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NICE Working Group

Meeting Minutes

Date: September 23, 2020 Time: 3:30 p.m. ET

SharePoint Page: https://nistgov.sharepoint.com/sites/NICEProgram/NICEWG

I. Introduction and Ground Rules

a. Danielle Santos, NICE Program Manager, welcomed participants to the meeting. The 

NICE Working Group (NICEWG) is set up to provide a mechanism for collaboration 

among academia, government, and industry as well as to discuss strategies and actions 

to aid in workforce development.   

b. Danielle encouraged participants to use the Adobe Connect chat box feature to provide 

feedback and ask questions.   

c. Danielle urged all participants to collaborate and share information. The NICE Working 

Group mailing list is a convenient way to disseminate information. The SharePoint 

site stores meeting agendas and minutes, documents, and member information. 

Danielle noted that NICE Working Group mailing lists and meeting teleconferences are 

not intended for promotional announcements, advertising, product-related press 

releases, or other commercial use.

II. Opening Remarks

a. Industry Co-Chair, Jon Brickey, Senior Vice President, Mastercard, welcomed members 

to this month’s call. He noted that the pandemic continues to affect work environments 

and routines. At his company, employees are now allowed to work in the office every 

other week on a volunteer basis.

b. Government Co-Chair, Rodney Petersen, Director of NICE, reminded everyone that the 

NICE mission is to promote and energize a robust network and integrated ecosystem for 

cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. The program office 

keeps an eye out for hotspots emerging for policy and practice. He noted that America’s 

Workforce Policy Advisory Board just announced the launch of the Learning and 

Employment Records (LERs) initiative; a topic they’ve been tracking. NICE has been 

participating in this effort, which is featured in the just-released fall NICE eNewsletter. 

It will also be the topic of the October NICE webinar.

c. A recent NIST workshop on privacy offered insight into how the NICE Framework is 

viewed. NIST is seeking ways to integrate the NICE Framework with other frameworks

such as the Cybersecurity Framework and Privacy Framework. 
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d. There is a very busy fall season ahead with the two major NICE conferences and several 

other big events lined up. Additionally, there is ongoing work on issues related to 

teleworking.

III. Standing Items

a. Strategy Stories – New Developments that Align to NICE Strategy

Teresa Thomas, Program Lead, Neurodiverse Talent Enablement, The MITRE 

Corporation, presented on “Neurodiversity in the Cybersecurity Workforce.” This topic 

aligns to NICE Strategic Plan Goal 2.4: Grow creative and effective efforts to increase the 

number of women, minorities, veterans, persons with disabilities, and other 

underrepresented populations in the cybersecurity workforce

• The Neurodiverse Federal Workforce Program seeks to help agencies learn to recruit 

and support autistic individuals in cyber work roles. The program trains managers 

and co-workers. Eventually, it will be expanded to include individuals with other 

neurodiverse conditions, including to ADHD, Tourettes, and dyslexia. 

• The program service provider is Melwood, while DHS and OMB provide oversight. 

The Federal Protective Services and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency will 

be the first sites to implement the program. Individuals will spend six months as 

interns, and it is expected that they will then be hired full-time. MITRE is helping 

with recruiting, training, special development and reach back support. 

• A major game changer in increasing the number of neurodiverse individuals – and 

other under-represented populations – in the cyber workforce is starting with clear 

requirements in job descriptions. It is well-documented that men and women look at 

job descriptions very differently. Women feel like they need to meet 80% of the 

posted job requirements to apply. Men feel like they need to meet only 50% of the 

requirements. Autistic people won’t apply if they don’t feel they meet 100% of the 

requirements because they have an expectation of being disqualified. 

• Job requirements need to be stripped to the bare bones to increase the number of 

neurodiverse candidates as well as candidates from other under-represented 

groups. The description should be made as simple as possible. The NICE Framework

can be used to write a good requirements list. 

• Teresa will discuss the program in more detail at this year’s NICE Conference. 

• In response to a question about providing presentations to high school students, 

Teresa said she can do that. 

• In response to a question about an active DoD clearance being listed as a basic 

qualification, Teresa said that is a major problem with a lot of job postings. 

• See presentation for more information.
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b. Report Roundup – Learning from Good Ideas 

Laura Bate, Director, Cyber Engagement, Cyberspace Solarium Commission, presented 

on the “Cyberspace Solarium Commission White Paper Cyberspace Solarium 

Commission #3: Growing a Stronger Federal Cyber Workforce.”

• The Cyberspace Solarium Commission is a bipartisan, intergovernmental body 

created by the 2019 NDAA to develop a strategic approach to defending the United 

States in cyberspace against cyberattacks of significant consequence.

• The Commission issued a major report a few months ago, but more recently it issued 

two white papers. The first, “Cybersecurity: Lessons from the Pandemic” looks at 

the challenges and opportunities that have been revealed in recent months. The 

paper points out that preparedness for a crisis requires that a skilled workforce be in 

place before the crisis occurs. This paper also discusses the opportunity that the 

pandemic has spurred to try new work models, like apprenticeship, and to make 

effective use of direct hire authorities and flexibilities. It emphasizes the importance 

of learning from existing communities of practice, like the NICE Subgroups. 

• The second white paper, “Growing a Stronger Federal Cyber Workforce,” puts into 

words things we already knew for the most part. For one thing, better coordination 

among all stakeholders is needed to leverage limited resources in this effort. 

Second, the federal government cannot develop its own cyber workforce without 

thinking about the national workforce; we must think about how to grow the entire 

talent pool. 

• Laura noted that the white paper references “cyber” rather than “cybersecurity” 

because the commission is examining a variety of cyber-related issues, including 

emerging technologies and the digital economy.

• In response to a question about actions that are being taken now, Laura said that a 

number of the commission’s recommendations are included in pending legislative 

proposals. 

• See presentation and find out more here.

c. Metric Moment – What Gets Measured Gets Done

Topic: Recent Changes to Cybersecurity Education, Training, and Workforce 

Development

Jon Brickey led the group through a series of polls on matters related to the impact of 

the pandemic on the cybersecurity workforce:
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Question 1a: 

Question 1b: What evidence or measure do you use to describe the impact the pandemic 

has had on the workforce performing cybersecurity tasks? [See answers at end 

of minutes.]

Question 2a:

Question 2b:

Question 2c:

Question 3a: What evidence exists to answer these questions? [See answers at end of 

minutes.]

Question 3b: What further research is needed? [See answers at end of minutes.]

Question 4a: 

Question 4b: What is that new practice? [See answers at end of minutes.]
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Rodney Petersen stated it is often a challenge to find evidence of the work we’re doing. 

He encouraged the community to measure results that provides ways to further 

examine research and data. 

IV. Project Spotlight

Presenter: Laurin Buchanan, Secure Decisions, NICE K12 Co-chair 

Topic: K12 Subgroup Curriculum Review & Repository Project

• The K12 Subgroup is working to identify high-quality K12 educational materials in 

support of Recommendation 3.5 of A Report to the President on Supporting the Growth 

and Sustainment of the Nation's Cybersecurity Workforce: Building the Foundation for a 

More Secure American Future. A main objective of the project is to increase awareness 

of these materials and inspire their adoption. 

• There are several project deliverables:

o Phase 1

 Curating the resources: The subgroup has identified more than 800 

resources.

 Cross mapping the NICE Framework and nationally recognized K12 

standards.

o Phase 2 

 Developing a rubric of content analysis and standardization process for 

the content. The rubric was developed using common design principles 

from STEM resources. This is in the review phase now where resources 

are added to the collection. There are 10 elements about each resource 

they want to understand. Reviewers send in information, which is 

compiled in a spreadsheet. 

 Resource page or searchable database of curated resources. The project 

team is looking for recommendations on the best format that this should 

take.

o Phase 3

 Analyzing the resources to understand what is missing and where greater 

attention is needed. This deliverable will likely take the form of a report.

• Because of the pandemic, the subgroup pivoted and curated resources for elementary, 

middle school, and high school for at-home use.
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• Please contact Laurin if you know of a resource pertinent to this effort or have an idea 

about how to best make the resources available; or you are interested in reviewing, 

cross-mapping, or analyzing resources.

• See presentation and find out more here.

V. Subgroup Updates

a. Apprenticeship

Co-chair Tony Bryan, Executive Director, CyberUp, provided the update. 

• The co-chairs have worked to formalize project teams. Project teams are starting to 

make progress on their efforts. There are three project teams. 

1. Apprenticeship Ecosystem Integration and Scaling

2. Comparative Analysis of Work Enhanced Learning Models 

3. Return on Investment of Apprenticeships

• Each project team has a lead and they are meeting regularly. 

• The next Apprenticeship Subgroup meeting is scheduled for October 23 at 

11:00 a.m. ET.

• Visit the Apprenticeship Subgroup website here.

b. Collegiate

Co-chair Denise Ferebee, LeMoyne-Owen College, provided the update. 

• Members are working on a project transforming a few NICE Framework work roles 

into curriculum. They met earlier this month to go over the basic ideas. It was 

decided that they will choose one work role for a 4-year program and one work role 

for a 2-year program. They are working on a survey to narrow down the work roles. 

• The next Collegiate Subgroup meeting is scheduled for October 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

• Visit the Collegiate Subgroup website here.

c. Competitions

Co-chair Brad Wolfenden, EmberSec, provided the update. 

• During the last meeting a presentation on the Cyber 9/12 competition was held. 

They also learned about CTF time and the Aviation ISAC CTF for students. 

• The How to Build and Run a Competition project is nearly complete. The document 

looks at planning, logistics, types of competitions, facilities needed, funds, sources of 

support, challenges themselves, sources of players needed, rules and approval 

needed, plan, and other details. It also includes some competition terminology. 
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• There are two other ongoing projects: A guide on cybersecurity competitions for 

competitors and a series of podcasts where Dr. Dan Manson interviews people on 

competitions.

• The NICE Program Office shared that in October there will be a series of free 

cybersecurity games provided via the Cyber Carnival Games 2020. These games are 

open for anyone to play and are designed for all levels of expertise. See 

https://cybercarnival.katzcy.com/ for more details. 

• The next Competitions Subgroup meeting is scheduled for October 20 at 

3:00 p.m. ET.

• Visit the Competitions Subgroup website here.

d. K12

Co-chair Laurin Buchanan, Secure Decisions, provided the update.

• During the last meeting members spent time discussing the cybersecurity curriculum

resource review, National Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week (NCCAW), and the 

NICE K12 conference.

• Team members are starting a new project on roadblocks schools face supporting 

hands-on cybersecurity curriculum and competitions. They seek to highlight 

advantages and address roadblocks to hopefully open doors. Anyone who wishes to 

join this project can reach out to Laurin.

• Laurin was asked about their plans for outreach regarding the repository. When 

enough resources have been reviewed, and we know where the repository is

located, then work on how to make the public aware will take place. This is a 

challenge for all resources. 

• The next K12 Subgroup meeting is scheduled for October 14 at 3:30 p.m. ET.

• Visit the K12 Subgroup website here.

e. Training and Certifications

Co-chair John McCumber provided the update. 

• During the last subgroup meeting guest speakers from CYBER.ORG talked about the

next generation cybersecurity workforce effort and solution for K12.

• The Training Best Practices project team has a document out for review.

• Other initiatives include the Army grant system opportunities and evolving 

requirements for the illustrative mapping project.

• Members continue to speak about new ideas to support the strategic goals for the 

NICE program.
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• The next T&C Subgroup meeting is scheduled for October 7 at 2:30 p.m. ET.

• Visit the T&C Subgroup website here.

f. Workforce Management

Co-chair, Susie Cone, IT Consultant, provided the update. 

• Susie, outgoing chair, introduced Kevin Perry, Chief Cyber Training, DoD Cyber Crime 

Center/Cyber Training Academy as the new co-chair. Susie is thankful for the 

opportunity as the co-chair for the past two years.

• Members are wrapping up a publication on Successful Strategies for Cybersecurity 

Hiring and are brainstorming ideas for next projects. 

• The next Workforce Management Subgroup meeting will be held on October 15 at 

1:00 p.m. ET. 

• Visit the Workforce Management Subgroup website here. 

VI. Project Progress Reports

a. National Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week

Davina Pruitt-Mentle, Academic Liaison, NICE, provided the update. 

• National Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week (NCCAW) is scheduled for 

November 9-14, 2020. There will be many activities reaching multiple stakeholder 

groups no matter what the age. 

• Special activities scheduled include a webinar on recruiting women, a live stream 

interview event on how to get a job without experience, and a Capture the Flag

competition focusing on careers running the entire week for multiple groups. The 

goal is trying to reach various audiences. 

• A commitment form is available online to log your event. Events range from 

promotion on social media (#cybercareerweek #mycyberjob), speaking 

engagements, professional development, distributing career awareness materials,

and more. 

• See presentation and find out more here.

b. NICE Annual Conference

Randy Pestana, Florida International University, provided an update on the NICE 

Conference. 

• The virtual conference will take place one day per week during a four-week period. 

Each week will be dedicated to a different sub-theme.

1. Tuesday, October 27 | 1 – 5:15 PM EST: Growing and Sustaining the NICE 

Community
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2. Thursday, November 5 | 1 – 5 PM EST: Transforming the Learning Ecosystem

3. Monday, November 9 | 1 – 5 PM EST: Career Discovery

4. Monday, November 16 | 1 – 4:45 PM EST: The Future Cybersecurity Workforce

• Each day will be half day series along with plenary sessions, presentations, and 

breakout sessions. Registration is now open. 

• There are multiple workshops scheduled throughout the series. 

1. The New NICE Framework hosted by Marian Merritt, Deputy Director of NICE

2. Behind the Scenes at Georgia Tech’s Online MS Program

3. Building Apprenticeships for the 21st Century hosted by the Aspen Institute

4. Diversify, The Cybersecurity Survival Guide 

• You can register for multiple workshops.

• Sponsorships and exhibitors are filling up. The costs are lower than in previous years. 

Registration is $50 for all weeks through early November.

• Find out more here.

c. NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference

Felicia Rateliff, Director of Operations and Programs, iKeepSafe, provided an update:

• The virtual event is scheduled to take place December 7-8, 2020. Registration is 

open. Early bird registration is open through October 31. 

• The conference includes five tracks plus many layers of ways to engage.

Programming will be available for the full year after the conference, including

documents, free curriculum, and more. The agenda is live. 

• A student keynote was just announced. Sam Grant is the first youth cyber apprentice

for the U.S. Department of Labor. 

• There is a student track. This programming is geared toward grades 6-12 which will 

launch in the next few weeks. The plan is to make student programming like a field 

trip so teachers can register students.

• There is sponsor and exhibitor space available. Discussion boards will be available to 

enable networking and engagement, the online platform will have games, virtual 

meetups, messaging, an evening social, and more. 

• See presentation and find out more here.

d. CAE Community

Tony Coulson, California State University, San Bernardino, provided an update on the 

CAE community. 
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• The CAE virtual career fair, held September 4, 2020, included participants from large, 

medium, small, and government organizations. There were 32 booths, and 1,438 

attendees. On average people hung around about 4 hours. This was a free event for 

all.

• Employer feedback was positive.

• When asked how many offers were provided, Mr. Coulson said that while that 

question is asked, many companies will not exactly answer. They are following up 

with surveys to the students. Anecdotally, they heard of many offers.

• The next CAE Virtual Career Fair is scheduled for September 10, 2021. They now 

have 335 colleges attending. 

• They are currently employing a large operation with 23 different projects with over 

100 partners covering faculty development, student development, competition, and 

are working with the NICE program. They are also rebooting the CAE research 

program. 

• See presentation and find out more here. 

VII. Featured Topic

Chris Paris, Senior Advisor, Department of Veterans Affairs, spoke about the ‘Federal Cyber 

Career Pathways Tool.’

• Representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of 

Defense, and CISA stood up a working group of cyber practitioners and workforce 

developers.

• The tool supports a standard Federal career pathway framework unique to each 

NICE Framework Work Role. The working group looked at work roles, sat with 

federal practitioners who do this work and identified core attributes, KSAs, 

competencies, training, and aligned KSAs to respective tasks.

• They built a federal baseline. They built core baseline requirements for the work 

roles in the form of career pathways. This includes work roles you can leverage. They 

identified stepping stones. 

• They partnered with the CISA training team to develop the cyber career pathways.

• Mr. Paris demonstrated the tool and features online.

• Depicting cyber in a different way than many are used to, many practitioners say 

they have the wrong person. The tool shows where the roles are in the tasks and 

KSAs. 

• The Venn diagram shows cyber is overarching and has different communities of skill

that align to work roles. There are relational views between work roles and the 
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ability to compare roles based on overlapping Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Tasks 

(KSAT).

• Many traditional IT roles are represented in the Framework.

• The tool is interactive. Users can click on a community and the tool will reorient the 

work roles below it. Clicking on any role will pull up a profile, the community it’s in,

and the top five related work roles. KSAs and capability of each work role can be 

explored.

• Users can compare work roles side by side to see how KSATs overlap and align. This 

could assist those in the workforce by comparing what work role-specific training 

you might wish to pursue. 

• For tasks they are partnering with DoD to conduct a criticality analysis. For some 

work roles there are lists of tasks in up to 40-50 statements. Is this necessary for 

someone to perform this role? There is a subset of tasks to demonstrate against

those identified in the core set of subtasks. 

• Key features to incorporate in future releases include OPM data incorporation, 

community and work role learning objectives, core competencies, and behavioral 

indicators. This can be a career discovery tool to aid in understanding the 

Framework in your position descriptions. The tool will have many iterations and 

enhancements. 

• When asked how many SMEs participated and about participant group sizes, Mr. 

Paris said there were as few as 7-9 or as many as 250 participants per focus group. 

About 740 federal practitioners were engaged.

• The Federal Cyber Career Pathways Tool will be presented at the NICE conference. 

• See presentation and find out more here.

VIII. Summary of Action Items

• Meeting minutes and presentations to be sent to members.

IX. Next Meeting Reminder

The Next NICE Working Group meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, 2020, at 

3:30 p.m. ET.
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Poll Question 1b:
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Poll Question 3a:
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Poll Question 3b:
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Poll Question 4b: