DHSSandia Marks 20-year Partnership with DHS
In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was created and began operations in 2003. Sandia has been involved with the homeland security mission from the department’s inception.
Dan Sanchez had dropped off his wife at work in Washington, D.C., and was en route to his son’s daycare center when he saw a huge plume of smoke rise. It was Sept. 11, 2001, and an airplane had flown into the Pentagon.
“When all of this happened, it was very real for me,” said Sanchez, who was working for the NNSA, which oversees Sandia. Thinking back upon that day, he recalled, “It was the memories of having to abandon and get out of your car and walk over the long bridge, put your kid over your shoulder and hike across the Potomac — and you don’t really know what’s happening.”
In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was created and began operations in 2003, marking 2023 as the 20th anniversary. Sandia has been involved with the homeland security mission from the department’s inception,and NNSA and Sandia have developed a strong relationship with DHS over the years.
Sanchez now serves on the senior leadership team with the NNSA Sandia Field Office, which has responsibility for the management and oversight of Sandia, serving as an adviser for national security programs across the Labs.
His personal experience with the attack on the United States made him even more invested in helping build NNSA’s and Sandia’s enduring strategic partnership with DHS, which was created two decades ago through the combination of all or part of 22 federal departments and agencies into a unified, integrated department.
A Blossoming Partnership
Sanchez has worked in close partnership with Sandia, and in particular with Mark Allen, Sandia’s senior administrator for the Integrated Security Solutions division, including the Energy and Homeland Security portfolio.
“We were no longer just a nuclear and multiprogram laboratory — we had transitioned to a national security laboratory, first and foremost that has a unique nuclear weapons responsibility,” Mark said.
Mark joined Sandia in 2004 as a project manager working on the Labs’ support of DHS under the directorial leadership of Jill Hruby, who now serves as Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of NNSA.
Mark helped establish how Sandia would handle program development and project management in carrying out work for DHS. He also guided and nurtured the use of a master interagency agreement between the government agencies that provided streamlined contracting, enabling the Labs’ rapid technical response to a DHS request.
