Hope LaFreniere is a second-year doctoral student studying security studies and terrorism in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She received her Master of Science in Security Studies in 2019 from Angelo State University and her Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting and Electronic Media from West Texas A&M University in 2014. Her primary focus of research currently is group dynamics and extremism in the United States, and has diverse interests in international security, energy, and mass media.
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
