[3] He is also the research area leader for Countering Violent Extremism at the DHS National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE)[4] and managing director, counter-terrorism & infrastructure protection at TAL Global Corporation.
[5] He is a former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was deputy director of homeland security under California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
], he lectures at the joint chiefs of staff level IV antiterrorism seminars and has testified before the full congressional committee on homeland security.
In 2007, he was appointed chief of intelligence and counter-terrorism for the Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) police department, the nation's largest aviation law enforcement agency.
His international experience includes counterterrorism study and lectures in Canada, Great Britain, Israel and China, where he was invited to assess the proposed terrorism countermeasures for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"[15] Commenting on Southers' withdrawal, the former DHS Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson wrote, "This is an example of someone getting caught in Washington's political cross fires over something [unionization of TSA employees] that is candidly out of his control.