Kennesaw State recently selected Dr. Michael Whitman to serve as the new executive director of the Institute for Cybersecurity Workforce Development.
“The institute will strive to increase the quality and availability of security-related instruction on campus, as well as serve to increase the public and private sectors’ awareness of what KSU has to offer,” Whitman said.
Whitman said he is both excited and apprehensive about the new role as he is the first person to hold that position in a brand new organizational department.
“I’m excited about growing the [program,] bringing additional recognition to KSU, elevating the support and recognition of some of the initiatives we have worked on diligently for almost 20 years and doing something new and challenging,” Whitman said.
Whitman will be tasked with many roles as he fills these new shoes.
“The role of the Institute and its Executive Director is to serve as an external liaison between KSU and organizations that are seeking security professionals and want to contribute to their academic preparation,” Whitman said.
This new role includes managing the bachelor’s of science in cybersecurity program as well as developing additional cybersecurity degrees, certificates and professional education opportunities.
“Since the [program] currently has around 400 majors in its degree, interest and minor programs, we’re looking as much at managing the influx of new students as we are at growing the program,” Whitman said. “The [B.S. in cybersecurity] program has already vastly exceeded its initial enrollment projections.”
As the first eMajor in the state in security, KSU first offered the program in 2017, Whitman said.
“We have led the state and the region in undergraduate security education, and we hope to continue that trend,” Whitman said. “We think we’ve established a reputation in the region as our security students have a nearly 100% employment rate upon graduation.”
Whitman previously served as the executive director of the Center for Information Security Education at KSU.
“I founded the Center for Information Security in 2001, to provide an externally-focused entity that promotes security education within and between institutions,” Whitman said. “When I was asked to be the Institute director, I asked to bring all of the activities and functions of the Center into the Institute.”
Whitman said there currently is not a need for both the Center and the Institute, and as such, he has decided to inactivate the Center for the duration of his tenure as the Institute’s executive director.
“Because I was formerly the Executive Director of the Center for Information Security Education, I am bringing a number of initiatives I started within the Center to the Institute, and hope to grow them within its framework,” Whitman said. “This includes the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, which KSU developed as part of the National CCDC back in 2006, and the Conference on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice, which KSU has hosted in various forms since 2003.”
Whitman is also a professor of information security and assurance and has taught at KSU since 1998.
“With a new position, comes new and redefined responsibilities,” Whitman said. “I will still teach graduate security classes, albeit fewer, and do research — also less than I did before — but I’m still a faculty member, just now administrative faculty.”
The ICWD is home to the University’s top-ranked online cybersecurity degree according to CyberDegrees.org.
Whitman earned a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business and previously served in the U.S. Army as an officer in the 2nd Armored Cavalry with duties as an automated data processing system security officer.
