Dr. Mark Hoover
Global Security Advisor | Professor |
Managing Director, Centureum Global Risk
Helping Christian ministries, faith-based organizations, and educational institutions prepare their people well, send them wisely, and bring them home safely.
Dr. Mark Hoover is a Christian leader, educator, and senior global security advisor whose work is grounded in service, stewardship, and a commitment to caring well for the people God has entrusted to our care.
He serves as Managing Director of Centureum Global Risk and is the creator of Prepared to Send™, an initiative focused on helping senior leaders strengthen the way their organizations prepare for and oversee international missions, travel, study, and service.
For more than 25 years, Mark has advised and led organizations in the United States and around the world in global security, emergency management, public safety, international operations, and organizational risk.
Prepared to Send™
Prepared to Send™ grew from a simple conviction: organizations that send people into the world carry a responsibility to prepare, support, and care for them well.
Through Prepared to Send™, Mark advises senior leaders of Christian ministries, faith-based nonprofits, churches, schools, universities, and other mission-driven organizations on the leadership decisions, governance structures, and organizational capabilities needed to send people well.
His work helps leaders:
- Understand the risks associated with international missions, travel, and service
- Evaluate whether their organization is prepared to support the people it sends
- Clarify executive roles, decision authority, and accountability
- Strengthen organizational approaches to crisis leadership and duty of care
- Identify gaps that could place people or the mission at unnecessary risk
- Test senior-level decision-making through executive exercises and scenarios
- Build a more resilient culture of preparedness across the organization
The goal is not to make organizations risk-averse. It is to help leaders make informed, responsible decisions so their people can serve with confidence and their mission can continue when circumstances become difficult.
Faith, Service, and Leadership
Mark’s Christian faith is central to both his personal life and professional work. He believes leadership is a stewardship and that caring for people includes making wise decisions before they are sent to serve.
That perspective shapes Prepared to Send™ and Mark’s broader advisory work. Security and preparedness are not the mission. They are part of the responsibility leaders carry as they equip, support, and care for the people God has entrusted to them.
Global Experience
Mark’s career includes senior leadership assignments across federal and state government, international security, higher education, law enforcement, emergency management, and international development.
As a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Mark served in the United States and overseas, protecting U.S. personnel and diplomatic facilities and supporting American diplomatic operations in challenging environments.
He later served as a Regional Safety and Security Administrator with the U.S. Peace Corps, supporting volunteers, staff, and programs across seven countries in Africa.
Mark has lived and worked in the Middle East, South America, and Africa. Those experiences have given him firsthand insight into the realities faith-based organizations and families face when people are sent to live, work, study, and serve across cultures and far from home.
He also served as Deputy Chief of Law Enforcement & Homeland Security for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, helping lead statewide preparedness, crisis coordination, and emergency response, and as Deputy Chief Sergeant-at-Arms of the California State Assembly.
College Professor
Mark serves on the faculty of Liberty University’s Helms School of Government, where he teaches in the areas of terrorism, criminal justice, emergency management, and critical infrastructure protection.
His work at Liberty reflects his commitment to Christian higher education and to preparing students to approach leadership, public service, security, and government with professional competence, wisdom, and a biblical worldview.
Mark previously served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, where he taught and advised senior law enforcement and public safety professionals in UVA’s Center for Public Safety and Justice and the Master of Public Safety program.
He also served as Director of the National Criminal Justice Command College, a partnership between the University of Virginia and the Virginia State Police, where he helped guide experienced public safety leaders in leadership, strategic thinking, innovation, and organizational effectiveness.
A Career Centered on Service
Across government, academia, international service, and advisory work, a common purpose has shaped Mark’s career: helping leaders make wise decisions, care well for their people, and strengthen the organizations they have been entrusted to lead.
Today, that purpose is at the center of his work with Christian and mission-driven organizations through Prepared to Send™.
Prepare well. Send wisely. Bring your people home safely.
Connect
To discuss Prepared to Send™, executive advising, organizational readiness, speaking, teaching, or collaboration:
Contact Dr. Mark Hoover
