Gary holds a BS Civil Engineering and MBA from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and MS Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is pursuing a PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell focusing on transportion security and infrastructure protection. Mr. Gordon is a Registered Professional Engineer, certified as a Military Emergency Management Specialist, holds the Engineer Qualification Specialist Designation for disaster management engineering, and is retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Gary is also retired from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), where he was an Assistant Federal Security Director for the agency’s South Central Region. In this position, he managed the surface transportation security program, where his responsibilities included security assessments; the regulatory process; stakeholder oversight; infrastructure protection; emergency management; and coordinating regional security programs, partnerships and initiatives. He was also TSA’s representative on the Houston-Galveston Area Maritime Security Committee and other transportation security committees. He was also involved in emergency management, as it related to transportation security, in the preparation for, response to and recovery from disasters particularly Gulf Coast Hurricanes, to include Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.
In the U.S. Army Reserve Gary held assignments with the U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Military Traffic Management Command, predecessor of the 1205th Railway Battalion, 368th Engineer Battalion and 329th Engineer Group. At the U.S. Transportation Command he was involved in the management of transportation operations worldwide. This included assessing the operational and physical capability of transportation facilities to handle aircraft, ships, trucks and trains, and the safety and security associated with the operations. Engineering assignments, in addition to command and staff positions, included the evaluation of U.S. Army and Air Force installations to assess transportation capability to support deployment operations; inspection of railroad tracks in Ukraine in support of the dismantlement of nuclear missiles; and deployments to Germany in support of Operation Allied Force and El Salvador in support of Hurricane Mitch relief efforts.
Prior professional engagements included Assistant Chief Engineer Design & Construction of the former Boston & Maine Railroad/Guilford Rail; President/Founder of a multimodal transportation engineering firm specializing in railroad and transit; and Transportation Engineer with the former Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, DC.
In addition to his formal education, Gary has earned certificates in emergency management from FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and transportation safety and security from USDOT’s Transportation Safety Institute (TSI). Relevant training includes: DHS/FEMA Threat and Risk Assessment Course; Land Antiterrorism Training Program, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; USCG/FBI Maritime Awareness Security Terrorism Training; DHS/TSA Highway and Motor Carrier Security Course; USDOT Motor Carrier Safety Compliance Course; AAAE/TSA Basic and Advanced Airport Safety and Operations Courses; USDOT TSI courses on transportation safety and security; and many FEMA EMI incident management courses, including ICS, NIMS, NIPP, NRF and COOP. His military education included the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College; Engineer and Transportation Officer Basic and Advanced Courses; and joint planning/operations courses.
Mr. Gordon is published and has made many presentations on railroad and transit security, infrastructure, operations and emergency management. He is a member of the American Public Transportation Association; American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association, ASIS International, World Safety Organization, Society of American Military Engineers and The Infrastructure Security Partnership.