A former federal emergency management executive will lead Georgetown University’s police and public safety functions in a newly created role, the university announced Aug. 7.
Josh Bornstein will become the university’s vice president for public safety Sept. 2, overseeing the Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD), Department of Public Safety and three university health and emergency management offices — the Office of Emergency Management, Office of Environmental Health & Safety and the Office of Public Health. Bornstein was previously the chief security officer and acting deputy associate administrator for mission support at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which coordinates national disaster response.
David Green, the university’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, said Bornstein’s experience will bolster the university’s public safety management.
“We are honored to welcome Josh Bornstein to Georgetown and to our campus community,” Green said in the announcement. “Josh brings a wealth of expertise in security and emergency management and is a proven and dedicated leader in working across organizations to uphold and protect public safety.”
Under the new position, Bornstein will coordinate public safety responses across departments and offices to better respond to community needs, according to the announcement.
Bornstein started his career in public safety as a student at Emory University, organizing student leaders to provide support following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He later served at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) homeland security program, where he protected U.S. food supply against bioterrorism, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), managing the public health agency’s internal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bornstein received the presidential rank award for meritorious service, the second-highest honor for U.S. civil service executives, in 2023.
Bornstein said his goal is to protect the university community and allow it to implement its Jesuit values.
“The mission of FEMA and CDC and the USDA doesn’t happen without security and safety,” Bornstein said in the announcement. “That’s how I take my job at Georgetown as well. The university was not founded to advance safety and security. It was founded to be curious and create known and do good in the world. My job is to make sure that can happen.”