Name of Nominee Dr. Loyce Pailen

Nominee's Employing Organization University of Maryland Global College and FISSEA

Nominee's Position and/or Title Collegiate Professor/Working Group Member

Justification for nomination. Include a brief description of the impact the individual has had on the awareness and training

program within his or her organization. Examples include: creating an innovative awareness program training and that

strengthens the cybersecurity of a federal department or agency, providing frequent status updates to senior

management about awareness and training outcomes that reduce enterprise risks, and leading an awareness- and

training-related program or project with limited resources.

First, I will start with the contribution Dr. Pailen has made to the UMGC cybersecurity program and how that impacts and influences

the federal cybersecurity workforce and cybersecurity training and education. Then specifically, her contribution to federal departments

and agencies as volunteer for FISSEA for at least and maybe more than 20 years! In her professional career, Dr. Loyce Best Pailen is

director of UMGC’s Center for Security Studies at UMGC with major responsibilities for maintaining the university's DHS designation

as a Center for Academic Excellence. These responsibilities include cyber community outreach, cybersecurity curriculum support,

developing faculty, and supporting students with scholarship and mentoring opportunities, the latter bringing her so much personal

satisfaction. She has more than 35 years’ wide-ranging experience in information technology that includes work in cybersecurity,

software development, project management, telecommunications, risk management, and network and systems security and

administration. She has also provided project leadership for instructional design and subject-matter expertise for the development of

major graduate, undergraduate and community college information systems security curriculum development projects. That's all very

good leadership and organizational contributions, but what impact does Dr. Pailen have on students and the curriculum? Dr. Pailen

stays close to students and their questions and their needs by teaching online. One of her contributions to students is nominating and

supporting UMGC students for the RSA Security Scholar Program, which brings together students from across the US for special

events at the annual RSA Conference. In addition, she is active in supporting and teaching GenCyber teachers by offering UMGC

GenCyber teacher camps in Maryland in 2019 and 2021 and we are continuing with post-camp activities with a subset of our teachers.

We are conducting a Raspberry Pi project now; it's a very focused project for eight dedicated teachers who want to implement

Raspberry Pi in their classes. How does Dr. Pailen's work impact the federal government? You may not know this, but UMGC was

created 75 years ago to support DoD students by offering a global campus. Today, UMGC provides classes to not only DoD

employees, but also federal employees; indirectly all the work done by Dr. Pailen is support federal agencies through excellence in

curriculum and instructors. Her dedication to making UMGC a NSA/DHS Center of Academic Excellence is an example of her

commitment to making UMGC a place where current (and future) federal employees get the education needed to fill the cybersecurity

workforce gap. In addition, many UMGC cybersecurity students are existing federal employees looking to advance in their

cybersecurity career, so her efforts directly support federal employees seeking to enhance their careers. Dr. Pailen is also instrumental

in setting up internships for students with federal agencies and supporting the Scholarship for Service program for students to join the

federal government for experience.

Let's talk about her volunteer work -- Dr. Pailen has been a strong advocate for FISSEA for many years -- we would have to look it up,

but it's at least 20 years and maybe more. She has been instrumental in managing the Innovator of the Year award which includes

establishing the criteria, organizing the activities and the award committee, and moving it from paper-based submission to electronic

submissions. She has been a voice of calm and optimism and is so willing to share her knowledge with FISSEA members. She is an

inspiration and role-model for the FISSEA members and exemplifies the best of the best of cybersecurity professionals.

A fun fact about Dr. Pailen is her role as Super Cybersecurity Grandma! Dr. Pailen believes that children need to be exposed to the

importance of cybersecurity and that it could help more to encounter the concepts on TV and social media. She has written books for

8-12 years on cybersecurity and is a popular speaker and advocate for teaching cybersecurity at an early age.

Finally, Dr. Pailen has dedicated her career to improving the knowledge and skills of the cybersecurity workforce through her work at

UMGC teaching current and future federal employees, contributing to the FISSEA community, and being an inspiration of excellence in

cybersecurity training professionals.

Person making this nomination:

Name Susan Hansche

Organization DHS

Position or Title Training