US Air Force Veteran and seasoned Cybersecurity/Technology leader with over a decade of distinguished leadership across critical sectors including energy, health, government, and defense. With a robust educational foundation, holding an MSIT with a focus on Information Assurance and Security, an MBA in IT Management, and top-tier certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, and CISM, my expertise lies in steering organizations towards achieving their IT and cybersecurity objectives. I enjoy all sides of technology including the strategic planning, hands-on technical implementations, and soft skills necessary to ensure both visionary leadership and ground-level operational excellence.At Aquia, I was instrumental in shaping the initial technology infrastructure and operational frameworks, in addition to directly contributing to the establishment of company values and the performance management system. My contributions in a key position for a $44M federal contract resulted in successfully extending its tenure to the maximum four years due to strategic program enhancements and a keen focus on compliance and efficiency.As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), I orchestrated a major strategic overhaul of the cybersecurity landscape, significantly enhancing the organization's information security measures. My efforts included successfully securing a cybersecurity budget increase which enabled the procurement of cutting-edge security tools and technologies, and the expansion of the cybersecurity team through strategic hires, enhancing the overall security readiness and resilience of the organization. My role was not only strategic but also deeply technical, involving direct oversight of critical security implementations and hands-on problem-solving to secure complex IT environments.