States spying for the Russians, and ended up a United States citizen and information technology executive.

      Jack’s story was featured in May of 2015 on CBS 60 Minutes. His memoir “Deep Undercover” was released in March of 2017. The book has been translated into German, Swedish and Polish. Jack has appeared frequently on US cable stations such as CNN, FOX and MSNBC as well as on foreign TV including such countries as Germany, Poland, Japan, Turkey and France.

      In his 6th career as a public speaker Jack has had appearances across the United States as well as in Germany, Ireland and Poland.


      dell sprey

      Dell Spry

      Dell Spry is the Managing Director of Security for Chesley Brown International after previously serving the nation as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation followed by serving as an adjunct instructor with the FBI teaching national security matters at the FBI Academy.

      While assigned to the FBI headquarters, Spry was a member of the National Security Council Counterterrorism Working Group, the State Department Foreign Emergency Counterterrorism Support Counterintelligence Center, and liaison to the CIA Counterintelligence Center, Counterespionage Group.

      He was the lead investigator for the FBI in the Aldrich Ames investigation for which he received the FBI Director's Award of Excellence in Counterintelligence Investigation and the CIA Director's Meritorious Service Award.


      Melvin Gamble

      A retired Senior Intelligence officer, Mr. Gamble served in senior executive positions in the Directorate of Operations in the Central Intelligence Agency to include: Chief and Deputy Chief of Stations in Africa and Latin America; Chief of Central Asia and the Caucasus; Special Assistant to the Associate Deputy Director of Operations; Deputy Chief of European Division, and Chief of Africa Division. Mr. Gamble served five tours in Africa and one in Latin America. 

      Upon promotion to the Senior Intelligence Service ranks, Mr. Gamble attended the State Department Senior Seminar Course, which comprised State, FBI, and representatives from each military service. Mr. Gamble has a B.A. in History from Howard University and a B.S. in International Public Administration from the University of Southern California. Mr. Gamble received numerous performance awards and, upon retirement, the Distinguished Certificate of Intelligence Medal, and the Director of CIA Award.  

      Mr. Gamble worked for several companies in the private sector before starting his own company. He is currently President of Gamble Advisory Group, a security-consulting firm. He also serves as an advisor for security matters on the Boards of two Wall Street firms as well as the Boards of the International Spy Museum and the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation.


      Brain Hooper

      Brian Hooper

      Brian Hooper is an attorney based in Atlanta, practicing in Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and Washington, DC. Brian’s government experience includes clandestine service in the intelligence community, later serving as the Associate Director of the Office of WMD Terrorism at the U.S. Department of State. He is the president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) Atlanta chapter.

      After completing undergraduate studies at Washington and Lee University in 1998, Brian attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong and received a Master of Philosophy degree in 2000. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2003. After graduation, Brian clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.


      Rachel Ingram

      Rachel Ingram

      Ms. Ingram serves as the Senior Reporting Authority (SRA) at NSA/CSS Georgia (NSAG). She is primarily responsible for ensuring that NSA intelligence products meet or exceed NSA dissemination standards, adhere to policy and guidance, and meet or exceed ODNI standards for analytic integrity. Ms. Ingram has been with the NSA since 2012, and previously held positions as an Intelligence Analyst (IA), IA Leader/Manager, and a customer liaison. Prior to that, Ms. Ingram was a member of the U.S. Air Force from 2002 – 2011. During her tenure with the Air Force, Ms. Ingram held IA and customer support positions at NSA, and got a Master’s of Science in Strategic Intelligence (MSSI) at NIU (Class of 2009). She completed the trifecta of federal employment by spending just under a year as a contractor at NSAW from 2011 to 2012.  She is passionate about intelligence analysis and knowledge management.

      Ms. Ingram grew up about 45 minutes east of Cincinnati, OH. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Hawai’i Pacific University as well as her MSSI from NIU. She lives in Evans, GA, with her husband, Robert; three sons, Griffin, August, and Corbin; one daughter, Arabella; and one ornery Bernedoodle named Jarvis. She loves God, family, and football, so she can be found at home cheering for the Bengals nearly every Sunday afternoon during football season.


      Ian Thomas

      Ian Thomas

      Ian has 25 years of federal service as an Intelligence Analyst for the National Security Agency and the U.S. Army. He has served in numerous capacities, including Analyst, Senior Analyst, Instructor, Analytic Methodologist, and Training Manager. Throughout his career he has focused on innovation in intelligence and using virtual technologies to involve non-traditional partners in the analytic process. One of his favorite assignments was serving as the Public & Private Partnership Strategist for NSA/CSS in Georgia. In this role, he pushed to make NSA more accessible to students, faculty, researchers, and others in the public sphere that can contribute to, and benefit from, the agency's mission.

      Ian holds a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in Management and Leadership, and an M.S. in Environmental Policy. He is a graduate of the Intelligence Community's Advanced Analysis Program and has championed inter-agency analytic projects throughout his career.

    • Previous Guest Speakers

      Jack Barsky

      Jack Barsky’s life marks him as one of a kind. He was born in Germany, became a chemistry professor, was recruited by the KGB, spent 10 years in the United States spying for the Russians, and ended up a United States citizen and information technology executive.

      Jack’s story was featured in May of 2015 on CBS 60 Minutes. His memoir “Deep Undercover” was released in March of 2017. The book has been translated into German, Swedish and Polish. Jack has appeared frequently on US cable stations such as CNN, FOX and MSNBC as well as on foreign TV including such countries as Germany, Poland, Japan, Turkey and France.

      In his 6th career as a public speaker Jack has had appearances across the United States as well as in Germany, Ireland and Poland.


      dell sprey

      Dell Spry

      Dell Spry is the Managing Director of Security for Chesley Brown International after previously serving the nation as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation followed by serving as an adjunct instructor with the FBI teaching national security matters at the FBI Academy.

      While assigned to the FBI headquarters, Spry was a member of the National Security Council Counterterrorism Working Group, the State Department Foreign Emergency Counterterrorism Support Counterintelligence Center, and liaison to the CIA Counterintelligence Center, Counterespionage Group.

      He was the lead investigator for the FBI in the Aldrich Ames investigation for which he received the FBI Director's Award of Excellence in Counterintelligence Investigation and the CIA Director's Meritorious Service Award.


      Lew Regenstein

      A fourth generation native Atlantan, Lewis worked for several years for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, from 1966-71, concentrating mainly on Communist China, analyzing and collecting foreign intelligence information, and helping resettle defectors. He has written about ten books (two of which were nominated by their publishers for Pulitzer prizes) and hundreds of articles, book reviews, and features for newspapers and magazines on foreign affairs, national security, intelligence and espionage, World War II, the Civil War, and wildlife and the environment.

      His most recent article on National Security was written in August, 2021 for The Washington Times, describing how for 69 years the Russians have covertly attacked American diplomats, intelligence officers, and military attaches abroad, using a form of pulsed energy/microwave radiation. that causes severe and sometimes permanent neurological damage, which is also the subject of a book he is writing.

      He has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Political Science from, respectively, the University of Pennsylvania and Emory University, and spent his Junior Year Abroad at the Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he learned to speak French and some German.


      Merrily Baird

      Merrily Baird earned a B.A. in anthropology and a M.A. in Japanese Studies before joining the CIA in 1970. First an analyst of Japanese politics, she soon reinvented herself as a North Korean specialist. Thereafter she tracked foreign nuclear bomb programs by overseeing the Intelligence Community's (IC) National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) on this subject. In the early 1980s, she was assigned overseas and then returned to Headquarters to head analytical branches in the Directorate of Intelligence. She concluded her career as a criminal investigator in the Office of Inspector General, working on the post-mortem of the Aldrich Ames spying case. In 1994, she was awarded the Intelligence Community's National Medal of Achievement in recognition of her work on hard targets and coordination with other IC agencies.

      Ms. Baird is the author of the chapter on North Korean strategic thinking in "Know Thy Enemy" produced by the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, and a chapter summarizing her Agency career in a commercially-produced book ( "Stories from Langley"). Her love of Japanese culture is reflected in an art book published in 2001 and titled "Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design."


      Melvin Gamble

      A retired Senior Intelligence officer, Mr. Gamble served in senior executive positions in the Directorate of Operations in the Central Intelligence Agency to include: Chief and Deputy Chief of Stations in Africa and Latin America; Chief of Central Asia and the Caucasus; Special Assistant to the Associate Deputy Director of Operations; Deputy Chief of European Division, and Chief of Africa Division. Mr. Gamble served five tours in Africa and one in Latin America. 

      Upon promotion to the Senior Intelligence Service ranks, Mr. Gamble attended the State Department Senior Seminar Course, which comprised State, FBI, and representatives from each military service. Mr. Gamble has a B.A. in History from Howard University and a B.S. in International Public Administration from the University of Southern California. Mr. Gamble received numerous performance awards and, upon retirement, the Distinguished Certificate of Intelligence Medal, and the Director of CIA Award.  

      Mr. Gamble worked for several companies in the private sector before starting his own company. He is currently President of Gamble Advisory Group, a security-consulting firm. He also serves as an advisor for security matters on the Boards of two Wall Street firms as well as the Boards of the International Spy Museum and the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation.

    • Schedule

      July 17 - 21, 2023

      Day Time Activities
      Monday  - Thursday
      • Arrival: 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
      • Departure: 4:30 p.m.
      Day of Learning with On-campus lunch meal on the Cumming Campus
      Friday
      • Arrival: 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
      • Departure: 4:30 p.m.
      Students will travel via motor coach from the UNG Cumming Campus to the Dahlonega Campus for the day – class, tour of campus, academic program and corps of cadets briefing, lunch, and certificate presentation
    • Intelligence Related Programs at UNG

      Collegiate Level

      • Cybersecurity
      • Computer Science & Information Systems
      • Institute for Environmental & Spatial Analysis
      • Intelligence Minor
      • Modern & Classical Languages
      • Strategic and Security Studies
      • Summer Language Institute
    • News
      • Academy shines light on intelligence field
        • UNG News, March 10, 2023
      • Academy offers intro to intelligence field
        • UNG News, March 23, 2022
      • Students get taste of intelligence field
        • UNG News, July 28, 2022
      • This UNG professor is creating a course that will introduce high schoolers to U.S. intelligence and national security
        • The Times, December 2, 2020
      • Georgia Adds High School Coursework in Intelligence
        • SIGNAL - AFCEA's International Journal, March 18, 2021
      • High Schoolers in Georgia to Benefit from New Intel Coursework
        • SIGNAL - AFCEA's International Journal, August 1, 2021
      • Edward Mienie Ph.D. on University & High School Programs on Intelligence Education and IC Careers (YouTube)
      • SSST - Meet Eddie Mienie, Ph.D. (YouTube)
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