Our Cadre

Brian Harkins

Mr. Harkins brings over 28 years of distinguished experience in law enforcement, specializing in crisis management, security operations, and risk mitigation. A former FBI Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent, he has honed his expertise through a distinguished career in both federal law enforcement and high-level protection services. Throughout his career, he demonstrated unparalleled leadership in handling complex, high-pressure situations, including active shooter responses, terrorism attacks, and international security threats.

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Mr. Harkins spent 25 years as a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, with 4 years at the U.S. Secret Service and 21 years at the FBI. In his role with the Secret Service, he managed high-profile protection assignments and led financial crime investigations. At the FBI, Mr. Harkins made significant contributions to crisis management, counterintelligence, and tactical operations, providing oversight to critical programs involving national security, law enforcement coordination, and emergency response.

Over his 21 years with the FBI, Mr. Harkins served in numerous critical roles, including supervising the Crisis Management Squad, where he managed nine specialized units, including Crisis Negotiations, Special Events, SWAT Operations, and the FBI’s Active Shooter Program. He also spent 8 years as a SWAT Operator, 3 of which were in a leadership position, leading tactical operations in high-risk scenarios. His leadership in managing the FBI’s response to multiple critical incidents—ranging from bombings and terrorism attacks to mass casualty events—provided him with a deep understanding of how to operate in fast-moving, high-risk environments.

Ray Holcomb

Mr. Holcomb has over 30 years of experience as a distinguished federal law enforcement Official and as a US intelligence officer.

He served for 23 years as a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 8 years as a Strategic Planner with the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC); and 4 years as a state
Homeland Security Advisor.

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Mr. Holcomb is the President and Managing Director of 1 st Watch Secure, a global security and crisis management firm. He also serves as a consultant to the federal government on terrorism and other national security-related matters.

He holds a Juris Doctor Degree and practiced corporate and international law.

Melissa Muir

Melissa Muir is an HR professional committed to strengthening the health and safety of our organizations. For more than 25 years, she has led people practices as a trusted advisor and creative partner.

After more than two decades as an HR professional in the federal courts, Melissa has taken leadership roles with the City of Seattle and her hometown of Shoreline, Washington. A leader in the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) for more than 10 years, voted “Most Inspirational Speaker”, Melissa champions bridging the gap between HR and security with straightforward ways to prevent workplace violence and increase workplace trust and safety.

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Recent presentations include:
– Bridging the Gap Between HR and Security
– Creating Safety, One Word at a Time
– How Not to Hire a Psychopath
– Breaking Up Doesn’t Have to be Hard to Do: Employee Separations

Melissa holds an MBA from the University of Washington and a law degree, with a
focus on employment law and mediation, from the Seattle University School of Law.

Stephanie Leite

Dr. Stephanie Leite is the principal at Forensic Intelligence, LLC. She conducts corporate, municipal, and school-based safety assessments, specializing in complex presentations. Her specialty is threat assessment and management assessments or psychological evaluations, providing clarity when someone seems to pose a threat of violence. In a corporate setting, this can be done through a FFDE. She also loves making annotated bibliographies, and attacking difficult referral questions in a creative way.

Another specialty of Dr. Leite’s is training. She has developed trainings on a wide range of topics such as threat and the autism spectrum, interviewing, and decision making/bias prevention. She is often told she explains complex topics in an interesting, humorous and accessible manner.

Dr. Leite received her Psy.D. from the University of Hartford, having previously achieved a Masters from Boston University and a B.A. from Carleton College.

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Dr. Leite received her Psy.D. from the University of Hartford, having previously achieved a Masters from Boston University and a B.A. from Carleton College.

Dr. Leite’s practice has been devoted to forensic psychology since 2003. In that time, she has evaluated hundreds of people in risk, competency, custody, criminal and threat assessment cases. She is a licensed psychologist in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New York. She is able to practice in all PsyPact states. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the Association of Threat Management Professionals, where is the past president of the New England chapter. She is a founding member and past president of the Connecticut Psychological Association’s Forensic Division and was awarded the 2014 President’s award from the CPA. Se is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management.

As an educator, Dr. Leite has been an adjunct professor at the University of Hartford’s doctoral program in psychology since 2015 where she has taught integrated psychological assessment, forensic psychology, and introduction to neuropsychology. She is a forensic field mentor at Columbia University’s Teacher’s college. She has taught in many other venues worldwide, including keynoting conferences, trainings, and directly for workplaces. Venues include ATAP, Infragard, IAHSS, VCJS, AETAP, CT Psychological Association, and the Idaho Threat Management conference among many others.

Keith Black

Keith Black is the founder and Principal of Employment Practices Outsourcing. Keith is a seasoned human resources executive, management consultant, and labor/employment law attorney. His background includes many years of multi-industry experience in employment litigation, legal compliance, HR leadership, HR design and transformation, M&A due diligence, and labor relations.

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Mr. Black practiced labor and employment law for prominent national law firms in San Jose, California (Littler) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Blank Rome) for eight years. In that capacity, Mr. Black represented management in all facets of labor and employment law, including equal employment opportunity and civil rights, leaves of absence and disability issues, proactive employee relations policies and practices, M&A due diligence, union-free workplace training, and conducting collective bargaining negotiations.

Mr. Black then joined the legal department of Zeneca Corp. in the capacity of Employment Counsel, serving as the company’s dedicated legal representative for all labor and human resources functions. Mr. Black combined his legal and human resources expertise in working to ensure the smooth integration of HR, labor, and employment law matters following the merger of Astra and Zeneca.

Keith then spent several years with AstraZeneca as a human resources Manager and Director before proposing, designing and leading the Employment Practices functional area within the human resources department. That unit was responsible for coordinating AstraZeneca’s practices and responses to issues such as performance and misconduct, harassment prevention training, policies and procedures, workplace investigations, management training, exit interviews and employee engagement.

Mr. Black moved on to serve as Vice-President of Human Resources and General Counsel for DecisionOne Corporation. In that role, Mr. Black was responsible for transforming the organization’s human resources function, adapting it to the challenges and constraints facing the business, and introducing cost-effective measures which significantly impacted the bottom line. Keith then served as Vice-President of Human Capital Consulting for Aon Consulting. In that role, Keith worked closely with Aon’s Corporate Transactions team, performing HR and labor/employment law due diligence analyses.

Most recently, Mr. Black has specialized in HR transformation – assuming HR VP and CPO roles with organizations that had no functional or effective human resources infrastructure. Mr. Black was brought on board by these organizations to assess the current state of the HR function, analyze the needs of the business (and what role human resources could and should play in meeting those needs), and design, staff, and lead an effective, responsive human resources function that was aligned to the overall business strategy of the entity. Mr. Black was named 2017 Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year and his team was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Philadelphia HR Department of the Year Award. Mr. Black was named the 2023 HR Consultant of the Year in the Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year Awards.

Mr. Black also serves as a faculty member in Villanova University’s Master’s Program in Human Resources Development, teaching Employment Law and Foundations of Strategic HR Management. Keith received a B.A. in Labor and Industrial Relations from Penn State University and a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law. Mr. Black is a member of the state bars of California and Pennsylvania.