After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and CHHS Founder and Director Michael Greenberger recognized the need for policy development and legal analysis in the field of homeland security. On May 15, 2002, CHHS opened to address that need.

The scope of work grew soon after, and by summer 2003 the Maryland Emergency Management Agency asked CHHS to develop a manual to guide Maryland state agencies through the Continuity Of Operations (COOP) Plan writing process. Next, Howard County, MD, the Baltimore City Health Department, and the University of Maryland Medical Center tapped CHHS for its expertise in emergency planning. In October 2005, CHHS was awarded a $1.484 million grant to run nationwide DHS COOP training program, and CHHS teams have since delivered the course to first responders in locations as far away as California, Alaska, and Guam.

In fall 2007, CHHS organized and hosted the first national conference on emergency preparedness for vulnerable populations. Professor Greenberger was appointed to the Maryland Governor’s Emergency Management Advisory Council in 2008, the same year CHHS tested COOP plans drafted for the Maryland Judiciary as well as created the Maryland Public Health Emergency Bench Book. Our public health work grew in 2009 to include a partnership with the Middle Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefence and Emerging Infectious Diseases to create and deliver annual conferences bringing together top experts from the scientific, emergency management, and public health communities.

Today, the list of CHHS clients includes dozens of institutions and agencies from jurisdictions across the country.

Along with so many new projects came the need to hire more staff. At its inception, CHHS did not have a dedicated office, so Professor Greenberger and Coordinator Jeanne Stringer – the Center’s only two employees at the time – ran operations and handled day-to-day business out of their individual offices at the University of Maryland School of Law. By May 2005, CHHS employed nine professionals. Two years later, 21 people worked at CHHS; today we have more than 35 professionals on staff. To accommodate, CHHS expanded to new offices on the UMB campus, and, in 2009, opened its own building neighboring Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Additional CHHS staff operate out of the Universities at Shady Grove to support our Washington, D.C. area clients, as well as directly in client offices throughout the Baltimore and D.C. metro area.

Our consistent growth is fueled by the exceptional quality of our product and the unparalleled value of our forward-thinking expertise. The same has been true since day one.