Tom Ridge

he challenges facing the Homeland Security Department's secretary continue to be tougher than those confronting any of his Cabinet colleagues. Tom Ridge must get employees pulled from 22 other federal departments and agencies to work together-while focusing on threats to the nation. "This reorganization of government has presented the biggest 'change-management' challenge of all time," Ridge said in a November 2003 speech.

Everyone agrees that the new department must resist becoming preoccupied with its own organizational issues and instead focus on learning to work with an even larger community-especially intelligence agencies, state and local governments, and first responders at all levels of government. By all accounts, DHS is making progress. The department's distribution of nearly $9 billion in long-awaited grants to state and local agencies has quieted some critics in those quarters.

Ridge misses no opportunity to remind audiences that homeland security cannot be achieved by the federal government alone, or even by the federal, state, and local governments working together. Everyone and every organization must do its part, he says, adding, "The homeland is secure only when the hometown is secure."

At a conference in December, Ridge noted: "Unlike the great wars of the past, the war on terrorism is not fought solely by brave soldiers on faraway battlefields. It is fought by border patrol inspectors who stand guard, firefighters and police officers who remain at the ready, moms and dads who prepare their families. . . . It is fought by each of us." Conveying this vision of shared responsibility appears to be a top priority for the man whose leadership skills have always been highly regarded.

While Ridge is widely liked and renowned for working hard, he leaves most of the details to his chief of staff. Ridge's first chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Bruce Lawlor, left in October and was succeeded by Duncan Campbell.

Ridge has been a friend of President Bush's since they campaigned together for Bush's father in the 1980 Republican presidential primaries, and Ridge has vacationed at the Bush family summer retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine.

The secretary grew up in subsidized housing in Erie, Pa. He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Dickinson Law School in Carlisle, Pa. After law school, Ridge worked as a part-time district attorney in Pennsylvania and put in a distinguished tour as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam. He served 12 years in the House of Representatives, and almost seven years as Pennsylvania's governor.

Although he's from a Catholic, working-class family in the Rust Belt, Ridge voted like a moderate Republican in the House. His pro-abortion stance reportedly was the major obstacle preventing his selection as the vice presidential running mate for George W. Bush. Ridge's loyalty to Bush was evident when he acceded to the president's request that he resign as governor to join the White House staff and help the government respond to the 9/11 attacks.

The 58-year-old secretary says the department's primary mission is to prevent another terrorist assault on the United States. As security experts often point out, it's hard to measure results when the primary evidence is that nothing happens. Ridge will need all his political and public-relations skills to keep the department's effectiveness growing and its budget healthy in the coming years.