Steve McKinney, Ph.D.

Dr. McKinney is the Founder and CEO of nSide, Inc. He has spent the last 26 years teaching, training, and working in engineering, cybersecurity, programming, GIS, emergency management, public safety, homeland security, and, most importantly, school safety. During this time, he has developed and implemented many complex systems in education, law enforcement, public safety, school safety, health and human services, environmental planning and modeling systems, and various other engineering and information technology projects.

Dr. McKinney is certified as a facilitator of REMS Emergency Operations Planning, REMS School-Based Threat Assessments, and trainer of the Colorado Threat Assessment Model. Dr. McKinney is a member of the Alabama Department of Education’s Central Office Task Force on School Safety and regularly assists in regional safety training throughout the state.

He received a Bachelor of Science in 1997 and a Master of Science in 1999 from Samford University. He completed his Doctorate at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in 2009. Also, McKinney has had extensive professional training in computer languages and technical programs.

Dr. McKinney is a licensed General Contractor (Low Voltage) and Class B Technician in alarm, surveillance, and access control technologies.

In addition to Dr. McKinney’s many pursuits, in 2005, he was listed as one of Birmingham’s “Top 40 Under 40” business people. He was awarded the ESRI “Vision in GIS” award in 2008 and the “Special Achievement in GIS” award in 2009 and 2010.

Specialties Include: School Safety and Emergency Operations Planning, Site Threat Assessment, Behavioral Threat Assessment, Emergency Management Planning, Public Speaking, Entrepreneurship, Engineering, Technology Consulting