Jay Mitchell

Jay Mitchell serves as Senior Advisor to IEM. Mitchell has more than 30 years of professional military and civilian State and National security experience, including 25 years as a specialist and recognized leader within the U.S. and international Intelligence Community. During his career, he has supervised and managed units of organizations ranging from 8 person specialized teams, a state agency executing over $100M a year, and command of a 650+ manned unit operating on foreign soil.

In 2014, Mitchell was appointed by the Governor of New Mexico and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as the Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. In that role, he also served as the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisor responsible for leading the central primary coordinating agency for the state in response to emergencies, disasters, and actors or threats of terrorism. Secretary Mitchell consolidated and coordinated homeland security and emergency management functions to provide comprehensive and coordinated preparedness, mitigation, prevention, protection, response, and recovery for emergencies and disasters, regardless of cause, and acts or threats of terrorism. As the head of a criminal justice law enforcement agency, he coordinated law enforcement counterterrorism prevention, preparedness, and response training on a statewide basis resulting in a cohesive team response by both law enforcement and emergency first responders to acts of terrorism or a terrorist threat. His extensive intelligence background uniquely qualified him as his agency’s director over the state’s intelligence fusion center providing the governor, general public, and private businesses with timely information and advice relating to emergencies, disasters, and acts of terrorism that is essential to ensuring the safety and security to the lives and property in New Mexico.