Staff

J. Eric Dietz

Title: Director
Phone: 765.494.8130
Email: jedietz@purdue.edu
Bio: Rejoining Purdue University in March 2008, J. Eric Dietz is the Director of the Purdue Homeland Security Institute, Associate Director of the e-Enterprise Center and Associate Professor in the Computer and Information Technology Department at Purdue University. On loan from Purdue to the State from 2005-2008, Eric was the founding Executive Director for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, a new cabinet-level department in Indiana that included over 300 public safety employees. Eric reorganized Indiana’s public safety planning and response placing the responsibility for the safety and security of 6.3 million Indiana residents in one organization. In this time, Dr. Dietz led development of comprehensive plans, training, and exercises needed for Indiana’s emergency response and had responsibility for the fire protection policy including the states’ building inspection functions. Also during this period, Eric led Indian’s response to 7 Presidential Major Disasters and Emergency Declarations which included restoration and recovery of critical infrastructure. Prior to serving as Executive Director, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Dr. Dietz was responsible for the catalysis of Purdue’s homeland security research, increasing the impact of Purdue research on society, and organizing Super Projects in Purdue’s Discovery Park. Retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Army in 2004, Dr. Dietz led Army research and acquisition programs including chemical weapons detectors, command and control software and army power systems and was in the initial cadre of Uniformed Army Scientists and Engineers. An Indiana native, Eric was graduated in 1984 from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology after earning a bachelors of science in chemical engineering. He also earned a masters of science from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1986 and a PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1994 from Purdue University.

Dave Hankins

Title: Senior Project Manager
Phone: 765.494.9816
Email: dhankins@purdue.edu
Bio: Dave joined the Purdue Homeland Security Institute (PHSI) team in April 2005 and serves as the Senior Project Manager. As such, he’s played major roles in numerous PHSI projects. These include being the lead planner for tabletop and full-scale emergency response exercises for Indiana Homeland Security Districts 3 and 4. These exercises were the first of their kind for these districts and all of them included a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) scenario with the full-scale exercises having 200 participants in District 3 and over 350 participants in District 4. He was also one of our lead planners for our efforts with the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) this past year as we developed pandemic influenza tabletop and functional exercises. More recently, he has been a key player in the delivery of ten (10) tabletop exercises, ten (10) functional exercises and a State agency tabletop exercise for pandemic influenza. The tabletop and functional exercises were completed for each of Indiana’s Homeland Security districts in the spring and early summer of 2008.
Dave has also served as an Adjunct Professor with Aviation Technology in 2005/2006 teaching courses in Air Traffic Control Procedures and Weather, and Air Transportation. Unfortunately, his busy schedule has precluded him from teaching the past two years.

Dave retired from the Air Force in 2002 at the rank of Colonel after serving almost 30 years. He began his career as a navigator flying KC-135’s and has almost 2,000 hours, including numerous hours as an Instructor Navigator. His key positions as a colonel included Commander of Purdue’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), serving as the Support Group Commander at Columbus AFB, Ms and serving as the Division Chief for Operations Officer Assignments at the Air Force Personnel Center.

Marti Burns

Title: Project Manager
Phone: 765.494.2216
Email: mhburns@purdue.edu
Bio: Martha Burns is a Project Manager with Purdue Homeland Security Institute. She has led and facilitated departmental organization, assisted in writing numerous proposals including budget development, coordinated preliminary strategic development plans, and served as a liaison among various departments. Her project management skills have insured timely compliance with key deadlines, the ability to work with accurate budgeting and the business office as well as supervise and manage student and staff personnel.

Key projects include:
Coordination of project teams to work with the Indiana State Department of Health in developing a complete exercise program for 2007/2008 dealing with pandemic preparedness. Overall gap analysis of existing pandemic preparedness plans, administering of drills, tabletop and functional exercises as well as train the facilitator programs for all 92 Indiana Counties.