Ryan Riccucci
Division Chief
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Division Chief Riccucci has nearly 17 years of unique experience in the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), with diverse assignments at multiple stations, multiple borders, and at multiple headquarters positions. Over the last 10 years he has been recognized and sought-after as a thought leader, change-maker, and problem-solver consistently given the most challenging problems across the border security enterprise. He is known for recruiting, training, and leading high-performing teams to achieve agency goals and deliver measurable results.
After gaining real-world experience contributing his operational expertise to support major technology acquisitions in homeland security, he dedicated the next decade to becoming an interdisciplinary expert in organizational leadership, systems engineering, applied ontology, and enterprise architecture. He holds a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, a Master's in Intelligence Studies from American Military University, and a Bachelor's in Corporate & Organizational Studies from the University of Connecticut. He is a Research Associate at the University at Buffalo's National Center for Ontological Research and a former Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona, College of Applied Science & Technology. Dr. Riccucci has received numerous awards and accolades, including the Dr. Charles L. Faires Dissertation of Distinction Award, the Louis Brownlow Award for the best Public Administration Review article written by a practitioner; the Department of Homeland Security Competition and Acquisition Excellence Award, the World Customs Organization Certificate of Merit, the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner’s Unit Citation Award, and three consecutive USBP Achievement Awards for Meritorious Service. Most recently, he received two DHS Secretary Awards for Innovation.
From October 2022 to April 2024, Dr. Riccucci served as Division Chief of Law Enforcement Operational Programs at USBP Tucson Sector, overseeing enforcement technology, strategic communications, and air operations coordination across nine border patrol stations covering 262 miles of linear border. Currently, Dr. Riccucci is detailed to CBP headquarters working on several collaborative efforts for field-driven applications of mission engineering, joint mission threads, and applied ontology for problem-sets in small unmanned aerial systems (SUAS) and Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) automated analysis and air deconfliction, detainee and processing resource decision optimization, and automated fentanyl ontologies. These efforts have recently delivered promising breakthroughs in improving data interoperability across missions, systems, and people that should ultimately yield improvements in mission effectiveness and productivity in returning agents and officers to their core mission. Specifically, he led a field experiment in March 2024 demonstrating one of the first-ever uses of ontology-enabled artificial intelligence and machine reasoning technology that worked with little-to-no direct human control to analyze data and detect, identify, and track SUAS/C-UAS activity, and send customized alerts to operators and pilots for a variety of simple-to-sophisticated rules.
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