Tammy Lynn Palacios

Priority Sustainable Counterterrorism is a cross-sector approach which heavily leverages non-kinetic prevention measures. This initiative highlights systematic improvements for policies which are already underway but should be further prioritized. These strategies are based off of in-depth research of a terrorist groups' local operations, on-the-ground nuance of a region, and existing security and development programs and policies.

The West Africa project was launched with Supporting CSOs to Mitigate the Spread of Terrorism in the Sahel April 18th.

Implementation efforts include:

• Briefing the U.S. State Department Global Engagement Center, Counter-Terrorism West Africa after completing market research on hundreds of civil society organizations across Africa
• Briefing United Nations Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate on research on supporting civil society organizations to mitigate the spread of terrorism in the Sahel after meetings with 10 NGOs in Ghana
• Briefing the United States State Department
• Participating in briefing connected to Foreign Relations Committee HARM Act on Wagner in Africa
• Panelist at West Point Military Academy Modern War Institute's War Council: Conflict Termination and Withdrawal, April 2023, on applying lessons learned to prevent spread of terrorism in the Sahel
• Engaging with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism on implementing policy recommendations to better support civil society organizations in West Africa
• Engaging with international organizations and D.C. entities on topics of prevention and civil society organizations in West Africa
• Participating in discussions, roundtables, working groups on P/CVE, terrorism/security, domestic extremism

Attending and actively participating in conferences:

• PeaceCon2023, co-hosted by USIP and the Alliance for Peacebuilding
• Positive Peace conference, co-hosted by IEP and Stanford University
• International World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, hosted by Reichman University the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism
• National Institute of Justice National Research Conference "Evidence to Action"
• Prevention Practitioners Network annual Symposia, co-hosted by the McCain Institute and the Department of Homeland Security

• Led a small team as Program Head of the Nonstate Actors program on projects to do with non-state actors and issues of violent extremism and terrorism. The Nonstate Actors program mission and vision is to contribute intentionally to the information space to further the goal of sustainable approaches to violent extremism and terrorism, this is pursued with engagments and analysis that crosses sectors and levels.
• Briefed the Global Engagement Center Counter-Terrorism Team at the U.S. State Department preceding travel to Ghana and meetings with 10 NGOs located in Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi working on issues of good governance, youth, women, capacity building, and peacebuilding.
• Briefed the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate directly following travel to Ghana and meetings with 10 NGOs located in Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi working on issues of good governance, youth, women, capacity building, and peacebuilding.
• Interviewed by Alghad TV on al Qaeda and ISIS after losing their leadership and in a second segment on the Taliban and ISIS-K in Afghanistan.
• Crafted and am leading two live projects: 'Local Realities' and 'Priority Sustainable Counter-Terrorism'. These projects currently focus on the following regions: the Middle East, Central Asia, West Africa, East Africa, and Central Africa, and with the help of Non-resident Fellows - domestic extremism in the U.S.
• To be published in 2023: Violent Non-State Actor (VNSA) Landscape Reports on Central Asia, East Africa, and the DRC. These reports will help reveal understudied militant and non-militant nonstate actors to help reconceptualize national security towards sustainable counterterrorism and violent extremism policy with the 'Local Realities' project.
• Actively working with local, state, and international partners to support civil society organizations to mitigate the spread of terrorist violence in the Sahel, West Africa. 'Priority Sustainable Counter-Terrorism' in the 'Civil Society' project hinges on cross-sector, solution-forward approach to terrorist threats.

• Business development consultant with special emphasis on client and partner outreach and acquisition. Trained peers in twice weekly hour-long meetings for 3 months in communication and sales for lead generation.
• Establish and implement organized systems and methods to test potential business models.
• Conduct risk analysis to help define products and services of dKomplex IT's Network Intelligence and Applied Research division.
• Analyze communications and meetings with potential clients and partners to help determine best next course of action with the CEO and Research Director.
• Research and collect information on potential clients and fields of business as potential target audiences of tested products and services.
• Arrange and organize meetings with potential clients.
• Organize internal files and systems.
• Draft and launch marketing and business development plans and messages, including LinkedIn posts to bolster brand recognition, illustrating legitimacy and increasing likelihood of acquiring potential clients or partners.
• Created and implemented action plan and training materials for Business Development Intern. Charged with training, teaching and working hands-on with this intern as dKomplex IT embraces the Lean Startup Build-Measure-Learn model to identify target audiences and curtail future products and services in support of our Network Intelligence and Applied Research arm of the business. Leading twice-weekly meetings in these efforts.

Conducted open-source data collection and analysis on Syria and ISIS Portfolios. Daily workflow consisted of reviewing news articles local to Syria, data collection, data input, analysis of kinetic and political events, flagging events relevant to PIR’s and SIR’s to senior analysts, and typing up daily briefs and reports on rebel group and military movements, as well as political and economic trends. I worked 40hrs a week onsite and then remote from March, 2020 until the conclusion of my second semester in September, 2020. I helped incoming and ongoing interns transition into their remote roles.

• Conducted targeted research dives in Arabic and English for two independent research projects exploring local efforts of al Qaeda affiliated groups in Syria, and deciphering al Qaeda's ecosystem in Greater Idlib Syria. Commended by superiors for in-depth and complete nature of research.
• Wrote forecasts on group strategy and relations amongst Salafi-jihadist opposition groups in Northwestern Syria by studying current events and capabilities of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, Hurras al-Din and the Turkestan Islamic Party in Greater Idlib, Syria.
• Keyed up information relevant to ongoing ISIS efforts and joint anti-ISIS campaigns at IRQ-SYR border to the ISIS portfolio team.
• Collected, sorted and input data for daily events, taking into consideration: level of importance or relevance, source evaluation, intrinsic biases, international state actors and actor intent, and if it was a re-print from another time or another local publication.
• Wrote daily briefs on significant events; highlighting tactical, operational and strategic posture of local and global actors operating in Syria. Paid special attention to the status of the 05 MAR, 2020 Turkish-Russo ceasefire agreement.

• Project Lead for TTCSP's MENA research team for the Spring and Summer 2021 semesters. Led two teams of 6-14 interns in data collection, analysis and research to create data-driven internal and external work products on think tanks and civil society organizations in the Middle East and North Africa region. Voluntarily stepped up to lead the Spring Team and fill a leadership vacancy, then asked by the executive team and Program Manager Dr. James McGann to stay and serve as Project Lead for the Summer MENA Team. Worked 30hrs a week in this virtual role.
• Directed the Summer MENA team in data collection on think tanks and civil society organizations in the MENA region.
• Our team created an Arabic and English presentation invitation to be used by future MENA teams.
• Led data, research, and literature review efforts on main challenges and recommendations to MENA think tanks; including, defining the MENA region according to significant international organizations and the US State Department.
• Assigned report segments and tasks based on individual team members' strengths, weaknesses, previous studies, and language capabilities. Guided, oversaw, and edited our written report detailing our data collection on 549 recorded think tanks and civil society organizations in the MENA region.
• Led presentation preparations and practice for the Summer MENA team to present our key data findings to executives of a number of MENA think tanks, our peers, and Program Director Dr. James McGann at TTCSP's June 30, 2021 Symposium.
• Scheduled weekly team meetings in consideration of Middle East and US time zones.
• Suggested and led two efforts to bolster data collection on 549 think tanks in the MENA region: led collection on policy areas unique to the MENA region, in addition to the general policy areas TTCSP collects on for think tanks worldwide; additionally, launched data collection efforts to collect on partnerships amongst MENA think tanks.
• Directed, tasked and oversaw team efforts to produce an external work product on the profiles of the top 103 think tanks in the MENA region.

• Increased performance and territory viability for sales and marketing on behalf of Fortune 500 clients including, but not limited to Home Depot, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. Interviewed, hired, trained and managed up to 300 individuals of varying experience levels and ages in sales, leadership and training in CT, LI, NY, SC, VA, NJ, and MO. Worked upwards of 70 to 90hrs a week onsite in this role.
• Selected as one of 2 to assist the manager in re-training an existing location in SC in 2013.
• Selected as the right-hand to open a new location in VA in 2015.
• Awarded the Top Leader award for excellence in leadership, team management, training, and overall performance in 2014 and 2015. The Top Leader award is given in front of hundreds of managers and Trainers at a national conference in Dallas, TX.
• Recognized in the printed company newsletter for team management, and my team's overall performance. The newsletter also high-lighted my right-hand Training Manager that I had directly interviewed, hired, and trained closely.

• Manager's right-hand in launching and running Virginia Beach location.
• Interviewed applicants in three-round interview process, hired, trained in-office and on-the-field, and directly managed 10-40 independent contractors in sales production and training for two separate clients. Personally interviewed, hired and trained up to 20 independent contractors. Successfully promoted 10 Training Managers after interviewing, hiring, and training them in sales, organization, leadership, sales training, cash and credit flow, computer systems and software, interview techniques, team management, team training, the art of the professional conversation, company culture, product distribution, product management, product inventory, and more. 80% of Training Managers I interviewed, hired, and hands-on trained were nationally recognized for their sales production, my Training Managers were often invited to attend national conference calls only for Top Training Managers, and I was acknowledged on numerous occasions for my dedication and part in their potential success.
• Headed product management, data input, administrative tasks, and financial responsibilities.
• Managed this location fully for one and a half months while the manager was away. Manager entrusted me with the keys to the office, computer and software systems passwords, office safe and bank account information. Opened the office, led daily trainings, conducted interviews, hired, managed product distribution, managed cash and credit transactions and check-ins by contractors, completed bank deposits, input daily sales data, checked-in and checked-out all contractors cash, credit transactions, and product daily for six days a week. Worked upwards of 70 to 90hrs a week onsite in this role.

• Hand-selected to assist re-training North Charleston location. I moved residences to South Carolina to accept and pursue this venture.
• Interviewed, hired, trained and directly managed upwards of 30 independent contractors. Directly interviewed, hired, and trained in-office and in-the-field all 30+ independent contractors, acting as their daily primary point-of-contact in-the-office and in-the-field. Hand-selected, vetted, tested, and aggressively trained the office core leadership team.
• Developed training materials and held daily meetings to train the core leadership team in training and leadership. Directed daily in-office and in-the-field trainings conducted by core leadership members, managing lesson plans, territory maps, interviews conducted by core leadership members; including: administrative tasks, mapping territory oversight, team match-ups, daily and weekly sales production and training breakdowns, one-on-one conversations and meetings to improve attitude and performance, one-on-one meetings and core leadership lessons for in-the-field training and how to encourage positive attitudes and winning performance.
• Recognized in national calls as a Top Training Manager multiple times for my part in the exponential 70% growth in sales and performance. Training Managers I personally interviewed, hired, and hands-on trained were selected to attend national conference calls with me, only the top performers of each location are allowed to attend these calls.
• Managed, trained others in, and oversaw: administrative tasks such as for hiring and training, product management and inventory, independent contractor check-ins and check-outs, product and cash/credit transaction check-outs and check-ins daily, opened and closed the office - first in and the last to leave six days a week. I worked upwards of 70 to 90hrs a week onsite in this role.