SCAN - Standards and Conformity Assessment News
Standards Executive on the Move – Bert Coursey’s Return to NIST After Seven-Year Tenure with Department of Homeland Security
Release Date: October 2011
Dr. Bert Coursey returns to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as Program Manager of National and Homeland Security Programs in NIST’s Special Programs Office after a seven year special appointment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “Now that I’m back at NIST,” said Coursey, “My primary goal is to establish global acceptance of international standards for infrastructure protection and emergency response equipment. The U.S. clearly leads the way in standards and conformity assessment for these areas. International acceptance improves our global competitiveness and assures the effectiveness of the equipment deployed by our allies in foreign ports and airports.”
At DHS, Coursey served as Director of the Office of Standards, Science & Technology (S&T) Directorate, responsible for creating and shaping the DHS standards program. In his role as Standards Executive for DHS, Coursey advised the newly formed S&T on how to work with the private sector in creating voluntary consensus standards appropriate for use by first responders at local, state and federal agencies.
Coursey and his team faced several significant organizational challenges. Initially they had to meld together 22 strong agency cultures to create a unified standards and conformity assessment program. “Standards development is not for those seeking instant gratification,” Coursey concluded, “but our thorough, coordinated process knitted the program together.” To strengthen cohesion and speed up the process, Coursey’s team developed a framework to recognize, prioritize and address standards needs. Additionally, his Office devised a way to organize DHS technical experts entrusted with developing consensus based standards. To complete the successful standards program, Coursey put into place a consistent certification scheme to address conformity assessment issues.
Coursey’s first program priority was to develop appropriate equipment standards. Responsible for providing $3 billion a year in grants for equipment purchases, DHS could not point state and local agencies to standards advising what they should buy at the local level. Under Coursey’s guidance, S&T organized the first suite of voluntary consensus standards addressing basic equipment needs for emergency responders such as respirators and safety suits. S&T next organized a set of standards addressing infrastructure safety needs such as radiation detectors and chemical/biological and explosive detectors. “In the standards setting process, we were bringing together the major stakeholders from the homeland security community – intelligence agencies who understood threats, researchers who understood emerging technologies, first responders using the equipment, manufacturers designing and manufacturing the equipment and standards developing organizations. Strong leadership was necessary to drive the process on tight deadlines,” recalled Coursey.
S&T additionally developed conformity assessment processes to help certify equipment. S&T identified appropriate test methods. Once the test methods were accepted, S&T developed guidelines for agreement on which set of methods would be used to increase buyer’s confidence in selecting equipment. To complete its effective standards strategy, S&T is establishing a certification process to identify certifiers capable of assessing whether equipment meets specified standards. The certification process will define exactly what is meant when equipment achieves this certification. “DHS, at this point, has developed a strong internal standards coordination office and is well situated to address these and other future challenges,” said Coursey. “I feel confident that we will continue to see a high level of achievement from DHS in addressing first responder and infrastructure security needs moving forward.”
