Community and technology leaders from across Oklahoma met at OU-Tulsa last month to discuss cybersecurity in our state and the importance of focusing on advanced and applied technology-based education to meet workforce demands in northeast Oklahoma.
As part of the OU-Tulsa Presidential Research Series, the panel included experts from both “red team” (an industry term meaning technological personnel who focus on finding vulnerabilities in security and breaking through defenses) and “blue team” (those who defend against attacks and respond to them) perspectives.
Conor Godfrey, director of cybersecurity with Tulsa Innovation Labs, led the panel as moderator and walked panelists through a series of questions to define the big picture around cybersecurity, as well as what’s needed in education today to best serve their respective organizations in the future. The panel members included:
- Dr. Jim Sluss, OU-Tulsa interim president and former interim director of the OU Polytechnic Institute
- Dr. Mark Raymond, director of the OU Cyber Governance and Policy Center and the Wick Cary Associate Professor of International Relations
- Brian Overman, assistant vice president of IT security operations at American Fidelity
- Kris Wall, chief information security officer and penetration tester with Critical Fault, a physical and cybersecurity company in Edmond
- Shawn Whitcomb, chief security officer for Cherokee Nation
The OU-Tulsa Presidential Research Series is a quarterly lecture series focusing on research and innovation. In 2023, the series will include topics related to the OU Polytechnic Institute, the new school coming to OU-Tulsa to provide bachelor’s completion and graduate degree programs that will initially focus on cybersecurity, data science, software development, medical informatics and advanced mobility/manufacturing. The first degree offered through the OU Polytechnic Institute will be a bachelor’s degree completion program in cybersecurity launching in August 2024, pending approval by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Watch the entire panel discussion below. To learn more about the OU Polytechnic Institute, click here.
