OUR TEAM & PARTNERS
NC PaCE Member Representatives
Click name  for full bio

Laura Rodgers is the Director of NC PACE and works with the member education institutions and industry to develop programs that support cybersecurity in North Carolina. She is also the Director of Cybersecurity Practice in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, acting as the technical liaison between industry, government agencies, the Secure Computing Institute, and NC PaCE. Prior to joining NC State, Rodgers was the Sr. Cyber Compliance Manager for the North Carolina Military Business Center, where she helped defense contractors develop cybersecurity compliance programs. She has held a variety of positions in the defense industry, including with Lockheed Martin’s MX and Titan Missile Programs and General Dynamics Information Technology’s urban training programs.   Ms. Rodgers holds a B.S in Accounting and an MBA from Oklahoma State University. She is a certified Data Privacy and Protection Specialist and is working toward a CMMC Certified Professional certification.

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Dr. Laurie Williams is a Distinguished University Professor in the Computer Science Department at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Laurie is a co-director of SCI and of the NCSU Science of Security Lablet sponsored by the National Security Agency. Laurie’s research focuses on software security; agile software development practices and processes, particularly continuous deployment; and software reliability, software testing and analysis. Laurie is an associate editor-in chief of the IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine. Laurie is an ACM and an IEEE Fellow.

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Dr. William Enck is a Professor in the Computer Science Department at NCSU. Dr. Enck is a co-director of SCI and director of the NCSU Wolfpack Security and Privacy Research (WSPR) Lab. His research interests span the broad area of systems security, with a focus on mobile platforms, Internet of Things (IoT), networks, and cloud infrastructure. His work in mobile application security has received a SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award. He is a director at large for the USENIX Board of Directors, department editor for IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine, associate editor for ACM TOPS, and steering committee member of the USENIX Security Symposium and ACM WiSec.

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David Hoffman is the Steed Family Professor of the Practice of Cybersecurity Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy and holds a Senior Lecturing Fellow appointment at the Duke University School of Law. He also formerly was the Associate General Counsel, Director of Security Policy and Global Privacy Officer for Intel Corporation where he spent 23 years as part of the legal department. Hoffman currently chairs the Civil Liberties and Privacy Panel for the Director's Advisory Board for the US National Security Agency. He also chairs the board of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law, and serves on the Board of the Future of Privacy Forum and the Advisory Board of the Israel Tech Policy Institute. Hoffman also founded and chairs the board for the Triangle Privacy Research Hub, which highlights and fosters cybersecurity and privacy academic research done in the North Carolina Research Triangle. Hoffman previously served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors of the National Cyber Security Alliance. He has also served on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Online Access and Security Committee, the Center for Strategic and International Studies Cyber Security Commission, the Steering Committee for BBBOnline, the TRUSTe Board of Directors and the Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He is the author of many papers and articles on cybersecurity and privacy and has testified to Congress on these topics. Hoffman's research and teaching has been aided by funding from Intel Corporation, The Crypsis Group, The Media Trust, and Mine. Hoffman has a JD from Duke Law School, where he was a member of the Duke Law Journal. He received an AB from Hamilton College.

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Spencer Reeves serves as the Tech Policy Research and Programs Fellow under the Cyber Policy Program and the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. In that role, he coordinates the research taking place in the Technology Policy Lab in addition to leading efforts of scheduling and running cybersecurity-related programming at the Sanford School. Spencer graduated with a Bachelor of Law from Duke Kunshan University and a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University.

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Dr. Kamran Sartipi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science at East Carolina University (ECU). His education is in electrical and computer engineering and computer science, and he is a professional engineer (P.Eng.). Dr. Sartipi has long-term experience in data analytics and successful applications in cybersecurity and medical informatics with track records in software engineering and analytics, intelligent decision systems, pattern-based data analytics, data and concept interoperability, and cloud computing. His research on intelligent systems includes applying machine learning algorithms with integration of data mining techniques. Dr. Sartipi has over 80 scientific publications and supervised more than 30 graduate students (PhDs and Master’s) in interdisciplinary fields and developed several software tools in system analysis. He maintains a research platform (DataIntel Research, https://dataintel-research.cs.ecu.edu) with the aims of collaborative multi-disciplinary research initiatives, and organizes computer science seminars at ECU.  

 

 

 

Dr. Te-Shun Chou is a Professor in the Department of Technology Systems at ECU. He received his Bachelor degree in Electronics Engineering at Feng Chia University and both Master’s degree and Doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering at Florida International University. He serves as the program coordinator of the Master program in Network Technology for the Department of Technology Systems and the lead faculty of Digital Communication Systems concentration for the Consortium Universities of the PhD in Technology Management. He is also the point of contact of ECU CAE-CDE. Dr. Chou teaches IT related courses, which include network security, network intrusion detection and prevention, wireless communications, and network management. His research interests include machine learning, wireless communications, technology education, and information security, especially in the field of intrusion detection and incident response.

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Thomas Brown is the Department Chair for the Davis iTEC Cybersecurity Center. His responsi bilities are over the following programs: Cyber Security, Systems Security, Network Management (Program Coordinator), Technical Support, FTCC’s K-12 Initiative, any and all CAE initiatives, and the Security Operations Center. He has served FTCC in various faculty positions as instructor, Pro gram Coordinator and Chair since 2006.

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Dr. Hossein Sarrafzadeh is a University Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education and Outreach at NC A&T. His research strengths are in the areas of cybersecurity, IoT, and data mining and machine learning in cybersecurity. He 13 founded several cybersecurity research and security operation centers (SOCs). He developed one of the world’s first real-time facial expression and gesture recognition systems for emotion recognition. He has developed undergraduate, bridging certificate, Masters and PhD programs in cybersecurity.He has a number of inventions and patented systems in computer vision, cybersecurity and cloud security and has published over 180 research articles and secured over $15M funding in the past 5 years.

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Dr. Mohd Anwar is a professor in the Computer Science Department at NC A&T. He directs the Quantum Computing Research Center and the Human-Centered AI Lab. He is an interdisciplinary computer scientist with research expertise in cybersecurity, focused on intrusion/malware detection, usable security, and differential privacy. Towards pursuing his research goals, he uses AI (Machine Learning /Deep Learning), Human-Computer Interaction, and Data Science techniques to design so lutions. Dr. Anwar has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, & his research has extensively been funded by NSF, DoD, Air Force, NSA, and NIH

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Deanne Cranford-Wesley is the Director of the Cybersecurity Programs at North Carolina Central University (NCCU); there she continues to oversee initiatives with the cybersecurity ecosystem. She leads cybersecurity efforts with internal and external partners and in the innovative cybersecurity lab at NCCU. She also teaches in the School of Business, Computer Information System Department.

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Dr. Greg Robison is the Department Chair of the Computer Technologies Department at PCC. He has been teaching at the college level since 1999 and prior to teaching full-time worked as an Information Resource Consultant at the Medical University of South Carolina.

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Joseph Jeansonne is the Instructional Coordinator of IT: Cyber Security degree in the Computer Technologies Department at Pitt Community College. His education is in Electronics and Digital Communications. He has been teaching college level courses since 2003. Prior to teaching Joseph worked as a Systems Administrator at East Carolina University for 10 years.

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Dr. Bill Chu is Professor of Software and Information Systems at UNC-Charlotte. He is the Managing Director of the CyberDNA Center, a center dedicated to cybersecurity research and education at UNC Charlotte. His research focuses on application security, security analytics and automation, and threat intelligence. His research has been funded by both government agencies as well as private companies. He has numerous scientific publications as well as holding multiple patents related to cybersecurity.

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Dr. Prashanth BusiReddyGari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at UNC Pembroke. He worked as a Web Security Engineer and Systems Security Engineer before pursuing his teaching carrer. His faculty role at UNC-Pemrboke expands to directing the Cyber Defense Education Center, promoting the NSA’s National Center of Academic Excellence-Cyber Defense Education (NCAE-CDE) initiative and coordinating the B.S. in Cybersecurity degree program. His research focus is on applied cryptography, security analysis of cyber-physical systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), networks, cloud and 5G infrastructure, and blockchain technology.

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Dr. Ulku Clark is a Professor of Information Systems in the Congdon School of Supply Chain, Business Analytics and Information Systems. She is the director of the Center for Cyber Defense Education(CCDE). She holds a PhD in Management Science. Her professional efforts focus on advancing cybersecurity through innovative solutions for education, research and workforce development, and collaborations among academia, industry and government. Her other research interests include mergers and acquisitions of US common carriers, IT productivity on healthcare, user perception of information security, and innovative education. Dr.Clark’s work has been published and appeared in various national and international journals and conference proceedings, such as JMIS, IEEE TEM, IMDS, and AMCIS.

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Dr. Geoff Stoker is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Congdon School of the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His education is in computer science. Before transitioning full-time to academia in 2018, he worked in various government and industry IT/cybersecurity positions for nearly 20 years including serving as CISO for an organization of 15,000+ people.

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Jeff Greer is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Currently he is conducting research, teaching and consulting in the field of supply chain security. Prior to teaching, Jeff was VP of Operations for a NASDAQ tech company until his retirement in 2019. For fifteen years he was an integral part of an executive team that built a successful mobile broadband business offering internet services to ships at sea around the world. His functional responsibilities included: supply chain management, manufacturing engineering, manufacturing operations, facilities, network operations, technical support, field service, and corporate quality. Jeff holds a BA degree in Business, post graduate certificates in Manufacturing Engineering, Quality Management, Communication Systems Engineering, Customer Experience, and a MS degree in Cybersecurity Technology.

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Dr. Keith Babuszczak serves as the Provost of IT Programs and Chief Campus Officer of the college’s Research Triangle Park campus. Keith has also served as a Department Head and Dean of the division. In his current role, Keith supervises both degree and non-degree IT programs/courses.

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Sandellyo Kauba works with Wake Tech faculty to align courses with industry standards and demands, and develops new courses in various IT disciplines such as cloud computing, information security, and network design. Prior to joining Wake Technical Community College, he worked for the State Employees Credit Union as the Team Lead for Information Security and the Cyber Defense and the Cybersecurity Manager. He also worked for Bank of America, GSK, and Cisco in a variety of IT/cybersecurity positions. Sandellyo holds numerous IT and cybersecurity certifications, including CompTIA Sec+, CIOS CSIS, CySA+, and CSAP, as well as various Microsoft and Cisco certifications.

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Cindy Luttrell is the Dean, Information Technology, Wake Technical Community College

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Saba Eskandarian ABA ESKANDARIAN  Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests are broadly in applied cryptography and cybersecurity, with a focus on designing new privacy-preserving technologies. Prior to joining UNC, he was a PhD student in the Applied Cryptography group at Stanford University, and before that he completed a BS in Computer Science at the University of Virginia.

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James Brown, PhD

Dr. James Brown is the Department Head of Computer Science at Shaw University and Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Education and Research (C-CER). As Director of C-CER, he has focused on enhancing the B.S. Cyber Operations degree program that provides students skills in ethical hacking and malware analysis. He has also brokered numerous partnerships designed to increase student success and enrollment with K-12 and community college institutions. Additionally, as Director of the Cy(Bear)security Research Lab he has reasearched developing an Intrusion Detection System for Internet-of-Things using Artificial Immune Systems and Machine Learning.

Dr. Brown completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at North Carolina A&T State University. He received his Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from North Carolina A&T State University where he was awarded the National Science Foundation Scholarship for Service to pursue a degree in cybersecurity. Prior to him starting his doctoral studies, he worked as Program Coordinator for IT-Network Management, Systems Security, and Cybersecurity at Forsyth Tech Community College.

Dr. Brown is focused on establishing and maintaining pipelines for underrepresented minorities to enter the cybersecurity field and pursue lifelong careers. Dr. Brown was born in Chesapeake, VA. Currently, he resides in Raleigh, NC with his wife, 3 year-old daughter, 1 year-old son and two dogs.