Associate Vice President for Public Safety Instructor in Criminal Justice Studies Dr. Dan Silk serves as the Associate Vice President for Public Safety for University of Georgia. He assumed this position in 2023 after nearly three decades working in law enforcement, which culminated in his role as the Chief of the University of Georgia Police Department from 2018-2023. In addition to his time at the University of Georgia Police Department, Dan previously worked as a captain with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, and served on the first permanent staff at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan after 9/11 as a special agent with the US State Department. Dan completed three degrees at UGA, and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Institute of Applied Social Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK, where his research focused on police outreach with Muslim communities. Dan has a courtesy faculty appointment in UGA’s Department of Political Science, and he teaches in UGA’s Criminal Justice Studies Program. He has consulted or taught for a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, primarily focusing on projects connected to applications of community policing. He was the lead editor of the book Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police, and Case Studies of Success, and he continues to publish articles and book chapters that focus on innovations in policing, and create and deliver related training. Dan is married to Monira Silk, a local business owner and non-profit executive in Athens, and they have two daughters, Miriam and Nadine.
