A Vicksburg native who served in the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, is featured in a recently released book on the formation of the TSA.

Rebekah Williams Lovorn, daughter of Shirley and Randall Williams of Vicksburg, is mentioned in the acknowledgments and a chapter on Hurricane Katrina in the book, “Permanent Emergency: Inside the TSA and the Fight for the Future of American Security,” by former TSA director Kip Hawley and editor/writer Nathan Means.

The book describes the formation of the TSA, which is responsible for protecting people at U.S. airports and managing U.S. transportation operations around the world. It discusses how officials should approach handling national security issues.

A graduate of Warren Central High School and Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in business, Lovorn worked for the Department of Homeland Security for three years before becoming staff director in the office of the administrator at TSA.

She is currently president and chief executive officer of TruVoltage, a global communications and marketing related-consulting company, and is executive director of No Greater Sacrifice, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships for the children of servicemen and women who are killed in combat.

Her parents deferred their comments on their daughter’s place in the book to a personal note to them from Hawley:

“Rebekah was the MVP of the agency while I was there. You can be proud to know that your daughter had direct and important roles in stopping terror attacks on Americans. Words cannot properly express the significance of Rebekah’s role in counter-terrorism when she served.”

In the book’s acknowledgments, Hawley thanked Lovorn for her service to Homeland Security and the TSA.

“Rebekah Williams Lovorn, while not in many of the book’s scenes, was always on station during our time together at TSA,” he wrote. “Rebekah was also involved in most of the events described in this book, but unfortunately her highlight reel is classified, so most of her stories cannot be told.”

Lovorn’s participation as a member of DHS during Hurricane Katrina, is discussed in a chapter of the book called “Where’s the Action?,” which describes her work as a member of then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff’s advance team on the Mississippi Gulf Coast immediately after the storm.

The chapter outlines the problems immediately after the storm and her efforts to try and bring some order to the chaos DHS experienced in the early days after Katrina.

The chapter also talks about her assistance in helping federal emergency officials identify areas on the Coast damaged by the storm from the air.

“I was glad I was able to help people after the storm,” she said.

“It’s wonderful,” Lovorn said of her place in the book. “I was glad to be a part of the overall effort and organize Homeland Security at the time.

“The author was my former boss and we are still close friends,” she said. “The book is a very realistic look at the mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly of the current and past issues of the TSA. It’s a very realistic viewpoint of what life was like in the TSA.”