Alan Bersin

Alan Douglas Bersin (born October 15, 1946) is an American lawyer. He also serves as an Inaugural Senior Fellow in the Homeland Security Project at the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, as a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and as Inaugural North America Fellow at the Canada Institute and the Mexico Institute (Wilson Center). He is Chairman of the consulting firm BorderWorks Group, and Executive Chairman of Altana Trade.

Bersin spent the better part of two decades practicing at the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, rising to become a senior partner. He then served in turn as the US Attorney for the Southern District of California and the US Border Czar, the Superintendent of the San Diego City Schools, the California Secretary of Education, and the Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. He was then the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection overseeing its 58,000-employee work force and operating budget of $12 billion, the DHS Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer, and the Vice President of INTERPOL for the Americas Region and a member of the INTERPOL Executive Committee.

Early and personal life Bersin was born in 1946 to Jewish parents, Arthur Bersin and Mildred (Laikin) Bersin, in Brooklyn, New York. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants Jacob and Rose Bersin. He is a member of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego. He is fluent in Spanish.

Bersin is married to Lisa Foster, a Judge in the San Diego Superior Court. He was also elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He was awarded post-graduate scholarships by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Football Hall of Fame. In 1992, he took a sabbatical and moved to San Diego to teach at the University of San Diego law school and work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. From 1995 to 1998, he served as the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative, coordinating law enforcement on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and was nicknamed the "Border Czar."

San Diego Superintendent of Public Education From 1998 to 2005 he served as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego City Schools, in control of the eighth-largest urban school district in the U.S. Speaking as to what he believed needed change, Bersin said: "Seniority counts above competence. This is anachronistic and makes no sense." He launched a major reorganization of the urban school district to focus its resources on instruction and on modernization of business infrastructure. Schwarzenegger then appointed Bersin to the California State Board of Education, where he served as a member until 2009. reported that Bersin was considering a run for San Diego City Attorney.

Department of Homeland Security DHS Secretary for International Affairs, and Special Representative for Border Affairs On April 15, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the appointment of Bersin as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs. In the press release announcing his appointment, Secretary Napolitano said, "Alan brings years of vital experience working with local, state and international partners to help us meet the challenges we face at our borders. He will lead the effort to make our borders safe while working to promote commerce and trade." In 2009, Bersin served as Assistant Secretary and Special Representative for Border Affairs in DHS.

DHS Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, and Chief Diplomatic Officer Starting in January 2012 and through 2017, Bersin served as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, and as DHS Chief Diplomatic Officer. He oversaw DHS’s international engagement, was the DHS Secretary's principal advisor on international affairs, and led the DHS activities in strategic planning and policy formulation.

Covington & Burling After leaving government service, Bersin became a senior advisor at the international law firm Covington & Burling.

Philanthropy and other activities

In 2014, Bersin announced the Mildred and Arthur Bersin Scholarship, to be awarded to students from Gompers Preparatory Academy, Abraham Lincoln High School, and the Preuss School who are accepted into Harvard University. He also donated a new weight room to Abraham Lincoln High School. He has also funded a Curtis-Liman Fellow to work with the Liman Center and Yale Law School’s clinical program on issues of criminal law enforcement and immigration. He served as a member of the Board of Overseers for Harvard University (2004–10), and the Chair of the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2007–10). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

He serves as an Inaugural Senior Fellow in the Homeland Security Project at the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; as a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington D.C.; as Inaugural North America Fellow at the Canada Institute and the Mexico Institute (Wilson Center); and as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Quebec Government Office in Washington. He is Chairman of BorderWorks Group, a consulting firm specializing in border security and management; and Executive Chairman of Altana Trade, which is devoted to providing machine learning and artificial intelligence-based insights on border management and global trade.

Works Alan Bersin, Chappell Lawson, Juliette N. Kayyem (2020). Beyond 9/11; Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century, MIT Press, Austen D. Givens, Nathan E. Busch, Alan Douglas Bersin (2021). Homeland Security; An Introduction, Oxford University Press, Lorraine McCall, Lars Karlsson, Philip Kretsedemas, Maria Burns, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Alan Bersin, Christopher M. Ellis, William Rials, Thomas P. Russo (2023). Immigration, the Borderlands, and the Resilient Homeland, Bernan Press,