Meet the Team

A retired U.S Navy SEAL Master Chief and Mental Strength & Performance Coach for elite athletes across the country, Brian has transitioned his exceptional leadership skills and mental resiliency from the battlefield into the private sector. With a decorated career spanning over two decades, Brian has honed his experiences in strategic planning, team dynamics, and performance optimization in high-stakes environments. At SEC, Brian enjoys working with schools and other organizations on site assessments, keynote presentations and training programs that provide opportunities for safety and security improvements. He leans on his vast experience and leadership to provide expert guidance and a proactive approach to our clients.

Shane Davis is a security consultant who brings a unique blend of military, government, and business experience to his work with clients. He served for several years as a Green Beret in the US Army Special Forces, honing skills that lend to his expertise in risk assessment and security operations, including time attached to a DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) red cell team conducting security penetration testing. This specialized background, coupled with over a decade of experience as a business owner, gives Shane a deep understanding of the security challenges faced by organizations of all sizes and a practical approach to developing and implementing effective solutions while keeping in mind budgetary constraints. He has a proven track record of success across diverse sectors, including manufacturing, construction, property management, insurance, education, and religious institutions. Shane is dedicated to helping organizations create secure environments where people can feel safe and focus on their core mission.

Before joining the SEC team, Tiffany Eagles spent twenty years as a Special Agent with the FBI. In addition to investigating a variety of federal offenses, she was an instructor in the Behavioral Science Unit where she developed and delivered a course for the FBI’s National Academy designed to provide ranking law enforcement officials a new perspective between violence and behavior.  She became a certified profiler in the Behavioral Analysis Unit where she assisted law enforcement agencies with aberrant and complex crimes against adults. She finished her career in the Detroit Division and was the Behavioral Analysis Coordinator where she assessed state and local offenses for further FBI assistance. Before joining the FBI, Tiffany was a Correctional Officer responsible for providing security and care to incarcerated adults which included supervising inmate activities, preventing and controlling volatile situations and conducting contraband searches.

As a 26-year veteran of the Kent County (Michigan) Sheriff’s Office, Pete Gerkin served in several roles, including as a member of the Investigations Division for a decade and tactical team for 12 years – including six as its leader. He later served as a lieutenant assigned to the Community Services Division, where he supervised KCSO’s community engagement efforts and school resource officer program, which consisted of 16 SROs across 12 school districts. In this role, Pete worked with district administrators to define the role of SROs in education and, most importantly, the safety and security of students, staff and facilities. He also led the department’s de-escalation and implicit bias training programs. At SEC, he brings a strong commitment to ensuring students have a safe environment to learn and grow as well as an appreciation for the opportunity to work closely with school staff and administrators toward this shared goal. Pete is an accredited implicit bias and de-escalation instructor and has received numerous letters of recognition and commendation as well as department awards from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office and Grand Rapids (Michigan) Police Department. He is a member of the National Tactical Officers Association and National Association of School Resource Officers.

As a former Homeland Security and United States Secret Service special agent, Todd brings more than 29 years of law enforcement, physical security/protection, criminal investigations and tactical operations experience to SEC. Todd has also worked for the Wayne County (Michigan) and Washtenaw County (Michigan) Sheriff’s Offices as a deputy sheriff and dive team member. He is an accomplished military veteran, having served in the United States Army and the Michigan Army National Guard where he was awarded numerous medals and badges. Todd graduated from Wayne State University and holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Working at SEC, Todd takes the principles he learned in the Secret Service and applies them in a way to help children, teachers and staff.

With over two decades of federal experience, Jim led domestic and international protective operations for U.S. Presidents, conducted complex criminal investigations, and trained hundreds of agents in behavioral threat assessment and emergency response. He also served as a supervisor on multi-agency task forces targeting financial crimes and terrorism-related threats, and played a key role in developing national training programs for the U.S. Secret Service. A U.S. Army veteran and certified instructor, Jim brings unmatched insight into vulnerability mitigation, strategic planning, and leadership development. At SEC, he helps lead new product development, national training initiatives, and corporate safety projects across the country.

A longtime interest in forensics and crime-solving TV shows led James Klawitter to pursue a degree in criminal justice at Michigan State University and later a career in federal law enforcement. For the next 34 years, he served as a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, where he specialized in human trafficking and human smuggling investigations. He finished his career at HSI as undercover operations manager in its Detroit office and a recipient of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Protecting the Homeland Commissioners Award. At SEC, James appreciates the opportunity to work with school administrators to help them make their school system as safe as it can be.

Joe, a 26-year veteran of the United States Navy SEALs has taken his experience and expertise working as a security consultant for the last six years. This included working overseas for Blackbird Technologies in a myriad of harsh and extreme environments in support of our military intelligence and special ops communities. Joe was also the primary lead instructor for the Vigilance Group, teaching others how to live safely in a dangerous world with a vigilant mindset.

Tom Landry is a 25-year veteran of the federal law enforcement community, retiring from the United States Secret Service in 2022. Tom completed numerous assignments in his career culminating as the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the St. Louis Field Office.  In this role, he was responsible for all criminal investigations and protective operations in eastern Missouri.  He served on the Presidential Protective Division during both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations and successfully worked in almost fifty countries.  Among other assignments, Tom was a leader in the agency’s Special Operations Division/Airspace Security Branch and the George W. Bush Protective Division based in Dallas, Texas.

Tom is a member of the Office of Personnel Management’s Senior Executive Service (SES) and has graduate degrees from Northeastern University and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California.  At SEC, Tom enjoys working with organizations to help them establish and maintain safe environments that will keep employees safe.

Growing up, Jason Louwaert was bothered whenever he watched a crowd gather and do nothing to help someone who was injured or needed assistance – and he knew he wanted to be a person who arrived and made the situation better. A career as a first responder allowed him to do just that – first as a police officer in Saginaw, Michigan, and later as a 25-year deputy/detective with the Oakland County (Michigan) Sheriff’s Office. During his law enforcement career, he worked in corrections, patrol investigations and training, as a member of the SWAT team and later as the school resource officer for Oxford (Michigan) Community Schools. Jason has completed advanced training in the investigations of child abuse, forensic interviewing of children, interview and interrogation and active shooter prevention and response. He also has received numerous awards, including citations for valor, bravery, meritorious service, excellence in professionalism and investigator of the year.

As a father of two, there is nothing more important to Doug Panning than the safety of his children. He brings that parent protection and his 30-year experience as a special agent with the United States Customs Service and Homeland Security Investigations to SEC, where he works with our clients on a shared goal of educating children while ensuring a safe and secure environment for learning and teaching. During his career, Doug supervised a federal, state and local human trafficking task force and served as resident agent in charge at Detroit Metro Airport, where he was responsible for supervising all Homeland Security investigations at the airport.

Brandon Rhone is an award-winning, veteran law enforcement executive and one of the nation’s highly respected school safety and violent critical incident/active shooter experts. Recognized as a leader in policing and public safety initiatives Brandon has experience advising some of the highest-level leaders of corporate executives, educational and governmental leaders across the county. Brandon has trained tens of thousands of individuals in proactive option base responses to Violent Critical Incident/Active Shooter ALICE Training, RAIDER Solo Officer response training with extensive experience in education and business environments.

Brandon currently serves as the Director of Emergency Management, Safety Schools and School Police at North Penn School District. Prior to joining North Penn School District Brandon served as the Director of Training for Navigate360. As the Director Brandon was responsible for all training components for Navigates360’s ALICE Training & National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) Behavioral Threat Assessment Training solution.  Brandon is requested often to serve as keynote speaker for conferences, broadcast, and other events as an expert in the field. Brandon has been featured on NBC News as an expert in training and response to school shootings.  Brandon serves as an advisory board member for ZeroNow and as a thought leader for school and public safety organizations.  Brandon also served as the Vice President and Operations Chair of his local school district Board of Directors and sits on the School Climate and Safety Taskforce for the county. Brandon also serves on Chester County District Attorney’s Office law enforcement and community engagement task force.  At SEC, we are fortunate to have his leadership, experience and passion to serve and protect clients across the country.

Dan Savage retired as deputy chief of the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Police Department after a distinguished 36+ years in law enforcement. The vast majority of his career was spent on GRPD’s full-time Special Response Team, holding every rank and position, including Commander for many years. Dan is certified and has instructed on numerous areas of law enforcement, including firearms, less-lethal munitions, electronic control weapons, distraction devices, tactical chemical agents, patrol operations, tactical team operations and active violence response, providing training across the United States and parts of Europe. He has served on National Institute of Justice technical working groups for Less-Lethal Technology and Special Response Team (SRT) as well as on training advisory boards for TASER® and BolaWrap®, and advisory panels for the National Tactical Officers Association. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy Session 217 and USSS Protective Seminar 202-16. Dan has been with SEC since 2017, working directly with our clients to assess their security strengths and weaknesses, implement policies and protocols to address shortcomings, and train for and respond to critical incidents.

Before joining the SEC team, Shawn Smith spent 20 years in the Secret Service protecting lawmakers, political candidates and foreign dignitaries. Drawing on decades of security assessments, personal physical protection, investigative and risk mitigation work, Shawn has trained local and state law enforcement on protective and threat investigations. He also has taught investigations at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, Hungary. In addition to his role at SEC, Shawn manages corporate security and works to mitigate risk for a multimillion-dollar international corporation with business interests in more than 50 countries.

A longtime investigator with the Michigan State Police, Frank Williams brings his commitment to protecting, serving and making a difference to the SEC team. Frank spent 27 years with MSP in various roles, including executive protection detail, security and intelligence officer, narcotics investigator and member of the detective bureau and fugitive and surveillance teams. At SEC, he enjoys working with schools and other organizations on site assessments that provide opportunities for safety and security improvements. He leans on his vast law enforcement experience to provide expert guidance and a proactive approach to our clients.