AST Magazine January 2018 Digital-jan (1) | Page 4

Kiernan Group
Holdings (KGH)
Changing the
World
Dr. Kathleen Kiernan, a 29-year law enforce-
ment and intelligence community veteran, re-
fers to herself, as a “prakademic”, fueled by
practitioner earned knowledge, and bound by
academic rigor. She is proud of the fact that the
company, founded in 2009 was built by practitio-
ners for practitioners, who are mission focused, and
share a common drive of public service.
KGH, the recipient of two Platinum ‘AS-
TORS’ Homeland Security Awards by
American Security Today (AST), is in Old
Town Alexandria, Virginia and is owned
and operated by Dr. Kathleen Kiernan,
a 29-year law enforcement and intelli-
gence community veteran.
Kiernan refers to herself, as a “prakademic”,
fueled by practitioner earned knowledge, and
bound by academic rigor.
She is proud of the fact that the company, found-
ed in 2009 was built by practitioners for practi-
tioners, who are mission focused, and share a
common drive of public service.
At KGH, Kiernan invests in two kinds of world
changing employees:
• Those who have earned experience across
law enforcement, intelligence, military and
academic communities, and
• Those who are taking their first professional
leap from graduate school into the profes-
sional workforce.
The former brings operational knowledge and
strategic patience, the latter, an entirely different
kind of energy and technological curiosity.
The convergence of both is extraordinarily pow-
erful says Kiernan and the “mentoring is recipro-
cal” which changes the workplace dynamic-and
the results show in our business products and in
our relationships.
A ready example can be found in the KGH in-
house media production department, whose pri-
mary mission is transforming and communicat-
ing intelligence-driven learning points via digital
storytelling.
KGH’s digital storytelling methodology focuses on
the identification of experts and eye-witnesses of
mass-casualty attacks, enabling the KGH team
to communicate public safety teaching points to
its clients through the lens of practitioners and
the words of the survivors.
This approach empowers the audience by pro-
viding ground-truth stories of survival, and more
effectively communicates best practices and les-
sons learned than do traditional public-safety-
styled vignettes and written resources.
Stakeholders can better understand and learn
from seeing and hearing the stories that occurred
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