Steven Driscoll, Assistant Chief
U.S. Secret Service, National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC)
Mr. Driscoll is an Assistant Chief with the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), where he oversees the agency’s training, consultation, and outreach on behavioral threat assessment and the prevention of targeted violence, including school violence, workplace violence, terrorism, attacks against government officials and facilities, and mass attacks in public spaces. Mr. Driscoll regularly presents on threat assessment to a variety of audiences and consults on the establishment of threat assessment programs and threat cases.
Mr. Driscoll began his career with the Secret Service as a police officer in the Secret Service Uniformed Division, serving primarily at the White House Branch. As a member of the White House Surveillance Team, Mr. Driscoll frequently interacted with individuals outside of the White House who displayed concerning or unusual behavior directed at the people and places protected by the Secret Service. He is the recipient of the 2019 DHS Secretary’s Award for Excellence, the 2019 Secret Service Director’s Individual Impact Award, the 2019 Director’s Team Impact Award, the 2022 DHS Secretary’s Team Innovation Award, the 2024 DHS Secretary’s Meritorious Silver Medal Award, and the 2024 DHS Secretary’s Team Excellence Award.
Prior to joining the Secret Service, Mr. Driscoll earned a Master of Education degree from Vanderbilt University, focusing on educational research and behavioral interventions for at-risk youth. After completing his degree, he accepted a Research Coordinator position at the university, where his work focused on school-based interventions with students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders.
Ashley Smolinski, M.A.
Supervisory Social Science Research Specialist (SvSSRS)
U.S. Secret Service, National Threat Assessment Center
Ashley Smolinski is a Supervisory Social Science Research Specialist with the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), where she conducts research on threat assessment and cases of targeted violence. NTAC research efforts focus on targeted violence directed at government targets, K-12 schools, university campuses, workplaces, and public places. NTAC also issues guidance, based on these research findings, for use by public safety entities for the purpose of adopting a proactive threat assessment approach to violence prevention. For example, in March 2021, NTAC released Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools.
Mrs. Smolinski regularly provides training and briefing on the findings of NTAC research to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, Secret Service personnel, as well as other public safety entities. Mrs. Smolinski is a Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) certified instructor at the U.S. Secret Service Rowley Training Center (RTC). Recent recipients of training by Mrs. Smolinski include the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Utah Chiefs of Police, Hawaii Department of Education (HI-DOE), South Dakota Association of School Resource Officers, numerous state and local police departments to include the Grand Rapids Police Department, colleges and universities, K-12 school districts as well as educators and law enforcement personnel in Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. She is a recipient of the 2019 Secret Service Director’s Team Impact Award, the 2019 DHS Secretary’s Award for Excellence, and the 2021 DHS Secretary’s Award for Innovation.
Prior to joining NTAC, Mrs. Smolinski was a Pathways Intern in the Forensic Services Division (FSD) in the U.S. Secret Service, where she assisted multiple branches within the division, to include working along-side the special agent liaison between FSD and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Prior to joining the U.S. Secret Service, Mrs. Smolinski worked as a mental health technician in a secured mental health unit at Crittenton Hospital in Rochester, MI. Mrs. Smolinski earned a Master of Arts degree in Forensic Psychology from George Washington University, with an emphasis in applied forensics. While completing her degree, she accepted a position as a Research Assistant, in the Adversarial Modeling and Exploitation Office at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, where she was a project manager for several government funded research projects.