John Callery

John Callery is the Vice President of Safer Schools Together (SST). He has worked with SST in several capacities over the last the last ten years and took on this new position in 2023. Prior to retirement in 2021, Mr. Callery was the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA San Diego Field Division, where he led DEA operations and planning that concentrated on the growing opioid/fentanyl threat, Mexican Cartels, US/Mexico Border issues and the enduring scourge of methamphetamine trafficking in the region.

John has more than 35 years of law enforcement experience beginning as a Police Officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) where he was also detailed to the prestigious USAF Presidential Honor Guard in Washington, D.C., serving then President Ronald Reagan. John matriculated his law enforcement career as a DEA Special Agent in 1992, initially assigned to the DEA Los Angeles Field Division, with later overseas tours in Thailand and Malaysia.

He is a professional speaker and has conducted hundreds of lectures around the globe on a myriad of law enforcement, intelligence, the opioid crisis and counter terrorism topics. Since 2010, he continues his support of the education safety industry as a means to foster relationships between academia and law enforcement for enhanced efforts in school safety.

John earned a Master’s of Science in Counterterrorism-WMD from the Rochester Institute of Technology and Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration from the University of Maryland. He also holds a Master Certificate in Conflict Management from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business.