Corporate Officers
IAFIE President
Ms. Katherine Hibbs Pherson
CEO, Globalytica
CEO, VEXAS Global Foundation
Co-Founder and Consultant, Pherson Associates
Kathy Pherson teaches advanced analytic techniques and critical thinking skills to analysts in government, academia, and the private sector and consults to the government on planning, security, and analysis projects. She and Randy Pherson, who passed away in 2024, are co-authors of Critical Thinking for Strategic Intelligence, 3rd ed. (2021). A member of IAFIE since 2006, Ms. Pherson was the first chair of the Washington, DC chapter and accepted the position of vice president in June 2024 and that of president in March 2025. As the past vice chair of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s (INSA) Security Policy Reform Council (2010-2024), she servd as INSA’s representative to the National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee (NISPPAC). She has since 2018 supported the US Government’s Trusted Workforce 2.0 (TW 2.0) transformation initiative.
Ms. Pherson in 2000 completed a 27-year career with CIA in intelligence and security analysis and resource management. Her leadership in security led to the adoption of a risk management methodology, strengthening and implementation of overseas security countermeasures, and improvements in dealing with unsolicited contacts. Ms. Pherson holds MA degrees in Spanish Linguistics and Latin American Studies and in Communications and is a recipient of CIA's Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal and the Intelligence Community’s National Distinguished Service Medal.
IAFIE Vice President
Dr. James Ramsay
University of Wisconsin-Stout
James Ramsay (Ph.D., M.A., FASSP) is a professor of security studies. Prior to this, he was Head of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology (now called the School of International Studies) at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia. Prior to joining Macquarie, he was the founding coordinator of the Homeland Security program, and the founding Chair of the Department of Security Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Prior to joining UNH, he was the founding program director for one of the nation’s first degrees in Homeland Security as well as the founding chair of the Department of Security Studies and International Affairs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He has over 25 years’ experience in public health, security studies/intelligence, emergency management, occupational safety, and environmental health education. He has established multiple degree programs that focus on issues of global significance and public service such as national, homeland and global security cybersecurity policy and risk management, intelligence analysis, and human security and resilience. Dr. Ramsay has also established two Federal Centers of Academic Excellence: one by NSA/DHS in cybersecurity defense education and the other by ODNI in intelligence education, both at the University of New Hampshire. In 2020 he received the first David McIntyre award for outstanding teaching and research in homeland security presented by the Center for Homeland Security and Defense.
Dr. Ramsay serves as the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He also serves on the editorial boards for Homeland Security Affairs Journal, and the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. Dr. Ramsay’s current area of research interests include climate security and national security strategic planning, and wicked problems in intelligence, including the emergence of public health intelligence. He is currently writing his 5th book, entitled “Critical Issues in Homeland Security” 2nd, ed. to be published by Routledge. He currently teaches courses in strategic planning and decision making, climate security and human security and resilience.
IAFIE Vice President, Membership
Mr. Robin Lobb
Georgian College, Canada
Robin Lobb is president of Zeroes & Ones Inc (Zoinc). He has served on numerous boards of directors and lectured at several universities and colleges over 30 years, including teaching in the research analyst and big data graduate programs at Georgian College. He currently serves as chair of the program advisory committees for the graduate programs in big data, AI and mobile app development. Work includes consulting on the Urban Flashpoints project at the CIA and lectures on the future of intelligence as it relates to big data, AI and quantum computing. He has been working on membership development at IAFIE since 2023.
IAFIE Treasurer
Ms. Marilyn Peterson
Marymount Univeristy
Marilyn B. Peterson began as the Chief Writer of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission’s 1980 Report, A Decade of Organized Crime. She was the Senior Analyst for the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network (MAGLOCLEN) from 1981 to 1987, at which point she became analyst/investigator for the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. In 1990, she co-edited Criminal Intelligence Analysis with Paul P. Andrews. In 1994, Greenwood Press published her book, Applications in Criminal Analysis: A Sourcebook. She was president of the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA) from 1996 through 1999. In 1996, the National White Collar Crime Center published her paper, A Guide to Analyzing Personal and Corporate Bank Records which was followed by several other papers and articles on financial analysis. The U.S. Department of Justice published her paper, Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture in 2005. She retired from state law enforcement in 2005 and taught intelligence analysis for the Department of Defense from 2006 to 2017. She co-edited the book, Applications in Intelligence-Led Policing from Theory to Practice (2017). She is the recipient of four lifetime achievement awards: from IALEIA, from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, from the Thomas Edison University Alumni Association, and from the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE). She is a Lifetime Certified Intelligence Crime Analyst and a Lifetime Certified Fraud Examiner.
IAFIE Secretary
Dr. Sabrina Magris
president@ecoleuniversitaireinternationale.net
École Universitaire Internationale, Italy
President of École Universitaire Internationale, Research and Higher Education Institute in Peace and Security studies based in Rome, Italy. She is recognized international lecturer in Operational Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Hostage Negotiation, Psychological Operations, Strategic Communication. She is NATO Subject Matter Expert. She is Military Intelligence trainer and She developed and authored classified