• Led two monthly working groups comprised of 80+ participants from federal agencies and commercial providers focused on Federal PKI policy management, governance, and technical interoperability.• Developed web content, briefings, and other technical guidance communications to promote awareness regarding high-risk / high-value discussions and technology changes affecting Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management.• Supported the planning, coordination, and execution of the Federal Public Trust Transport Layer Security (TLS) PKI deployment.• Oversaw staff planning, forecasting, client deliverable development, and quality assurance for a GSA time and materials contract valued at approximately $3M/year.• Facilitated collaboration across the General Services Administration (GSA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Federal Network Resilience teams to prepare federal agencies for the FY21 Federal PKI trust anchor migration.

• Led team of five staff in designing, deploying, and maintaining a custom PKI solution consisting of five subordinate certification authorities (CAs) on the secret fabric for 11 Federal customer agencies.• Designed, documented, and tested over one hundred and fifty system change requests (CRs) to enhance a custom Red Hat Certificate System (RHCS), Red Hat Directory Server (RHDS), and GOTS-based PKI solution utilized to issue and manage nearly 500,000 certificates for CSP Participating Agency (PA) stakeholders and DoD components.• Evaluated and supported integration planning of “second source” smart card vendor technologies for the National Security Systems (NSS) PKI in an effort to increase competition to reduce costs and improve reliability metrics across the DoD and CSP PKIs.• Developed Selenium-based automated regression testing suite, in conjunction with manual evaluation processes, to ensure release of consistently high-quality deliverables for CSP CR installations and to ensure positive customer experience.• Architected innovative, next generation NSS PKI solution “CAMELEON” to support highly flexible certificate issuance in an effort to maximize CSP PA PKI enablement while minimizing development efforts.• Facilitated preparation of and response to CSP PKI architecture-wide vulnerability assessment & DoD STIG compliance review performed by Sandia National Laboratories.

DoD PKI Program Management Office Engineering & Training Team Nov. 2012 - Present• Supported DoD client as a lead technical trainer, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) engineer, and policy subject matter expert.• Independently authored multiple PKI and Public Key Enablement (PKE) white-papers, which enhanced client capabilities and drove efficiencies focused at the issuance of PKI certificates across the Department of Defense (DoD) and non-DoD Federal agencies.• Conducted over forty PKI training facilitations to stakeholders from a variety of DoD and Federal Agencies focused on PKI certificate issuance and management, maintaining an average training evaluation above the 99th percentile.Army CIO/G-6 Cyber Directorate – CAC PKI Division Feb. 2012 - Nov. 2012 • Led the implementation of National Security Systems (NSS) SIPRNet Hardware token technology at multiple Army base locations across the United States, in addition to providing dedicated on-site support at international locations including Wiesbaden, Germany and Seoul, South Korea. • Authored three technical deliverables and two guidance documents that offered Army client increased efficiency and situational awareness of the NSS PKI technology. Operation Sentinel – BAH Smart Card Project Aug. 2011 - Feb. 2012• Served as lead technical trainer of the Booz Allen Smart Card Program, developing PKI training materials used at all 85 Booz Allen locations across the world.• Responsible for training staff to support the implementation and maintenance of PKI smart card technology for over 25,000 Booz Allen staff members.Information Assurance Technology Assurance Center (IATAC) Project Management Office Aug. 2010 - Aug. 2011• Managed delivery of 85 task orders across multiple client spaces funded at over $1,931,384,000. • Led multiple team initiatives including authoring and contributing to multiple deliverables.

TEDxPSU was an independently sponsored TED conference (http://www.TED.com). This day-long event brought together innovative and thought-provoking individuals from across the globe to listen and share fascinating ideas worth spreading to an audience of over 1,100 people. In addition to the live audience sitting in Penn State University’s Schwab Auditorium, the event was also simulcast and recorded for later playback. Mr. Dickson’s role within TEDxPSU was the Director of the Speakers Committee. He spent six months leading a team of fifteen volunteers researching, interviewing, selecting, and preparing innovative speakers to attend the conference, including the likes of world famous security technologist, Mr. Bruce Schneier. In addition to his role as program director and producer for the event, Ryan played a large role in assisting the solicitation of over $130,000 worth of donations from corporate and university sponsors. Please visit http://www.tedxpsu.com for more information on TEDxPSU, or to watch the event’s “talks”.

Interested in bolstering his business skills after spending the previous three summers working in technical roles, Mr. Dickson joined the Planning and Development Team as a Marketing and Communications Team intern during the summer of 2009. He quickly put his strong IT background to use by identifying and proposing solution to a process inefficiency in one of the team’s major communication development processes. Mr. Dickson was able to streamline the process by 66% (saving over twenty team hours each week), allowing valuable department personnel to take on additional responsibilities.

Mr. Dickson has a passion for volunteering and was incredibly active in Penn State’s IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, more affectionately known as “THON”. THON is a completely student managed philanthropy that raises money for The Four Diamonds Fund (raising nearly 80 million dollars since 1978), based out of Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center. The Four Diamonds Fund provides outstanding emotional and financial support for families with children diagnosed with pediatric cancer, while also placing a large emphasis on cancer research. In 2009, Mr. Dickson served as the Technology Director, leading a team of twenty motivated students to design IT systems to support over 15,000 student volunteers who fundraised upwards of $7.49 million dollars from October to February. During his time in this role, Mr. Dickson also created the first fully student run/PCI DSS Compliant online store at Penn State.

In 2008, Mr. Dickson worked in the Projects Office of the Technology Operations Department. His primary role served as assisting the day-to-day operations of the Virtualization Project Team, but Mr. Dickson quickly became interested the positive environmental impact of the “green” technology his team was working to install. By the end of the summer, Mr. Dickson had authored a thirty page White Paper on Vanguard’s “Green Initiatives” and proposed a number of feasible instances where the company could continue to move “green”, while saving thousands of dollars each year.

In 2007, Mr. Dickson joined the Desktop Support Services Team of the Technology Operations Department. His primary role served as managing, documenting, and auditing technology for over 750 clients. During his time in this role, Mr. Dickson learned valuable troubleshooting techniques for a variety of hardware and software configurations.

Mr. Dickson spent the summer of 2006 working in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s primary global datacenter as a member of the Enterprise Systems Operations– PSS Netbackup Team. While on this team, Mr. Dickson re-constructed the Global Enterprise Operations Center Operations Manual, a document used for compliance and auditing of internal backup processes. Mr. Dickson also worked to implement the ESO - DLT Disk Tape Reconciliation Project, which phased out old disk tape technology and organized it for longtime storage. Additionally, Mr. Dickson designed the ESO – ITO Backup Error Trending Report System, reducing number of non-actionable backup error alerts by 30%.