If you live in northeast Kansas, rest easy — Lance D. Jones ’91 is on the job.
Last summer, Jones, a former Texas police chief, was appointed to the newly created position of regional coordinator for Homeland Security in the Topeka area.
As the region’s security coordinator, he focuses on training authorities to deal with everything from foreign animal diseases and tornadoes to cybercrimes, mass vaccinations and terrorism.
He shares responsibilities with six other regional officials who work in the Kansas Emergency Management department.
Jones, who holds a bachelor’s degree in administration of justice, is also back working with his alma mater. In March, he helped present a terrorism and criminal extremism awareness seminar for the public and law enforcement workers alike, in partnership with Andra Bannister, an associate professor with the Regional Community Policing Institute at Wichita State.
“I attended a seminar on emergency management and got hooked,” says Jones about his career change — and the move back to his and his wife’s home state. “It was the stage I wanted to evolve into.”
In fact, the only negative aspect of his new lifestyle, he says, is the return to unpredictable Kansas weather: “I haven’t had to scrape ice from my windows in 13 years!”
