Elizabeth B. Schmelzinger has 35 years of experience in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Schmelzinger retired from CBP as the Director of the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT).
CTPAT is a voluntary public-private sector partnership program which recognizes that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close relationships with the principal stakeholders of the international supply chain. Ms. Schmelzinger led the re-engineering effort to update CTPAT Minimum Security Standards in close partnership with CTPAT membership of over 11,000 companies, encompassing over 50% of importations into the United States.
Ms. Schmelzinger began her law enforcement career in 1984 as a U.S. Customs Service Inspector in Buffalo, NY, later becoming a Senior Customs Inspector and an Import Specialist, and Program Manager in the Tucson Field Office, Tucson, AZ. In 2004 Ms. Schmelzinger was selected as a Program Manager in the Border and Transportation Security Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters and pioneered the establishment of the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST).
In 2008, Ms. Schmelzinger was selected as the Chief of Staff of CBP’s Office of Air and Marine, the world’s largest aviation and maritime law enforcement organization. Ms. Schmelzinger returned to the Office of Field Operations in 2013, serving as the Director of the Office of Border Initiatives, where she oversaw implementation of the Beyond the Border Action Plan with Canada and the 21st Century Border Management with Mexico.
Ms. Schmelzinger holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, Political Science from the State University College at Buffalo. She earned a Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Cornell University and graduated from the Senior Executive Fellows Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University.
