Hala V. Furst Associate Director for Strategic Engagement in the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnership, leading the Office’s efforts to engage with national level stakeholder organizations to enable and encourage local prevention efforts to address violent extremism. In this role she oversees a team managing 16 different stakeholder sectors that play a part in preventing radicalization to domestic violent extremism including technology, military and veterans, law enforcement and public safety, faith-based organizations, civil rights and civil liberties advocacy organizations, and many other key stakeholder groups. She is the Department’s expert on addressing terrorist and violent extremist content online and she leads the creation and execution of the Digital Forums on Prevention, CP3’s premiere fully virtual event series bringing together technology platforms, federal, state, and local government, community organizations, and civil society to better understand how technology and social media can prevent terrorism and targeted violence by helping to create more resilient individuals and communities.
Prior to standing up this line of effort for CP3, she was the Principal Director (Acting) of the Department of Homeland Security’s Private Sector Office, creating strategic relationships between Department Headquarters, Department components, the policy community in DC, and business communities across the country. Before that as the Director of Cybersecurity and Innovation, a position she created, she focused on cybersecurity and innovative technology interests, including social media, countering terrorist use of the internet, and preventing the online exploitation and abuse of children. At the same time, she was the Executive Director of the Loaned Executive and Exemplar Programs, two premiere U.S. Government efforts to enable the private sector and government officials to share expertise through executive leader exchanges.
During the 2016-2017 presidential transition she was a member of the DHS Transition Team, providing information and insight about the existing activities of the Department to incoming leadership. Prior to this she led the Stakeholder Outreach effort for the second Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). In 2012 Hala was detailed to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, working for the Majority Staff under then Chairman Joe Lieberman on cybersecurity legislation, after joining the Department as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) in 2010. In August of 2018 she completed the Excellence in Government Fellowship with the Partnership for Public Service and has since become a Senior Fellow and Co-Coach for subsequent classes of Fellows. She holds a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law, and a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Minnesota.
The Summit unites the public and private sectors, domestic and international, against hate and extremism. Researchers, activists, lawyers, technology experts, political leaders, and more come together, each bringing their unique tools to the fight. Important relationships that were established at the Summit in 2021 have carried forward into working groups with concrete deliverables for 2022 and beyond.
