We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Alan D. Bersin as an Honorary Fellow of INCU.
Dr Bersin has been a friend and supporter of the INCU and its activities, and regular contributor to the World Customs Journal. Since leaving public service in January 2017, Alan Bersin has been serving as a Senior Advisor at the global firm Covington & Burling, as an Inaugural Fellow in the Homeland Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and as a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington DC. He is a founder and the chairman of the BorderWorks Advisory consulting firm.
During his government service at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), between 2002 and 2017, Dr Bersin served (at various times) as Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer, as Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, and as Assistant Secretary and Special Representative for Border Affairs. Between 2012 and 2015, Dr Bersin served as Vice President of INTERPOL for the Americas Region and as a member of the INTERPOL Executive Committee. Prior to his DHS experience, he served as US Attorney for the Southern District of California for nearly five years, during which time he was the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative responsible for coordinating federal law enforcement on the border from South Texas to Southern California. Dr Bersin has also held numerous distinguished state and local government positions, including serving as California’s Secretary of Education, Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego.
From 1969 to1971, Dr. Bersin attended Balliol College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1974, he received his J.D. from the Yale Law School. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (Honorary) by the University of San Diego in 1994, by California Western School of Law in 1996, and by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2000.
The INCU Management Committee welcomes Alan Bersin to the INCU and is looking forward to his ongoing involvement in INCU activities.
To mark the occasion the INCU is releasing a Special Compilation of the World Customs Journal containing Dr Bersin’s “Lines and Flows” paper in three languages.