As Director of Threat & Vulnerability Management, I worked to transform the company by focusing on the capabilities of Vulnerability Management, Application Security, Penetration Testing, and Red Team. I helped to identify the next round of leaders within the teams and worked with them to build strong teams that allowed each team member to fully evolve into SMEs for all functions, developing their talent and experience.While in this role, we worked to reduce spending for our technologies, vendors, and teams so that other weaker areas of Cyber could use that budget on their own transformations. We elevated the talent of the team members and raised the expectations of what it meant to belong to our greater team. We automated processes and identified all gaps so that we could address each effectively.

During my time in this role, I transformed the Information Security department by analyzing and rebuilding the team with a talented group of individuals who worked well together and newer, stronger technologies to better support the business. We implemented NGFWs, EDR, and email security to better protect the organization., and we worked closely with other teams to advise on how to best implement new software in the most secure manner. I managed all aspects of Information Security including Data Protection, Network Security, Vulnerability Management, Threat & Incident Response, Architecture, and served as the Deputy CISO across the company and with affiliated organizations.The Governance, Risk, and Compliance team was created to build a separate group to better align the individual departments within Dillard's with the frameworks necessary for Payment Card Industry and the new privacy regulations. This group worked together to advise compliance, create policies and standards to communicate those requirements, and govern those procedures. In addition, we established a Vendor Risk process to better advise on the security and privacy practices of external partnerships. The Project Management Office was folded into the GRC team in order to better align the objectives and staff skills to better serve large-scale projects.

My position allowed me to advance my strongest skills & dive into new challenging areas:◆ Infrastructure Management - This was the core of my role. I worked with my teams to continually reduce cost while improving efficiencies of people, projects, and tools. ◆ Performance Tuning - One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of my job consisted of the performance testing projects where we fought to overcome bottlenecks, exposing the "next biggest"​ issue. ◆ Project Management - I worked to deliver all projects on schedule and under budget, identifying obstacles and maneuvering past them to deliver top quality solutions.◆ Architecture - I truly enjoyed the design of a true end-to-end solution considering all Hardware, Network, Security, Application Server, Cloud, Storage, and Database possibilities and identifying the most effective architecture.◆ Disaster Recovery - As an admin at heart, I always strive to deliver solutions where our employees are able to perform tasks at will without concern of impacting customers. ◆ eCommerce - Working with eCommerce offered many new learning opportunities. It's an ever-changing world with ever-changing technology issues and possibilities.◆ Vendor Management - I worked with some of the best representatives from the most solid companies in the world. I have extensive experience in contract negotiation and budget models which served me well in sourcing.◆ Cloud Computing - It has become extremely important to understand Cloud Computing as the new platform. We implemented our own solution and view it as a viable option driving automation initiatives throughout the enterprise.◆ Coaching - The most important aspect of any company are the employees who work to make that organization excellent. I work with the most amazing people and enjoy the opportunity to help them grow and thrive.

◆ The Dillard's Infrastructure teams consists of teams with advanced technical resources who work together with other IT professionals to deliver high quality solutions for Dillard’s ongoing technology requirements. ◆ The Storage, Mainframe, and Web Administration teams are responsible for installation, configuration, tuning, securing, monitoring, and administration. The teams strive to meet and exceed set SLA’s for performance and availability in the most cost-efficient manner. ◆ These teams support the Dillard’s associates and customers by playing an instrumental role to resolve all issues and ensure their satisfaction. Our administrators research current systems technology and serve as subject matter experts on complex systems processes and procedures.◆ Top Projects included ✔ eCommerce Performance Testing ✔ Revising Enterprise Storage Strategies ✔ Becoming a Multi-vendor Data Center ✔ DB2 Beta Testing

As Team Lead of the Web Administration team, I managed a team of highly skilled web administrators. The team was responsible for the health of over 20 web environments using IBM WebSphere software as well as WebSphere Commerce, WebSphere Portal, and IBM Content Manager. The team consisted of professionals knowledgeable of network protocols, Java standards, and database practices. The Web Admins serve as the "center" for troubleshooting when issues arise in their environments working with teams involved in the end-to-end solution including pSeries, iSeries, zSeries, DBAs, Information Security, and Network Administrators.✔ Project Management was an essential component of this role. The most successful visible project during my tenure in this position was the establishment of completely highly available web solutions consisting of multi-node clusters spread across AIX servers in datacenters connecter by dark fiber with database clusters managed by HADR. This solution provided the highest availability for the organization.Dillard's, Inc. ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel and home furnishings retailers with annual revenues exceeding $7.7 billion.

At Nuvell, I served as the Senior Web Administrator managing external and internal websites. Those highly available sites were served with WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Portal Server on both iSeries and xSeries platforms. I managed a close working relationship with developers and end users and served as the primary support contact for any substantial issues. Responsibilities included project management, installation, configuration, tuning, migrations, securing, monitoring, and troubleshooting. ✔ The most successful visible project during my tenure was the successful migration of all WebSphere Network Deployment environments from the Windows platform to the iSeries platform. I led the migration while learning the new platform to provide a more reliable solution for our critical web applications. During this migration, we also built a disaster recovery environment and full backup solution to keep all nodes synchronized.Nuvell, a GMAC subsidiary, was one of the nation's premier providers of comprehensive vehicle financing and servicing.

When I began working at Alltel/Fidelity Information Systems, I served as a COBOL programmer for the Advanced Loans Systems (ALS) and Automotive Finance (ALS-AF) applications. This position gave me the opportunity to work with business analysts to achieve the customer's requirements on the banking software application systems (designed for financial institutions) while focusing on the technical aspects of the applications. I also had the opportunity to work on creating a User Interface for these same applications. Since I worked on the project since inception, I was able to serve in many different roles including designer, Quality Assurance, and Project Manager. I enjoyed the opportunity to serve throughout the life of project and throughout the versions of the product while gaining experience into the many skills needed for the various positions necessary to the success of the team.