Staff

Alex Zemek

Senior Fellow, Center for Homeland Security & Immigration

The struggle of today, is not altogether for today – it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us.

- Abraham Lincoln

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Alex Zemek from McLean, Virginia, and serves as a Senior Fellow in the Center for Homeland Security & Immigration at AFPI. He is also the founder and president of The Gethsemane Group. Previously, Zemek served at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Assistant Secretary (acting) for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention, where he oversaw strategy and policy related to combating violent extremists, aviation security, international information sharing, and identity management. Before DHS, Zemek was served as Chief of Staff for the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security. Additionally, during his two decades of federal service, he has served at multiple agencies in a range of disciplines, including as a State Department diplomat, Legislative Fellow with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and an intelligence officer. As a senior executive in the private sector, Zemek led the strategy, policy, and congressional affairs disciplines for the non-profit National Defense Industrial Association while serving as Vice President. Prior to 9/11, he traded stocks on Wall Street, taught high school, and coached high school athletics. Zemek has degrees from Yale University and the National Defense University and conducted advanced studies with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Zemek lived in rural Kenyan village for a summer while training with professional distance runners. He enjoys coaching the sports teams of his three sons.

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Border Security & Immigration, 

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