Director’s Message, Fall 2026
Dear SENTRY Community,
As we prepare to resume SENTRY’s research this fall, I am energized by the opportunities ahead and encouraged by the strong support we have received from government partners. From August 17–19, I traveled to Washington, D.C., with Deanna Beirne, SENTRY’s Executive Director of Technical Program Development and Strategy and Transition Team Lead, for a series of meetings with congressional staff and Department of Homeland Security leaders. These conversations focused on SENTRY’s reinstatement, our next steps, and the important role that research, innovation, and workforce development will play in addressing emerging threats to soft targets and crowded places.
We spent our first day meeting with congressional staff members of the Homeland Security Committee. We were impressed by their commitment to understanding the challenges facing soft targets and their eagerness to hear about SENTRY’s plans for the future. Their strong advocacy for continuing our mission was integral to making our reinstatement possible, and we are grateful for their support. We also emphasized that SENTRY intends to remain a resource for policymakers, providing the knowledge, guidance, and technical expertise needed to inform efforts to protect soft targets. We look forward to maintaining these relationships and ensuring that our research remains top of mind as national security priorities evolve.
The following day, Deanna and I met with the DHS S&T Under Secretary and other DHS staff to discuss both near-term innovations and longer-term research opportunities in SENTRY’s pipeline. I was particularly encouraged by the Under Secretary’s commitment to workforce development and interest in ambitious, multidisciplinary research efforts—what DHS S&T has described as “Strategic R&D Initiatives.” Areas discussed included pervasive bio surveillance, including approaches to identifying and responding to emerging pandemics and chemical or biological threats to soft targets, as well as autonomous mission systems. These emerging areas align closely with SENTRY’s mission and show why multidisciplinary research matters for preparing threats that may look very different from those we face today. Our meetings in Washington reinforced my optimism about SENTRY’s future and our ability to bring together research, technology, and expertise to address the evolving security challenges of soft targets and crowded places.
On September 15th, our Practitioner Advisory Board met to discuss priorities and welcomed a new member, Bill Christiansen. As Vice President of Team Ops for the New England Patriots, his goals are perfectly aligned with the SENTRY mission: to help make public spaces safer without compromising the experience of the people who use them. “I want to have an impact on the people and the guests that come here,” he said. “What I’d like to do is to continue to make this place completely safe against any threat of violence as technology advances.” We look forward to applying Bill’s practical perspective to our expanding research portfolio.
Along that same vein, I’m excited about the opportunity to bring our research community together and think strategically about where we can have the greatest impact. On September 23, our researchers will come together for a strategy session focused on aligning our expertise, ongoing work, and new ideas with DHS S&T’s priorities. I look forward to an engaging and informative session.
In conclusion, this is a pivotal time in SENTRY’s evolution. We need to shape our Center to continue to be a driving force to enhance the mission of DHS, its components, S&T, and our broad community of industrial, practitioner, and venue stakeholders.
Onwards,
Michael B. Silevitch