Alan Cohn is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy (Strategic Plans) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  He formerly was Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Policy in the DHS Office of Policy Development, and Counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.  He is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a class on the intersection of emergency management law and national security, and he is the author of a forthcoming legal casebook on that subject.  He took part in the response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as an emergency medical technician in New York City, and the response to the 9/11 attacks and the 2005 hurricane season as a member of FEMA's National Urban Search & Rescue Response System.