Mr. Patrick Ellis is a WMD/Homeland Security analyst at the USAF Counterproliferation Center located on Maxwell AFB. He specializes in WMD terrorism, homeland security, and disaster/emergency management issues. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Maryland in Asian Studies/government and politics, a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Oklahoma, and a Master’s degree in International Relations. He completed specialized courses at the Defense Nuclear Weapons School, US Army Chemical School, and USAF Special Operations School. Mr. Ellis has developed and taught WMD and Asymmetric Warfare related topics for the Air Force Institute of Technology, Senior NCO Academy, and the Ira C. Eaker College for Professional Development’s Air Force Incident Management course. As an Air War College faculty member he has taught elective courses such as Asymmetric Warfare Issues, International Rivals, and WMD Issues for the USAF. He was the course director for a two term Nuclear Threats, Countermeasures, and Enterprise research elective, and is currently the Homeland Security and Defense elective course director. His other interests are the study of globalization, the undeveloped world, irregular warfare, and homeland security. He co-edited the USAF Counterproliferation Center’s 2011 book titled Tailored Deterrence: Influencing States and Groups of Concern, and authored a chapter on “National Resilience as a Deterrence Factor.” He also co-authored with Randall J. Larsen a chapter titled “Securing the Homeland: The First Decade,” found in the book Avoiding the Abyss: Progress, Shortfalls, and the Way Ahead in Combating the WMD Threat, published by Praeger Security International, 2006.
Colonel Mark Erickson is the Global Strike Command Chair to Air University and an instructor in the Department of Strategy. Colonel Erickson was commissioned via Officer Training School in 1987. His fourteen assignments include a wide variety of responsibilities in both the space operations and the nuclear enterprise (ICBM operations in particular)
as well as in the education and training arena. He has served as an instructor and/or evaluator crewmember in Ground Launched Cruise Missile, Minuteman II and Defense Support Program missile and satellite systems. He was an Instructor and later Assistant Professor of military and American history at the Air Force Academy, a staff officer and fully-qualified JSO at USSTRATCOM, and Chief of Safety at the 91st Missile Wing. He commanded the 326th Training Squadron (Basic Military Training) at Lackland AFB, TX and was the Deputy Group Commander of the 821st Air Base Group at Thule AB, Greenland before attending Air War College. After AWC he served as part of the initial cadre standing up Global Strike Command, serving as the Division Chief of the Strategic Plans Division (A8X). Colonel Erickson has attended SOS, ACSC, JFSC and AWC all in residence and earned a PhD in military and American history from George Washington University. His book, Into the Unknown Together: The DOD, NASA and Early Spaceflight, was published by the Air University Press.
