Bill Clark

Bill Clark

Degree: 2003, MPA

Job Title: Senior Consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton

Former IPA research assistant Bill Clark (MPA ’03) has built upon his experiences at the University of Delaware to move into the homeland-security business.

Clark is a Senior Consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, serving as a task leader on a contract supporting the Infrastructure/Geophysical Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate.

Clark explains, “After a year working for state government relations, where I focused on issues related to the environment and critical natural resources, I started my career in homeland security, specifically in infrastructure protection.

“My entry into homeland security began when I took a job as the Manager of Security Policy at the Water Information Sharing & Analysis Center [WaterISAC]. In this role, I drafted, edited, and laid out print, e-mail and Web newsletters pertaining to homeland security issues and served as liaison between WaterISAC and federal agencies and other national-level associations with respect to drinking water and homeland-security programs and policy issues.

“After a about a year, I decided to try my hand in government consulting, specifically for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.” Clark has spent the past three years supporting the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Infrastructure Protection as a consultant.

More recently, Clark has begun supporting Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate, where he supervises a team of eight. He is responsible for overall contract coordination, including monthly reporting on the health of the contract, budget management, expense approval, and professional-development planning. He also assists with project research, planning, execution, and support and provide input in preparation for briefings.

“Managing a team of eight can be challenging,” Clark says. “Identifying individuals’ strengths and then matching those strengths to the client’s needs are sometimes difficult. It was also a difficult adjustment for me to learn to delegate work to others, but it became a necessity as I took on more and more responsibility.”

Taking on more responsibility is something for which Clark was well prepared while an MPA student at UD and during his tenure as a Legislative Fellow.

“Understanding the budget process is critical in my role now, as it had been when I worked for the WaterISAC,” Clark says. “In my current role, I’m expected to manage a program-support budget and a staff, so coursework in finance and human resources proved very helpful. I’ve also found that the Legislative Fellows Program gave me valuable insight into how decisions are made by lawmakers, as well as the influences and interests that enter into those decisions.

“Working as a Legislative Fellow helped teach me how to solve problems on the fly, which has served me well as a government consultant. As a Research Assistant [for IPA], I had to provide various levels of analysis and rigor to problems and issues facing the state of Delaware. I’ve carried the ability to develop rational solutions to ambiguous problems with me into the working world, which has benefited me greatly.”

Clark is happy where he is now and expects to work for Booz Allen Hamilton for the next several years. When he’s not working to help the government keep us safe, Clark enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Washington, D.C., area.