Sector Chiefs are the “tip of the spear” for InfraGard Arizona Members Alliance. They are leaders who provide the greatest value proposition to our chapter’s stakeholders for sector-specific expertise and service.
The InfraGard Sector Chief Program was created to aid in the protection of the nation’s critical infrastructure by establishing a network of members with sector-specific expertise to facilitate timely information sharing between the FBI and the private sector. This exchange of information enhances the ability of the FBI and partnering federal agencies to address threats to the sixteen recognized sectors of our nation’s critical infrastructure.
If you are interested in applying to serve as a Sector Chief, please contact Corey Merrit, InfraGard Arizona Members Alliance Sector Chief Coordinator using our contact form. All candidates are vetted and appointed by the board of directors.
Sector Chief Qualifications and Responsibilities
- Motivated and active leaders within the InfraGard membership.
- Subject matter experts with comprehensive knowledge and experience in one of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors.
- Serves as an ambassador/spokesperson for InfraGard.
- Serves as the primary point of contact for collecting and sharing sector-specific information to assist the FBI, Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and other law enforcement and emergency management agencies.
- Promotes two-way information sharing and collaboration among sector members and across other sectors (regular meetings, etc.)
- Initiates training, exercises and continuing education on a regular basis.
- Builds effective relationships within their sectors and with partner agencies and organizations.
- Provides tips, leads and subject matter expertise to the FBI, ACTIC and other law enforcement authorities as needed.
Director and Sector Chief Chair
Corey Merritt
Arizona Sectors
Sector Chief
Andrew Charlson
Sector Overview
The Chemical Sector serves as a critical component of the U.S. economic structure, facilitating functions across several other critical infrastructure sectors.
The sector categorizes into five primary segments extrapolated from the final product:
- Basic chemicals
- Specialty chemicals
- Agricultural chemicals
- Pharmaceuticals
- Consumer products
Each of these units manifests distinct attributes, growth patterns, marketplaces, novel progressions, and challenges.
Most of the facilities within the Chemical Sector are under private ownership which necessitates strategic collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the private industry and its associations for the following:
- Set goals and objectives
- Identify assets
- Assess risks
- Prioritize needs
- Implement protective programs
Through voluntary partnerships that offer training, resources, and skill-building exercises, the DHS enhances critical infrastructure security and fortifies resilience. The department has also issued regulated Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), mandatory for any facility engaged in the creation, usage, storage or distribution of specific chemicals beyond certain quantities or concentrations.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Jane Ginn
Sector Overview
The Commercial Facilities Sector comprises varied locations that host a large number of people for different purposes such as business, leisure, shopping, and accommodation. The striking feature of these establishments is the principle of unrestricted public admission, which allows the general public to access these facilities freely without the need for highly conspicuous security measures. These facilities are predominantly in private ownership and operation, and they have limited interactions with federal authorities and other regulatory bodies.
- Entertainment and Media: Includes entities such as broadcasting organizations and film studios.
- Gaming: Covers places like casinos.
- Lodging: Refers to places that provide accommodation like hotels, motels, and conference centers.
- Outdoor Events: Involves places that organize outdoor entertainment like amusement parks, fairs, parades, and campgrounds.
- Public Assembly: Includes places that can hold a large number of members of the public like stadiums, aquariums, convention centers, zoos, and museums.
- Real Estate: Comprises ventures such as offices and apartment complexes, condominiums, mixed-use facilities, and self-storage.
- Retail: Involves facilities like shopping malls and retail districts.
- Sports Leagues: Includes professional sports leagues and federations.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Logan Kipp | Chair
Sector Overview
The Communications Sector is a critical and indispensable component of the US economy. It forms the core foundation of operations for businesses, government agencies, and public safety institutions. In accordance with the Presidential Policy Directive 21, the Communications Sector is deemed critical as it acts as an enabler across all vital infrastructure sectors.
The past quarter-century has seen the sector transform from being primarily a voice services provider into an industry that is competitive, diverse, and interconnected. The sector’s services are delivered using various transmission systems like terrestrial, satellite, and wireless systems. The delivery of these services has become interconnected; companies operating within the sector depend on each other to deliver, transfer, and connect their traffic. They routinely share facilities and technology to guarantee mutual compatibility.
As private entities own and operate most of the communications infrastructure, they bear the primary responsibility for protecting the sector’s infrastructure and assets. In partnership with the federal government, they continuously predict, anticipate, and respond to outages in the sector. They understand how such outages may affect the national leadership’s ability to communicate in crisis times, influence other sectors’ operation, and impact recovery and response efforts.
The Communications Sector is intricately linked with various other sectors. These include:
- The Energy Sector: Supplies the necessary power to operate critical communications facilities like cellular towers, central offices, etc.
- The Information Technology Sector: Provides crucial control systems and services along with physical architecture and internet infrastructure.
- The Financial Services Sector: Heavily relies on communications for transaction transmission and conducting financial markets operations.
- The Emergency Services Sector: Relies on communications for resource direction, response coordination, public warning alerts, and receiving emergency 911 calls.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Rich Phillips | Chair
Christopher Mendoza | Co-Chair
Sector Overview
The longevity and growth of the United States economy heavily rests on the shoulders of the Critical Manufacturing Sector. Any form of targeted attack or mishap within this area could indirectly affect several other vital sectors across the country.
The core industries forming the foundation of this sector are as follows:
- Primary Metal Manufacturing
- Iron and steel mills and ferrous alloy manufacturing.
- Alumina and aluminum production and processing.
- Nonferrous metal (except Aluminum) production and processing.
- Machinery Manufacturing
- Engine, turbine, and power transmission equipment manufacturing.
- Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing
- Electrical equipment manufacturing.
- Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
- Vehicle manufacturing.
- Aviation and aerospace product and parts manufacturing.
- Railroad rolling stock manufacturing.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Vacant
Sector Overview
The important role of the Dams Sector can’t be overemphasized. In the United States, it is charged with the responsibility of providing crucial water retention and control services, which includes; hydroelectric power generation – significant in electricity supply, provision of water supplies for multiple urban and industrial use, enabling agricultural irrigation, ensuring sediment and flood control, facilitating river navigation for bulk shipping within land, managing industrial waste, and providing recreational activities. The services provided by the Dams Sector not only supports several critical infrastructural sectors but also sustains various industries. A significant highlight of how crucial these services are includes; giving irrigation services to approximately 10 percent of U.S. cropland, helping to shield more than 43 percent of the U.S. population from devastation by flooding, generating around 60 percent of electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest.
Presently, the United States boasts of more than 87,000 dams. Surprisingly, about 65 percent of these dams are owned privately, while regulation and oversight is carried out by state dams safety offices for about 77 percent of them. The Dams Sector constitutes interdependencies with a considerable range of other sectors, such as:
- Communications Sector: Enables remote operations and control of the Dams sector via network communications.
- Energy Sector: Hydropower dams provide pivotal resources for electricity and blackstart capabilities.
- Food and Agriculture: Assets from the Dams Sector provide water necessary for irrigation and protects farmland from flooding.
- Transportation Systems: The navigation lock systems part of the Dams Sector are crucial for enabling freight movements within all inland and intracoastal waterways. Also, some major roads traverse dams.
- Water Sector: Provision of drinking water supplies and pumping capabilities are facilitated by Dams Sector assets.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Christopher Macwan
Sector Overview
The Defense Industrial Base Sector is a global industrial network that provides the foundation for research, development, design, manufacture, delivery, and maintenance of military weapons systems, components and parts in accordance with the requirements of the U.S. military. The complex partnership involves the Department of Defense, a myriad of Defense Industrial Base companies numbering over 100,000 along with their respective subcontractors who operate under the contract of Department of Defense. In addition, it encompasses companies providing supplementary materials and services to the same organization, inclusive of both government-owned/contractor-operated and government-owned/government-operated facilities.
This extensive sector includes both domestic and international entities, possessing production assets distributed across several nations. The scope of the products and services offered by the Defense Industrial Base Sector is vast, providing everything necessary to mobilize, deploy, and sustain military operations as demanded.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Michael Moquin
Sector Overview
The Emergency Services Sector (ESS) forms the foundation of the country’s defense mechanism. It works towards risk management and mitigation from events, whether they are manmade or natural disasters. Apart from responding to crises, ESS also performs a protective role for the rest of the 15 crucial infrastructure sectors.
The ESS is known for an array of crucial emergency responses with the main focus on the following objectives:
- Lifesaving.
- Protection of property and environment.
- Providing support to communities affected by disasters.
- Aiding in the recovery phase of emergencies.
The majority of these services are carried out at various jurisdictional levels such as state, local, tribal, and territorial. These tasks are divided into five different categories:
- Law Enforcement.
- Fire and Emergency Services.
- Emergency Management.
- Emergency Medical Services.
- Public Works.
Moreover, there are certain specialized skills within ESS which include:
- Hazardous Materials Management.
- Search and Rescue Operations.
- Hazardous Devices Team or Public Safety Bomb Disposal Units.
- Specialized Tactical Teams (e.g. SWAT).
- Aviation Units (e.g. police and medevac helicopters).
- Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs)(e.g. 9-1-1 call centers).
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Michael Caruso
Sector Overview
The health, well-being, and operational efficiency of America’s socio-economic structures hinge on the stability of its energy supply. As identified by Presidential Policy Directive 21, the Energy Sector has a distinctive importance due to its ability to facilitate functions across all critical infrastructure sectors. Private sector ownership accounts for over 80 percent of the energy infrastructure, offering essential fuels to various industries such as domestic heating, vehicular transportation, and commercial power.
The Energy Sector’s importance extends beyond self-sustenance due to industries’ reliance on electric power and fuel across the board. However, it has also shown resilience in acknowledging its vulnerabilities and increasing planning and preparedness. This has been facilitated by cooperative efforts within industry groups resulting in extensive information sharing and implementation of best practices. Sector owners and operators have considerable international experience in infrastructure protection, with cyber security recently becoming a primary focus.
The energy structure in the U.S. is composed of three closely linked segments: electricity, oil, and natural gas.
Electricity
This segment encompasses more than 6,413 power plants inclusive of 3,273 traditional electric utilities and 1,738 non-utility power producers, collectively offering about 1,075 gigawatts of installed generation. Its power sources are distributed as follows: about 48 percent from coal combustion, 20 percent from nuclear power plants, and 22 percent from natural gas combustion. The remainder is derived from hydroelectric plants (6 percent), oil (1 percent), and renewable sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy (3 percent).
Oil and Gas
The optimal distribution of oil and gas products relies heavily on pipelines, thus highlighting the interdependency between Energy and the Transportation Systems Sector.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
John Stream | Chair
Luke Augustine | Co-Chair
Sector Overview
The financial services sector plays a critical role in our nation’s infrastructure. It is under constant threat from various risks such as large-scale power failures, natural disasters, and sophisticated cyber attacks.
This sector includes a wide range of institutions, from large-scale ones with assets over a trillion dollars to smaller community banks and credit unions. They offer various financial products and services that enable customers to:
- Deposit money and transact with others.
- Receive credit support and liquidity provisions.
- Invest their finances for short and long term purposes.
- Shift financial risks between clientele.
The financial services sector encompasses numerous types of institutions which are classified according to the services they provide. It includes over 18,800 federally insured depositary organizations; several providers of diverse investment products that include approximately 18,440 broker-dealer, investment advisor, and investment company complexes; providers of risk transfer solutions, counting 7,948 domestic U.S. insurance companies; plus many thousands more organizations offering credit and financing services.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Mark Borkowski | Chair
Corey Merritt | Co-Chair
Sector Overview
The Food and Agriculture industry is primarily privatized and constitutes approximately two million farms, close to a million restaurants, along with over 400,000 certified facilities for food manufacturing, processing, and storage. This sector contributes to almost 20% of the country’s overall economic activity.
This sector is significantly interdependent with several others, particularly the following:
- Water and Wastewater Management Systems for hygienic irrigation and processed water.
- Transportation Systems for the distribution of livestock and products.
- Energy Sector to run the machinery necessary for agricultural production and food processing.
- Additional dependencies for Financial Services, Dams and the Chemical industry.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Michael Andrews | Chair
Daniel Wilkins | Co-Chair
Sector Overview
The Government Facilities Sector comprises many different types of buildings, both within the US and abroad, owned or rented by various levels of government – federal, state, local, and tribal. Some of these facilities are open to the public for various activities – business dealings, commerce, and leisure. Conversely, some facilities are not publicly accessible due to the sensitive nature of the materials or information they contain, or the equipment and processes they house. Structures include commonplace office spaces and specialized military bases, courthouses, embassies, and national labs. Cyber elements that ensure the sector’s security are also part of this sector, which includes access control and closed-circuit TV systems, as well as individuals with key knowledge.
The Education Facilities Subsector encompasses schools for pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade students, higher education institutions, and business and trade schools. This subsector includes both privately-owned and government-owned facilities.
- Given that these facilities house large student populations for most of the daytime hours during the week plus evening events and weekend activities, schools differ from conventional infrastructure sectors requiring protection. Coordinated emergency management plans covering all potential hazards and practiced with community partners like law enforcement agencies, fire service, emergency management services etc are crucial for the subsector’s protection and resilience. Recent incidents such as school shootings and natural disasters highlight the importance of comprehensive plans.
- The decentralized education system in our country, however, presents a roadblock as facilities aren’t obliged to disclose emergency management strategies to the Department of Education, resulting in an absence of comprehensive data on the state of preparedness of various schools.
- Despite these hurdles, agencies such as the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) and Emergency Management are working to enhance school preparedness through guidance, partnerships, grants, training, and other resources. Online portals provide essential information and resources. The effectiveness of these measures is enhanced through collaboration with various stakeholders at all levels.
The National Monuments and Icons Subsector contains a diverse assortment of assets, networks, systems, and functions located across the United States. Many of these assets are listed in either the National Register of Historic Places or the List of National Historic Landmarks.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Troy Adams | Chair
Rick Leib | Co-Chair
Sector Overview
The Healthcare and Public Health Sector is a vital one, safeguarding all sectors of the society from different risks including bioterrorism, widespread disease epidemics, and natural calamities. This sector, with the majority of its resources privately held and managed, highly relies on cross-sector cooperation and information exchange to enhance resilience of the country’s critical Healthcare and Public Health infrastructure. Operating across all states, territories, and tribal locations within the U.S., the sector plays a pivotal role in both response and recovery in all sectors during any natural or human-made disaster.
A unique attribute of this sector is that while healthcare delivery is often locally tailored and managed, the public health aspect, which concentrates mainly on the health of the populace, is managed across varying governmental levels: national, state, regional, local, tribal, and territorial.
In delivering its services and maintaining operational continuity, the Healthcare and Public Health Sector heavily relies on several other sectors. These include Communications, Emergency Services, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Information Technology, Transportation Systems, and Water and Wastewater Systems.
Cyber Healthcare Working Group
Join the Cyber Healthcare Working group email list.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Lou Norman | Chair
Eric Case | Co-Chair
Sector Overview
The role of Information Technology Sector is highly important for the security, economy, well-being and public safety of the nation. As software, hardware, IT systems and services become vital tools in our everyday lives, we find that both private citizens and establishments such as businesses, governments, and academic institutions increasingly reliant on them.
This sector, in partnership with the Communications Sector, forms the backbone of the Internet. Identifying threats and assessing vulnerabilities in this intricately connected and constantly changing environment can be challenging. This necessitates a cooperative and innovative approach.
A network of diverse entities operates IT Sector functions. These include respective associations and owners and operators that maintain and restore the network, including the Internet. The structure of the IT infrastructure, while remarkably resilient inherently, presents consolidation-related challenges due to its interdependent nature and interconnectedness.
This combination of interconnectedness and resilience can be leveraged to synchronize efforts in preparing for and preventing potential threats between the public and private sectors.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Vacant
Sector Overview
Contributing to nearly a fifth of the nation’s power needs, nuclear energy is produced at 62 nuclear power plants housing 100 licensed commercial nuclear reactors. This vital energy sector encompasses several aspects and facilities:
- Commercial nuclear power plants.
- Non-commercial nuclear reactors utilized for training, research, and testing.
- Companies that manufacture components or entire nuclear reactors.
- Use of radioactive materials in different areas such as academics, industrial usage, and medical applications.
- Facilities involved in the nuclear fuel cycle processing.
- Nuclear power reactors that have been decommissioned.
- The processes involved in transportation, storage, and disposal of radioactive and nuclear waste.
This sector does not exist in isolation but works closely with several other critical national infrastructure sectors, including:
- The Chemical sector: Nuclear power generation involves the use of various chemicals, thereby making it a significant consumer in the Chemical sector.
- Energy sector: Being a major electricity supplier, the nuclear power industry plays a crucial role in providing power to the national grid.
- Healthcare and Public Health sector: Nuclear power contributes significantly by providing resources for nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals, besides sterilizing blood and surgical equipment.
- Transportation Systems sector: This sector involvement is seen in the transport of radioactive materials.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Trevor Pan
Sector Overview
The Transportation Systems Sector is overseen and coordinated by the combined efforts of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation. Playing a crucial role in the American economy, the sector enables quick, safe, and secure movement of both people and commodities across the country and overseas.
This sector holds within its structure seven critical subsectors:
- Aviation: The aviation subsector embraces aircraft, air traffic control systems, nearly 450 commercial airports and an extensive assortment of 19,000 other airports, landing strips, and heliports. This category involves civil airports that are also used for military purposes, short takeoff and landing ports, as well as seaplane bases.
- Highway Infrastructure and Motor Carrier: This subsector contains about 4 million miles of roads, around 600,000 bridges, and approximately 400 tunnels scattered across 35 states. Vehicles under this classification range from personal cars and motorcycles to hazardous material carrying trucks, commercial freight vehicles, motorcoaches and school buses.
- Maritime Transportation System: This system entails approximately 95,000 miles of coastlines, 361 ports, around 25,000 miles of navigable waterways, about 3.4 million square miles within the Exclusive Economic Zone, and landside intermodal connections that allow numerous transportation modes to transfer people and merchandise to, from, and across bodies of water.
- Mass Transit and Passenger Rail: This category includes the services provided by buses, rail transit services such as commuter rail systems, heavy rail restrictions (commonly known as metros or subways), as well as light rail systems including trolleys and streetcars. It also encompasses the intercity and state rail services, specifically Amtrak and the Alaska Railroad, and other unique services like cable cars, inclined planes, funiculars, and automated guideway systems.
- Pipeline Systems: Extensive networks of pipelines take position in this subsector, crossing hundreds of thousands of miles across the country. These pipelines are responsible for transporting almost all of the country’s natural gas and about 65% of hazardous liquids, along with several chemicals. The system contains roughly 2.2 million miles of natural gas distribution pipelines, more than 168,900 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines, and over 109 liquified natural gas processing and storage facilities.
- Freight Rail: The freight rail subsector comprises seven major carriers, countless smaller railroads, over 140,000 miles of active railroad tracks, more than a 1.3 million freight cars, and approximately 20,000 locomotives. Moreover, daily operations see over 12,000 trains in action. The Department of Defense has recognized about 30,000 miles of track and supporting structure as crucial for mobilization and resupply of U.S. forces.
- Postal and Shipping: This final subsector is responsible for delivering over 574 million messages, products, and financial transactions each day. Distinguished from general cargo operations by its focus on mails, publications or small to medium size packages and servicing from millions of senders to nearly 152 million recipients.
Sector Documents
Sector Chief
Jacques Brados
Sector Overview
In the United States, there are nearly 160,000 public drinking water systems and over 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities. These essential infrastructures serve about 84 percent of the U.S. population with potable water, while their sanitary sewage services cater to more than 75 percent of the population.
This sector, however, faces a range of threats. These threats could come in the form of attacks aimed at contaminating water with harmful agents, physical assaults such as the dispensing of toxic gaseous chemicals, or cyber attacks aimed at disrupting service and operations. If actualized, these attacks could result in widespread illnesses or casualties. Furthermore, they can lead to a service disruption which would negatively impact public health and the economic wellbeing of the nation.
The sector’s critical links to other services such as firefighting and healthcare institutions like hospitals mean that their disruption would also negatively impact these crucial areas. Moreover, sectors that depend on the Water and Wastewater Systems Sector, like Energy, Food and Agriculture, and Transportation Systems, would also suffer from any service disruptions in this sector.