Diana L. Burley, a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University, was named the 2014 Cybersecurity Educator of the Year at the 18th Annual Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE) in June. “I’m excited and honored to be recognized by the CISSE board of directors as a leader in national efforts to transform cybersecurity education and workforce development programs,” said Burley.
Dr. Burley, a nationally recognized cybersecurity workforce expert, has also published extensively on public sector IT use, knowledge management and information sharing. Prior to GW, she served as a program officer at The National Science Foundation (NSF) where she managed a multi-million dollar computer science education and research portfolio and led the CyberCorps program. Based on her work at NSF, Dr. Burley was honored by the Federal CIO Council and the CISSE for outstanding efforts toward the development of the federal cyber security workforce.
CISSE’s board of directors selected Burley for the 2014 Cybersecurity Educator of the Year award because of her contributions in the field of cyber security, as well as personal achievements as an academic and educator, including:
• Being named one of the top ten influencers in information security careers by Careers Info Security Magazine in 2014;
• Twice appointed (2012, 2013) to the Virginia General Assembly Joint Commission on Technology & Science Cyber Security Advisory Committee;
• Served as co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee “Professionalizing the Nation’s Cybersecurity Workforce”;
• Recipient of numerous National Science Foundation awards, including principal investigator of the Executive Cyber Corps program, and research co-principal investigator of the $5M National CyberWatch Center.
“Diana Burley joins a pantheon of leaders in the field who have received the Educator of the Year Award since CISSE began presenting it annually in 2004. Because of its origins in the NSA/DHS Centers of Academic Excellence Program, CISSE is arguably the most prestigious conference in the field of cyber security and the Educator of the Year Award is the oldest award of its type granted to cyber security educators,” said Professor Dan Shoemaker, member of the executive board and treasurer for CISSE.
Dr. Burley is currently the only person to have received both the Outstanding Government Employee of the Year (2011) and the Educator of the Year (2014) awards from CISSE.
Dr. Burley holds an M.S. in Public Management and Policy, an M.S. in Organization Science, and a Ph.D. in Organization Science and Information Technology from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). At CMU, she studied as a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Fellow in Public Policy.
She has presented widely at international academic and practice-oriented meetings and has written more than 40 publications. She is a successful grant writer, having received research support from public and private funding sources such as NSF, IBM, and SAIC.
For more information about her professional activities and publications please visit her LinkedIn page.