Alan Douglas Bersin (Rhodes 1968)
Gov. Official. Harvard University. NFF National Scholar-Athletes. Rhodes Scholar, University of Oxford. Yale Law School. Council on Foreign Relations.
Secretary of Education, superintendent of Public Education in San Diego, and chairman of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and a U.S. Attorney.
Bersin has served as Special Counsel to the Los Angeles Police Commission, Visiting Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, an adjunct professor of law at the University of California and the University of Southern California Law Center, and as a Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. He was a member of the Board of Overseers for Harvard University, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy.
After leaving government service, Bersin became an advisor at the international law firm Covington and Burling.[2]
2017 to Present - Senior Fellow, The Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.[2] 2017 to Present - Global Fellow, The Woodrow Wilson Center.[2]
2010 to 2011 - Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection by President Barack Obama.[3]
Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.[3]
As Chief Diplomatic Officer for DHS, Mr. Bersin led the Department’s international engagement and served as the principal advisor to the Secretary on all international affairs and functions; oversaw the strategic development and execution of the Department’s international policies and plans; facilitated DHS multilateral, regional, and bilateral relations with foreign governments, law enforcement agencies, and international organizations to ensure an integrated transnational affairs program for the Department; served as the lead Departmental representative in interagency policy deliberations affecting foreign relations; and served as the Departmental interlocutor with the Department of State and the foreign affairs community, including foreign governments and international organizations.[2]
2009 to 2011, 2012 to Present - Assistant U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security for International Affairs by President Barack Obama. (Informally Known as “Border Czar”)
2009 - Senior Fellow, School of Education, University of California at Davis.[2]
2008 to 2009 - Co-Chair of Mexico/U.S. Task Force – Rethinking the Mexico-U.S. Border: From Nagging Problems to Cooperative Solutions.[2]
2008 to 2009 - Member, Statewide Leadership Council, Public Policy Institute of California.[2]
2005 to 2006 - California Secretary of Education by Arnold Schwarzenegger.[3]LOS ANGELES – Alan Bersin, whose stormy seven-year tenure at the helm of San Diego city schools has been marked by constant battles with teachers unions and school board members, was named Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new education secretary yesterday. In an unprecedented move, the Republican governor simultaneously appointed Bersin to the state Board of Education, giving him a unique opportunity to put his stamp on education policy in California much as he did in San Diego. “Alan is a reformer and that is what I love about him,” Schwarzenegger said in announcing the appointment at the Ronald Reagan State Building here. “As superintendent, he launched a major administrative reorganization and an academic reform plan aimed at improving student achievement. And the plan is working.[4]
2006 to 2007 - Lecturer at Law, Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley.[2]
2005 to 2006 - Lecturer, Stanford University Graduate School of Education.[2]
2004 to 2010 - Member, Board of Overseers, Harvard University.[2]
2003 to 2006, Member, 2006 to 2009, Chair, Board of Overseers Visiting Committee, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.[2]
2002 to 2009 - Member, Council of Visitors, California Western School of Law.[2]
1999 to Present - Member, Council on Foreign Relations.[2]
1998 to 2005 - Superintendent of Pubilc Education in San Diego City Schools.
1996 to 1998 - Chair, Southwest Border (Federal Law Enforcement) Council.[2] As border czar under Janet Reno [Quill and Dagger] in the mid-1990s, implemented “Operated Gatekeeper,” which fortified the border closest to San Diego, but effectively only shifted illegal immigrant crossings east. Immigrant advocacy groups blamed his policies for increased border-crossing deaths.**[8]
1996 to Present - Member, Pacific Council on International Policy.[2]
1995 to 1998 - Member, Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys.[2]
Yale Law School.
From 1968 - Rhodes Scholar, Balliol College, University of Oxford.[1]
Harvard University.
[2] - Coverington & Burling Profile
[3] - Football Foundation - Scholars
[8] - Alan Bersin: Obama’s ‘Border Czar’
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