Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, host Derrick Dortch spoke with Marina Tovar, counterintelligence and cyber team lead at the Counterterrorism Group.

Tovar discussed how cyber warfare is being used in the war in Ukraine, the spillover effects of cyber warfare, and the rise in ransomware attacks around the world.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, host Derrick Dortch speaks with Becca Stewart, an intelligence analyst and special teams manager at The Counterterrorism Group about the Terrorism Outlook for 2022.

Stewart gives her take on the situation with Ukraine and Russia, the prominence of Islamist terrorism within Africa, the rise of incel extremism, and the continuation of COVID-related violence and the links between anti-vaxxers and the far right.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, host Derrick T. Dortch moderates a wide ranging discussion on the importance of teaching Dr. Martin Luther King’s principles of nonviolence to students in the U.S., and institutionalizing a MLK curricula into schools.

Joining Dortch in the conversation will be  the co-authors of the MLK curricula: Matt Daniels, founder of Good of All, Anthony Jones, vice president of Enrollment Management at Bethune Cookman University and Vern Howard, chairman of the MLK Colorado holiday commission.

Show Topic: Teaching Dr. Martin Luther King’s Principles of Nonviolence – Institutionalizing a Curricula in the U.S. Education System

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, host Derrick Dortch interviewed Jon Harper, managing editor of National Defense Magazine on the Defense Department’s space efforts, with Space Command and Space Force, and new developments being announced at the 36th Space Symposium.

Harper also discussed new developments with robotics being implemented by the military.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com, joined host Derrick Dortch to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the clearance jobs market, including the ability of some cleared professionals to work remotely from home.

According to Lesser,  67% of employers in a recent survey said they currently have a telework option for some cleared workers and 82% said they are going to continue to allow some employees to telework even after the pandemic is over.

Lesser also gives an update on the progress the federal government is making in speeding up the security clearance process. The processing times decreased for four straight quarters but he said they rose slightly during the pandemic. Currently it takes about 136 days for a job seeker to get a top secret security clearance and 132 days for secret clearances. Lesser said the increased processing times are due in part to delayed  investigations of potential workers, and the inability to do face-to-face interviews with job applicants.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week Fed Access, host Derrick Dortch talked to Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins about her organization, Women of Color Advancing Peace & Security (WCAPS) and the work they are doing to be a strong voice and network for women of color and individuals who support the organization’s mission, while encouraging dialogue and strategies for engaging in policy discussions on an international scale.

Jenkins is the founder and executive director of the organization and she discussed WCAPS working groups, pipelines, and projects focused on addressing a number of national security and international affairs issues.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com, joins host Derrick Dortch to discuss what the clearance jobs market will look like during President Joe Biden’s administration.

He also gives an update on the progress the federal government is making in speeding up the security clearance process. According to Lesser, the processing times have decreased for four straight fiscal quarters. Currently it takes about 136 days for a job seeker to get a top secret security clearance and 107 days for other clearances.

Lesser also talks about the Defense Department’s work-from-home initiatives post-pandemic, the jobs outlook for cleared professionals in 2021 and the ClearanceJobs.com employer survey results.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Camille Cosgrove, intelligence analyst for the Extremism Team at The Counterterrorism Group joins host Derrick Dortch to discuss domestic terrorism and the threat it presents to this week’s presidential inauguration.

Cosgrove explains what domestic terrorism is and what federal law enforcement officials can do to prevent future incidents like the one that occurred on January 6th, when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and gained access to the US Senate floor and the offices of members of Congress.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Jon Harper, managing editor of National Defense Magazine, joined host Derrick Dortch to discuss President-elect Joe Biden’s defense spending plan, and what it means for the Defense Department.

Harper explained in detail the president-elect’s proposal and how it differs from President Donald Trump’s spending priorities.

He also discussed the challenges DoD faces during the presidential transition.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, host Derrick Dortch spoke with Matthew Daniels, chair of Law and Human Rights at the Institute of World Politics, and Anthony Jones, associate provost & assistant vice president of Enrollment Management at Howard University.

They will discuss a new initiative they created to teach students about the life and life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The course is part of a broader education effort titled Good of All, which Daniels describes as a social change movement with a digital twist, to help the next generation of students find its own voice as “champions of Dr. King’s principles.”

He added that the course teaches students how to use social media to spread ideas to uplift society rather than tear it down.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com, joins host Derrick Dortch to discuss how the security clearance process is being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Lesser, many federal employees with security clearances are currently working from home due to the pandemic, and he says the federal managers he’s surveyed, believe teleworking has not been the national security disaster that many of them thought it would be.  In fact, he says he expects that even after a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed, national security officials may take another look at what work from home means for cleared professionals and how it can be more effective.

Lesser also said the job market continues to be good for workers with security clearances, especially those working in cybersecurity, software development, and systems engineering and hardware.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Jon Harper, managing editor of National Defense Magazine, joined host Derrick Dortch to discuss how the Department of Defense and DoD contractors, especially lower tier suppliers, are being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Harper also talks about the global defense market and efforts to loosen the trade restrictions on weapons systems so they can be sold to allies around the world.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Nora Dempsey, senior advisor for Innovation at the State Department, joins host Derrick Dortch to talk about the Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) program.

VSFS is an eight-month virtual internship program for college level students that is managed by the office of eDiplomacy in the Department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management.

The interns work on unclassified government projects remotely from home or school, and communicate by phone, email or video chat with their mentors in various federal agencies.

Dempsey explains how the program works and says students can begin applying for the eInternships beginning July 1.  Applications are available on USAJOBS.gov.

Host Derrick Dortch also speaks with two students who recently participated in the program. University  of Maryland graduate Chloe Bates and Erick Boone, who recently graduated from Howard University in Washington. D.C., talk about some of the projects they worked on during their internships, and their experiences in working remotely with federal employees.

This message has become all too common as students who were expecting to gain experience in a 2020 summer internship are now struggling to figure out what to do. But all is not lost. There is still hope to find internship opportunities, and the United States government is providing it.

Many employers are beginning to modify their regular internship programs into remote and virtual experiences. This concept is not new to the federal government, which started its Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) in 2009 and will be recruiting soon. Applications for the 2020-2021 VSFS program will be accepted from July 1-31, 2020.

VSFS is managed by the State Department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management’s Office of eDiplomacy which works with a large number of federal agencies on this program. Although many summer internships are usually three months, this is an eight-month remote internship program for college-level students and above who are U.S. citizens and would like to work for the U.S. government.

Virtual interns can work anywhere around the world and are only working on unclassified projects. During their internship they are assigned and report to mentors at the State Department and other federal government agencies in the U.S. and around the world by email, phone or video chat. The State Department has a large number of virtual internship opportunities listed that include: analyzing Chinese Official Social Media Trends in the Southern African Region, Monitoring and Evaluating European Economic, Disinformation, and Foreign Assistance Measures, and working on Cultural Diplomacy Exchanges for Music, Dance, Film, Hip Hop, Culinary Arts, Poetry, etc.

Peruse the VSFS site and you will find other agencies with interesting projects. The Department of Health and Human Services has an opening for a data and analytics interns for SUMMER 2020 Supporting the Fight Against COVID-19. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has an opportunity for CDC Global Response Training Development Support. The U.S. Forest Service is looking for virtual interns to help with the implementation and monitoring of Woodsy Owl Social Media Platforms. These are a few of the hundreds of virtual internship opportunities available.

Some may question if these internships are as fulfilling as working at the actual agency. Faith Konidaris, a security and risk analysis student at Penn State University thinks so. She produced a video about her virtual internship experience with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which VSFS shared on their LinkedIn and Twitter sites.

“I’ve had the privilege of working as a VSFS intern with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence National Security Partners private sector. This year my project was ODNI USA-14 and consisted of working on research and analysis of emerging technologies in regards to protecting and defending critical infrastructure,” Konidaris said. “This program allowed me to work from home on my own time on subjects I found interesting. Learning about the intelligence community in classes helped relate to real world experience, but research outside of the classroom taught me more than I could ever get out of a textbook. I also built connections with those [with whom] I worked.”

Konidaris highly recommended students consider applying to the program.

You can find the Virtual Student Federal Service site and social media here:

Website: https://vsfs.state.gov/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VSFSatState

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/usdos-vsfs/

There are over 40 agencies looking for virtual student interns. Applications are open in the month of July and if you’re selected, the program runs from September through May – not exactly a summer internship, but consider this:  You will be making a difference.

Derrick T. Dortch is host of Fed Access on the Federal News Network. He is also President of The Diversa Group and President and Senior Career Consultant for National Security & International Affairs (NSIA) Career Services. a company providing career services to individuals interested in and working in the national security and international affairs sectors. He is also Director of Career Services & Special Programs at The Institute of World Politics, a graduate school of National Security & International Affairs.

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Fed Access’ audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week on Fed Access, Derrick Dortch hosted a wide ranging discussion on a new virtual training simulation tool for first responders.

The tool is called the Enhanced Dynamic Geo-social Environment or EDGE, and it is the result of a  public-private partnership between the Department of Homeland Security,  the Army and Cole Engineering Services.

Milt Nenneman is the program manager at the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and Tamara Griffith is the senior engineer for the U.S. Army Combat Simulations Training and Technology Center, Advanced Modeling and Simulation Branch. They discussed origins and mission of this collaborative project and how this type of stimulation tool can be used to train first responders.

Cole Engineering  is the government contractor that provided the technical skills to help to create the EDGE simulation based on DHS requirements (first responder needs). Bob Walker is the EDGE program manager at Cole Engineering Services, and Tabitha Dwyer is the company’s EDGE creative director.

They explained how the simulation tool works, by allowing first responders to virtually simulate various situations that they may have to deal with in real life including active  shooters, fires, hostage situations, and many more critical incidents.

The focus of the simulation is to allow first responders to learn how to work  together better to effectively mitigate and deal with these situations.