Homeland Security Secretary Attends Session on County’s Model on Social Cohesion, Public Safety

Officials attending were (from left): Rev. Mansfield Kaseman, Interfaith community liaison in the Office of Community Partnerships; County Executive Ike Leggett; Police Chief Tom Manger; Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson; David Gersten, CVE coordinator for DHS; an Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for DHS; and Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi, WORDE founder and president. 

County Executive Ike Leggett recently welcomed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to a meeting at the International Cultural Center in Montgomery Village to hear about the County’s model for achieving social cohesion and public safety developed through the Faith Community Working Group (FCWG) in partnership with the World Organization for Research Development and Education (WORDE). The model is being promoted across the country, and representatives from 34 countries have come to study it. Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi, founder and president of WORDE, has spoken on it in Canada, Denmark and England.

Attended by 120 persons, the meeting, was an opportunity for community stakeholders to demonstrate both the dynamic relationships fostered through the establishment of the FCWG and the community’s commitment to collaborating with local and federal government officials to discuss ways to improve public safety.