Hector Jay Garza

Director, Northern-Star.Org Community & School Safety Initiatives

U.S. Army Veteran  •  Ret. DHS Federal Law Enforcement  •  30+ Years Experience

Dept. of Homeland Security • 26 Years

  • Two-time DHS Director’s Award — Training Excellence (2007) & Peer Support Program Development (2014)
  • Designed 3 landmark federal training programs; certified Kirkpatrick Training Evaluator; certified DHS Instructor, Course Developer & Training Manager

 

As Director at Northern-Star.Org, (Community and School Safety Initiatives) Hector “Jay” Garza leads one of the most comprehensive, evidence-based school and community safety programs in the Nation. Northern-Star.Org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit coalition of criminologists, educators, first responders, and veterans united by a single mission: building lasting cultures of safety, resilience, and trust across schools and the communities that surround them.

In this role, Jay architects and deploys Northern Star’s Five-Step Safety Methodology — an integrated framework that replaces reactive, siloed approaches with proactive, community-wide systems of protection. He directs Core Safety Teams (CSTs) and Advisory Resource Teams (ARTs), oversees the Northern Star Youth Leadrship Program and leads deployment of GIS-based vulnerability assessments and real-time safety dashboards across partnering school districts. Every program is designed in full compliance with Texas Education Code, FERPA, HIPAA, and Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) standards — and built to scale across urban, suburban, and rural environments.

Jay brings to this work more than 30 years of frontline leadership — including 12 years in the U.S. Army training U.S. and NATO forces, and a distinguished 26-year career with the Department of Homeland Security where he earned two ICE Director’s Awards, redesigned Basic Training programs, built three landmark federal programs, and led a division of 100+ officers as Acting Deputy Assistant Director. His mastery of trauma-informed curriculum design and the Kirkpatrick evaluation model ensures every Northern Star program is continuously improved — because every student and every community deserves nothing less.