International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Designed to raise awareness of persons with disabilities to improve their lives and provide them with equal opportunity
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are essential for the security profession to thrive, remain resilient and lean into the future threat landscape. A robust pipeline of DEI candidates, at all levels, ensures a healthy future for our critical industry. Yet the security profession has traditionally not been as diverse as it needs to be.
The Security Foundation is committed to promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) throughout the security profession. Our goal is to grow the diversity of leadership and foster representation to produce a more authentic reflection of the communities we safeguard. We recognize the many underrepresented groups in the security profession, and our initial priority focus will be on women, People of Color and LGBTQI+ groups to increase access, engagement and retention to create a sustainable, more diverse workforce and leadership.
Defined by TSF’s Board of Directors, DEI for our organization encompasses these underrepresented communities in security: Black/African American; Hispanic/Latino; Asian/API; Native Americans; Women; LGBTQI+; and Veterans.
TSF convenes and coordinates the annual DEI Summit of security leaders from security nonprofits and public-private partnerships. The group is developing DEI programming, recruitment and data collection to impact every sector of the security and safety profession in the U.S. and abroad.
The group has monthly planning meetings, quarterly updates and an annual, in-person DEI Summit, hosted by TSF. At the first Summit in April 2023, the group developed a Joint DEI Statement to guide its work. At TSF’s second annual event in May 2024, Girl Security and the International Organization of Black Security Executives (IOBSE) joined the effort, and the Security Coalition of Equitable Advancement (SCEA) was born.
The DEI Summit Group curates a calendar of DEI holidays, celebrations and DEI-focused events in the security industry. Anyone participating in any TSF-sponsored event and/or activity in any capacity is subject to the TSF Code of Conduct.
Designed to raise awareness of persons with disabilities to improve their lives and provide them with equal opportunity
Below is the registration link for the ASIS International and IOBSE partnered webinar on Thursday, 12.12.24, Entrepreneurship in Security. Registration is required and free for all to attend. https://store.asisonline.org/entrepreneurship-in-security.html
We want to ensure all backgrounds and identities are represented in our DEI Calendar. Please feel free to provide a date or event we inadvertently missed. Please allow 2 weeks for review upon submission.
We constantly curate a variety of opportunities from internships and fellowships to information to hire and retain professionals through a DEI focus. Note that some content requires membership. For more information on our DEI resources, contact Carly Coaty, TSF Director of Programs, [email protected]
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TSF’s Board of Directors started discussing the lack of diversity in 2021 and created a TSF Board Diversity Committee. During TSF’s Strategic Plan Board discussion in 2022, DEI became one of the priority focuses with the overarching theme to “Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for the Benefit of the Security Profession.” We set specific internal goals for our organization to meet by 2025 and brainstormed about DEI promotion through education and grantmaking.
TSF’s Board and staff also worked with an outside DEI Advisor, Dr. Ron Brown, on DEI training, which will continue annually.
While many organizations are addressing the challenges of DEI in the security profession, TSF believes that to make any measurable change requires a combined, coordinated effort by many organizations. By bringing the initial group of five organizations together, we hope to collaborate to start building programs, awareness and educational opportunities for underrepresented people in the security profession.
Recognizing that TSF had the resources to do so, we hosted the first joint DEI Summit in April 2023 with five participating organizations:
TSF’s Board also dedicated additional resources to this initiative by funding a new position, Director of Programs, in spring 2023 to spearhead the collaborative work of the five organizations, which have formed the Joint DEI Task Force.
The Security Coalition of Equitable Advancement (SCEA) has evolved through our collaborative efforts. It began as the Joint DEI Task Force and later became the DEI Summit Group, consisting of five partner organizations that came together to advance DEI initiatives in spring 2023. The founding members of the Joint DEI Task Force were ASIS, DSAC, TSF, ISMA, and OSAC. In May 2024, the group transformed into SCEA, expanding its membership across the security industry and building upon the foundation laid by the Joint DEI Task Force.
The security profession faces significant challenges in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce, at all levels. In its recent survey, SMR Group, a security industry placement firm, learned that 94% of its candidates for security, risk and resiliency positions globally were men, with 70% coming from a former government background, typically, military, police or intelligence.
For underrepresented groups, there have been advancements, but critical gaps remain. For example, in cybersecurity, only 11% of the global cybersecurity workforce are female—a significant issue for an industry facing 1.8 million-plus unfulfilled jobs (Cybercrime Magazine).
The security profession’s lack of diversity in gender, race and sexual orientation also affects organizations’ ability to create the best crisis response, which benefits from different perspectives and experiences. When our teams have diversity, equity and inclusion at their core, we are better able to plan and respond to our communities in crisis. In fact, diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time and more efficiently—twice as fast and in half the time, according to Cloverpop—and deliver 60% better results.
Creating initiatives that address the security profession’s DEI challenges will create a more robust pipeline for those entering the profession and provide more opportunities across all levels. This is one of the priorities identified at the DEI Summit.
TSF’s mission is to “Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for the Benefit of the Security Profession” as stated in our Strategic Plan.
TSF’s DEI Initiatives include organizing and funding the DEI Summit and the initiatives that develop from the work of the Security Coalition for Equitable Advancement (SCEA).
TSF is working with our grantees to educate about the importance of DEI in their staff and leadership and balanced representation in the programs that we fund through our grants programs.
TSF DEI initiatives are funded through restricted donations to TSF and unrestricted TSF Board designated funds.
Carly Coaty, Director of Programs
[email protected]