WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The newly elected governor of Massachusetts has tapped an Arab-American lawyer, human rights advocate and terrorism expert to be his homeland security chief.
Juliette Kayyem, a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and executive director for research at the school's Belfer Center, was named undersecretary of homeland security by Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick Thursday, the center said in a press release.
"Kayyem will focus on coordinating all aspects of the Commonwealth's state-wide homeland security strategy" in the newly created post, Patrick said in a statement.
Kayyem told the Harvard Crimson newspaper that she will take office on Jan. 22. "A large part of the job is going to be the steep learning curve; I need time to figure out exactly what my docket is going to be," she told the paper. "I've been focusing in the national security world for so long, that focusing on the state stuff is new."
The Crimson reported that Kayyem -- whose parents are of Lebanese origin -- was the first Arab-American to hold such a senior homeland security post.
After starting her career as a federal prosecutor Kayyem was an adviser to Clinton administration Attorney General Janet Reno, and then worked on the so-called Gilmore Commission -- a blue ribbon panel set up in the late 1990's to study the growing terrorism threat.
She succeeded Richard Falkenrath at the Belfer Center when he left to become deputy homeland security advisor to President Bush. She has lectured and written widely on on law, homeland security, national security and first responders.
