Iris M. Gonzalez

Iris M. Gonzalez first came to CNA in 1992 from the Congressional Research Service Foreign Affairs Division, the Library of Congress. Gonzalez has worked on a broad spectrum of national security and homeland security issues since 1987. She has extensive experience working on-site with government clients, providing on-site research and analysis for five major commands from 1995 to 2006.  Gonzalez has worked with law enforcement in the interagency community, including analytical support for counterdrug interdiction in the source zone (U.S. Southern Command when it was in Panama; also in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), transit zone (Joint Interagency Task Force South), and arrival zone (Joint Task Force North).

She left CNA to work in the private sector on-site at the U.S. Pacific Command from 1999-2006, developing countermeasures against biological and chemical weapons, both for U.S. military forces, and adapted for domestic use within the U.S. at large population centers.

In 2006, Gonzalez returned to CNA and transitioned to the Institute for Public Research in 2009 to focus on state and local preparedness for catastrophic events, focusing on analyzing public safety and security policy development and facilitating policy and plans implementation in the public and private sectors. As of May 2011, Gonzalez became the project manager for the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Initiative program.