Click the link above to register for the online webinar. To attend in person at the Scott Technology Center, please fill out this registration form. 

In an increasingly complex and fast-changing world, ensuring the efficiency and security of the U.S. supply chain has never been more important. Emerging threats such as cyberattacks, malicious insiders, geopolitical instability, and natural disasters are disrupting logistics, creating exploitable vulnerabilities. Leaders must adapt and integrate resilience strategies to protect vital networks, safeguard supply chain integrity, and maintain this critical infrastructure sector – which directly impacts our national security. 

Jenni Hesterman, Ed.D., is a national expert on hardening “soft targets” such as the complex transportation system essential for shipping goods around the country.  In this hybrid event, she’ll offer valuable perspective on the threats facing the national supply chain and strategies for protecting it. 

This hybrid event is sponsored by Werner Enterprises and hosted by NCITE, the UNO College of Business Administration, and the College of Information Science & Technology. 

Jennifer Hesterman, Ed.D.

Jennifer Hesterman is a U.S. Air Force veteran and leading expert in studying terrorist organizations, specializing in protecting soft targets. During her career in the Air Force, she served three Pentagon tours and commanded in the field multiple times, retiring as a colonel. Her last assignment was vice commander at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where she was responsible for installation security, including the protection of Air Force One. 

After her military retirement in 2007, Hesterman worked as a cleared contractor researching terrorism, organized crime, radicalization, and the exploitation of the internet. She now provides security assessments for our nation’s critical infrastructure, advises DHS Security Centers of Excellence and instructs graduate school for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, Department of Defense. She also serves as an expert witness, providing analysis, opinions, and testimony in legal cases involving death or injury related to deficient security measures. She is the South Carolina InfraGard Region 5 chair, serves on the Coastal Carolina University Senior Intelligence Advisory Board and advises their Space Program. She is on the ASIS School Safety and Security Standard committee and chairs the International Guidelines and Standards for Space Analogs (IGSA) board.  

Hesterman is a renowned academic author and speaker, supporting over 100 events in the U.S. and abroad. Her book Soft Target Hardening: Protecting People from Attack was the ASIS Security Industry Book of the Year for 2015. The second edition was the ASIS Security Industry Book of the Year for 2019, and Social Sciences Book of the Year for Taylor & Francis. She also authored Soft Target Crisis Management (2016), The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus (2013) and numerous journal articles. 

She has a doctoral degree from Benedictine University and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Air University. She earned a bachelor’s from Penn State University. She was a National Defense Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, attended the Harvard Senior Executive Fellows program and was a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University.