Georgeann Rooney DiCaprio

Director of Research and Threat Assessment Specialist

At the heart of designing, implementing and assessing an organization’s threat assessment program – whether it’s focused on preventing school violence, protecting executives or translating protective intelligence into better security – is the need for a keen understanding that has to be both broad and detailed about exactly how a best practice-based program should be managed.

This domain represents Georgeann Rooney DiCaprio’s contribution to the Hillard Heintze team. This is her area of expertise. She is a former U.S. Secret Service Threat Assessment Specialist with more than ten years of experience conducting research projects and training programs pertaining to threat assessment, protective intelligence and targeted violence, specifically in the areas of assassination, terrorism and school attacks.

During her tenure at the Secret Service, DiCaprio was recognized for many accomplishments. As Program Manager for the Safe School Initiative (SSI), a collaborative study with the U.S. Department of Education on targeted school attacks, she served as a key resource for the Secret Service in all matters related to the SSI, including preparing Statements of Record for Congress and briefing senior U.S. government leaders, notably the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of the U.S. Secret Service, on critical SSI-related issues. She also served as Program Manager of the Bystander Study, an examination of factors influencing an individual’s decision to report planned school violence to authorities, as well as a Safe School Initiative program dedicated to advancing the tools and techniques most likely to improve the effectiveness of school-based targeted violence threat assessment teams.

In addition to these responsibilities, DiCaprio was also selected by the U.S. Secret Service as a key researcher supporting many different strategic agency initiatives. One, for example, was a classified case-study examination of detained terrorists. Another was a high-profile initiative that uncovered and defined the non-monetary impacts of financial crimes – an initiative whose results were later shared with Congress. Prior to joining the Secret Service, DiCaprio distinguished herself as a research expert at the American Institute for Research in Washington, DC.

In the course of carrying out these duties, DiCaprio has published – together with teams of other experts – a number of papers on education and school-based violence. She has also conducted more than 60 presentations and in-service training exercises for thousands of law enforcement, mental health and educational personnel – both in the United States and internationally. And she has made a number of public appearances. In October 2006, for example, she served on the White House Conference on School Safety, a six-member panel chaired by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. She also appeared, in 2007, on a “60 Minutes” discussion of the U.S. Secret Service’s Safe School Initiative. And in 2007, she was selected by the Secret Service to represent the agency at a Department of Homeland Security-sponsored examination about how the nation’s schools can help mitigate the growing risks of school-based violence.

DiCaprio has earned a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice at George Washington University as well as a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She is also a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and a Certified Federal Law Enforcement Instructor. DiCaprio has a Top Secret Security Clearance.