Rate My Professor John Terpinas

John Terpinas is a Professor of the Practice and Faculty Lead in the Security Domain at Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies. He holds a JD from California Western School of Law. Terpinas joined Northeastern following a three-year tenure as an assistant professor of national security, intelligence, and criminal justice at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. Prior to entering academia full-time, he served a distinguished 21-year career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), retiring in 2016 as a Supervisory Special Agent. During his FBI tenure, he held leadership positions in the National Security Division and Counterterrorism programs both in the field and at headquarters. Notable roles included Director of the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Budapest, Hungary; FBI Chair and assistant professor of national security studies at the Eisenhower School of National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.; adjunct instructor at the University of Virginia; and FBI leadership instructor at the Leadership Development Institute in the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. He also served as Director of Law Enforcement and Investigations in the White House Executive Office of the President, Homeland Security Council, and Counterterrorism Directorate, as well as a counterterrorism specialist in the FBI Chicago Division, where he was a member of the enhanced SWAT Team and a certified Special Agent Bomb Technician.