NIEM Governance
NIEM is governed by a number of groups and committees that support its development, day-to-day operations, and future evolution. Click on the options below to explore NIEM’s governance structure.
- The NIEM Executive Steering Council (ESC) is the decision-making body regarding membership, funding requirements, program or technical direction, committee, and Program Management Office (PMO) personnel appointments
- The NIEM Program Management Office (PMO) executes the vision of NIEM established by the Executive Steering Council (ESC), while managing the day-to-day operations of NIEM. The office encourages the adoption and use of NIEM and oversees all working group and committee activities
- The NIEM Technical Architecture Committee (NTAC) defines and supports the technical architecture that governs NIEM; it documents, implements, and maintains NIEM’s technical specifications
- The NIEM Business Architecture Committee (NBAC) sets the business architecture and requirements of NIEM, manages the NIEM Core data model, and facilitates the processes for the regulation and support of NIEM domains
- NIEM Domains are created through a formal charter, agreed between the PMO and the domain steward, which includes organizational and dispute resolution frameworks. The domain co-chairs are the members of the NBAC.
- The NIEM data model and technical specifications are created and adopted by the domains, the NBAC, and the NTAC. These are the governance bodies that must possess the attributes of openness, balance of interest, due process, an appeals process, and consensus.
NIEM Executive Steering Council (ESC)
The ESC serves as NIEM’s decision-making body regarding membership, funding requirements, program or technical direction, personnel appointments, and other organizational decisions as required for supporting NIEM management.
The primary sponsors of NIEM are Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), and as such, are members of the ESC. Advisory members and invited guests of the ESC include but are not limited to the following.
- The Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global)
- The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)
- The Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) through the Chief Architect
- The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) through the Program Manager of the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE).
- The Chief Information Officer of CrimTrac, Government of Australia
NIEM Management Office (NMO)
The NMO executes the ESC’s vision for NIEM while managing day-to-day operations, encouraging adoption and use of NIEM, and overseeing all working group and committee activities. The NIEM NMO coordinates with Communities of Interest (COIs), principal stakeholders, and other information-sharing initiatives to promote collaboration and interest in NIEM priorities.
-
Stuart A. Whitehead
Mr. Whitehead serves as the Deputy Director for Cyber and Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) Integration (DD C5I), within Directorate for Command, Control, Communications, and Computers/Cyber, JS J6.
-
Katherine Escobar
Katherine Escobar is the Deputy Division Chief for the Joint Staff’s J6 Data and Services Division.
NIEM Business Architecture Committee (NBAC)
Mission
As specified in its Charter, the mission of the NBAC is to set the business architecture and requirements of NIEM, manage NIEM Core, and facilitate the processes for the regulation and support of NIEM domains. The NBAC focuses on the following areas:
- Business Architecture: The NBAC oversees and validates the construction, maintenance, and use of the business architecture framework for NIEM.
- NIEM Core: The NBAC provides management and oversight of the NIEM Core—the central part of the NIEM data model that’s commonly understood across all domains.
- Community: The NBAC serves as the forum for the admission of new domains and interactions between domains, and coordinates action to maintain the NIEM community.
Roles and responsibilities
The committee’s responsibilities are to:
- Maintain the integrity, usability, and maturity of NIEM core, and engage in any requisite harmonization and issue resolution activities.
- Determine the need for new data model releases as necessary, such as to accommodate new domains and content, or to provide business requirements to the NTAC.
- Submit recommendations to the ESC concerning the admission of a new domain into the NIEM data model.
Participants
The NBAC is made up of stakeholders across diverse communities. NIEM’s domains—communities that are formally established to manage and govern a portion of the NIEM data model—serve as the foundations of the committee. The NBAC is led by co-chairs and includes voting members, a NIEM PMO liaison, and observers and invited participants.
-
Kamran Atri
Kamran Atri is the co-founder of A4SAFE, Inc., which provides program management and information technology expertise to public sector clients in the Homeland Security and Defense sectors.
-
Thomas Krul
Thomas Krul brings over 20 years' experience in technology and asset management and development.
Voting members
| Name | Domain |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | |
| John Boyd | Biometrics |
| Satish Sripada | Biometrics |
| Jennifer Stathakis | Biometrics |
| Lon Gowen | CBRN |
| Brendan Plapp | CBRN |
| Juan Gonzalez | Cyber |
| Preston Werntz | Cyber |
| Kamran Atri | Emergency Management |
| Dan Cotter | Emergency Management |
| Lain McNeill | At-Large Voting Member |
| Ken Salyard | Human Services |
| Jennifer Kish | Immigration |
| Curtis Ross | Immigration |
| Juan Gonzalez | Infrastructure Protection |
| Preston Werntz | Infrastructure Protection |
| Intelligence | |
| Michel Savoie | International Human Services |
| Cynthia Sun | International Human Services |
| Thomas Mills | International Trade |
| Shailesh Sardesai | International Trade |
| April Mitchell | Justice |
| Dr. Sae Schatz | Learning and Development |
| Andy Johnson | Learning and Development |
| Sandra Brown | Maritime |
| Harry Petrey | Maritime |
| Adrian Francis | Military Operations |
| Beth Smalley | Military Operations |
| Screening | |
| Daniel Morgan | Surface Transportation |
Participants
| Name | Domain |
|---|---|
| Chris Carrino | Statistics |
Activities
Ongoing activities
NBAC members continuously gather and assess community business requirements for architecture enhancements. Also, with the support of lead developers, NBAC members conduct ongoing cross-domain and core data harmonization as well as issue resolution activities.
Annually, the NBAC co-chairs conduct a review of the committee's membership, activities, and domain maturity.
Fiscal Year Activities
NBAC Stands Up the Emerging Technologies Tiger Team The NBAC Emerging Technologies Tiger Team (E3T) has worked collaboratively to focus on the impact of artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), and identity management on the NIEM community; NIEM’s role and opportunities with Open Data; and alignment of NIEM vocabularies and Domain support with international standards. All NBAC members are invited to participate.
NBAC Continues the International Tiger Team
Since 2016, the International Tiger Team has worked collaboratively to identify and define the unique information sharing needs of the international NIEM community, focusing on:
- Shaping NIEM’s approach to data sharing across international boundaries
- Engaging international NIEM community members
- Attracting new organizations
- Creating an additive update to NIEM Core that leverages the EU core models
NIEM Technical Architecture Committee (NTAC)
Mission
As outlined in its Charter, the primary mission of the NTAC is to define and support the technical architecture that governs NIEM. In addition, the NTAC:
- Documents and maintains NIEM’s technical specifications.
- Provides robust, effective development of the NIEM core structure and complementary processes to support and enable users to efficiently develop, use, and reuse data definitions and information exchange specifications.
- Delivers and maintains a tool strategy that meets stakeholder requirements in support of information exchange across organizations.
Roles and responsibilities
The committee’s responsibilities are:
- Establish and support the NIEM technical architecture.
- Establish mechanisms and processes for publishing NIEM content artifacts.
- Ensure all content in the NIEM data model appropriately conforms to NIEM specifications.
- Maintain communication and interaction with other NIEM program entities, such as the help desk, NBAC, and NMO.
- Analyze and assess emerging technologies and how they relate to NIEM; develop roadmap for future capabilities.
- Establish goals, milestones, and desired outcomes, and measure performance.
Participants
NTAC members represent operational practitioners and subject matter experts, key stakeholder agencies, domains, and systems developers across all levels and branches of government, as well as solution providers. Membership types include co-chairs, voting members, NMO liaison, lead developers, and observers/invited participants.
Activities
Focus areas include:
- JSON (technical specifications and user guidance)
- NIEM Model updates (release 5.0)
- Open Data and NIEM’s role
- Modernization of NIEM Training resources
The NTAC continuously works on:
- Establishing and supporting the NIEM technical architecture
- Establishing mechanisms and processes for publishing NIEM content artifacts
- Ensuring all content in the NIEM data model appropriately conforms to NIEM specifications
- Analyzing and assessing emerging technologies and how they relate to NIEM
-
Mike Hulme
Mike Hulme is the Co-Chair of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Technical Architecture Committee (NTAC).
-
Scott Renner
Scott is a principal engineer at The MITRE Corporation and served as the Air Force representative among the authors of the Net-Centric Data Strategy.
Get involved!
Observers and invited participants from all communities are always encouraged to actively contribute to the NTAC by sharing their expertise and recommendations. Contact us if you are interested in observing or learning more about the NTAC!
In addition, each NIEM domain represents the stakeholders, governance, and data model content oriented around the business needs of a community. To learn more about NIEM domain governance, visit the NIEM domain governance page.