Senior Policy Analyst
mblock@law.umaryland.edu 

Michael Block is a Senior Policy Analyst with a background in Emergency Planning, who specializes in Critical Infrastructure protection, and Catastrophic Incident response. Michael joined CHHS in April 2021 and is currently supporting the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission with their emergency preparedness and response planning. Michael was a member of the 2022 National Capitol Region (NCR) Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) Working Group and has previously supported the Charles County Department of Emergency Services with their NCR regional preparedness initiatives, as well. Michael is an Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) Accreditation Manager, ALICE Active Shooter Response Certified Instructor, and holds over 150 emergency management and public safety related certificates.

In addition to his responsibilities for CHHS, Michael is the Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chair on the Maryland State 9-1-1 Board, and the 9-1-1 Directors Committee Representative on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Cybersecurity Regional Programmatic Working Group (CSRPWG). The twenty-four-member MD State 9-1-1 Board, comprised of representatives from different public safety backgrounds, acts as a purse for Maryland counties who submit grant requests regarding improvements to their respective 9-1-1 call centers. Michael, in conjunction with his team, makes recommendations to the Board about cybersecurity best practices and standards to which contracting vendors should adhere, and subsequently votes to approve or deny funding requests based on compliance with Board adopted standards. The CSRPWG is a working group comprised of cybersecurity professionals from different jurisdictions around the NCR, and works on developing solution strategies for the cybersecurity future State outcomes in the NCR Regional Guidance.

Prior to joining CHHS, Michael was the Research Assistant for CHHS Cybersecurity Program Director Markus Rauschecker. As Director Rauschecker’s Research Assistant, Michael helped update and restructure the Law and Policy of Cybersecurity M.S.L. class. Michael also monitored, updated, and supplemented, the Maryland Cybersecurity Council’s Critical Infrastructure Subcommittee’s small and medium sized business online resource repository. Other professional experience for Michael includes having been the Environmental Coordinator for the AutoPlus-Pep Boys Icahn enterprise.

Michael received his B.S. in Political Science, with concentrations in Political Theory and International Relations, from Towson University in 2014, and received his M.S.L. in Cybersecurity Law and Policy from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 2020. Michael was inducted into the UMB-UMBC chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honors Society after finishing the M.S.L. program at the top of his class, graduating with a 4.03 GPA.