Sonny Smith

I have been a Lecturer at the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service since 2010. I am also the Director of Safety and Security at The Menil Collection, in Houston, TX. Prior to joining the Menil in September 2023, I was the Director of Security and Parking Services for the Texas A&M Health Science Center, from 2016 to 2023. From 2010 to 2013, I was a Lieutenant with the Texas Office of the Attorney General where I managed a team of Medicaid Fraud Investigators. Prior to moving to Houston, TX in 2009, I lived in Northern Virginia where I worked as a Program Director for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Global Threat Reduction. I also served as an Adjunct Professor for George Mason University's School of Public and International Affairs. I received my B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary (1993), and my M.P.A. (2003) and Ph.D. (2009) in Public Administration and Public Affairs from Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy.

Prior to returning to graduate school in 2001, I worked as a Virginia State Trooper and as a Special Agent in the United States Secret Service. In addition to my executive protection and criminal investigation duties, I was also the Commonwealth of Virginia Nigerian Fraud Coordinator, the Commonwealth of Virginia Food Stamp Fraud Coordinator, and the Secret Service liaison to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

I currently teach a variety of Public Management and Homeland Security courses for the Bush School's online Executive Masters of Public Service Administration (EMPSA), as well as for the Homeland Security Graduate Certificate Program. Some of the courses I teach include: Introduction to Public Management; Foundations of Public Service Administration; Economic Policy Analysis; U.S. Border Security: Policies, Strategies and Issues; Domestic Intelligence Operations: Legalities, Policies and Procedures; and Research Methods for Homeland Security Studies.