Mail-order degree yields suspension

Posted on Wed, Aug. 06, 2003

Homeland Security official suspended amid probe
By DUNE LAWRENCE
Knight Ridder Newspapers




Laura Callahan testifies before the Government Reform Committee in 2000, when she was employed by the Labor Department. Congress was investigating reports of thousands of missing White House e-mails from August 1996 to November 1998 and allegations that White House officials threatened contract employees with retaliation if they revealed the problem.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/6473914.htm

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security has suspended with pay its No. 2 computer official while investigators look into whether she obtained her academic credentials - including a Ph.D. in computer information systems - from a mail-order university.

Laura Callahan, the department's deputy chief information officer, claims on her professional biography to have bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and a Ph.D. in computer information systems from Hamilton University in Evanston, Wyo. Former subordinates say she asked them to call her "Dr. Callahan."

A homeland security spokeswoman, Rachael Sunbarger, confirmed that Callahan had been placed on paid leave but declined further comment. Senior executive service positions at Callahan's rank pay $131,342 to $142,500.


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