Todd Bensman

Todd Bensman is an acclaimed newspaper reporter and magazine writer who transitioned to a career as a national security intelligence professional for the Texas Department of Public Safety and then returned to the journalism trade. He currently serves as the Texas-based Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington, D.C. policy institute for which he writes, lectures, and grants media interviews about the nexus between immigration and national security. He has testified before Congress as an expert witness and regularly appears on radio and television outlets for his national security and border security expertise. Separately, he reports on international and domestic terrorism matters for Homeland Security Today, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Townhall Media, The Federalist, the Middle East Forum, and other major online news sites. Otherwise, he finds time to teach intelligence analysis, terrorism and journalism courses as an adjunct university lecturer. Bensman was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Phoenix, Arizona before moving to Alaska to work as reporter and then, to cover wars, rebellions and human drama in more than 30 countries. He settled in his native Texas but still travels abroad to report on immigration and national security. He is the recipient of two National Press Club awards for his foreign reporting, a prestigious Inter-American Press Association Award, and two Texas Institute of Letters awards among many other journalism recognitions. Reflecting his hybridized journalism-intelligence career, Bensman holds both a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a master's degree in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School.