2026 Virginia Cybersecurity Education Conference

Assorted Miniature Muffins:  including banana nut, blueberry, and lemon poppy seed

All-natural Energy Bites:  our own power snack; oatmeal, coconut, peanut butter, dates, flaxseed and maple syrup in bite size pieces ~vegan, gluten free, contains nuts~

Assorted Soft Drinks: classic coke, diet coke, sprite, ginger ale

Coffee and Tea:  freshly brewed fair trade locally roasted coffee, decaffeinated coffee and a selection of green, black and herbal teas served with cream, sugar, sweeteners and lemon

Chilled Spring Water:  refreshing cool ice water with lemon wheels

Potato Chips and Pretzels:  individual bags of assorted chips and pretzels

Granola Bars:  crisp individually wrapped

Assorted Soft Drinks:  classic coke, diet coke, sprite, ginger ale

Coffee and Tea:  freshly brewed fair trade locally roasted coffee, decaffeinated coffee and a selection of green, black and herbal teas served with cream, sugar, sweeteners and lemon

Hart Rossman is Vice President of Security for AWS, where his responsibilities include leading the Office of the CISO, AWS CIRT (Customer Incident Response Team), and AWS field engagement security. He focuses on enabling customers and field teams to achieve delightful results while leveraging AWS products and services securely. Hart joined AWS in 2012 as an individual contributor and grew to lead AWS Global Services Security, supporting enterprise customers design, build, and optimize their security, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure architecture at a planetary scale. Before AWS, Hart worked for over a decade as a systems integrator in the defense & intelligence, finance, and energy sectors. He is an Eagle Scout and has earned a CISSP, CSSLP, received his B.A. in Communication from the University of Maryland, College Park, and received his MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The Department of War's Cyber Academic Engagement Office (CAEO) serves as a vital bridge between our nation's most pressing security needs and the educational institutions that will solve them. Tasked with inspiring and cultivating the next generation of cyber talent, the CAEO is committed to building a "seamless ecosystem" that supports students from their first K-12 cyber club to a high-impact career in public service.
This session will explore how the DoW is partnering with educators through initiatives like CyberPatriot, the Cyber Service Academy (CSA) scholarship program, and the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) framework. We will discuss how aligning curriculum with these blueprints enhances graduate employability and directly supports the Department's shift toward skills-based hiring. Looking ahead to initiatives like AI4WARD and our Strategic Foresight efforts, attendees will learn how K-12 and higher education stakeholders can collaborate with the DoW to elevate their programs, empower their students, and build a resilient digital workforce for the future.

Cybersecurity career paths are more diverse than ever, yet many students struggle to gain the experience employers expect for entry-level roles. In this welcome address, Stephanie Travis explores one often overlooked pathway into the cybersecurity workforce: military service. Drawing on her experience as a U.S. Air Force cyber operations veteran, Maryland Air National Guard squadron commander, and former cyber workforce development leader at Virginia Tech, she will discuss the challenges facing today’s students and how Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve opportunities can provide valuable training, experience, education benefits, and a strong foundation for a successful cyber career.

Miniature Breakfast Pastries:  a variety of mini muffins, Danishes, assorted nut loaves with glazed cinnamon rolls.

Superfood Snack Bars: house made bars with dried fruits, seeds and nuts. Individually wrapped ~vegan, gluten free, contains nuts~

Assorted Soft Drinks: classic coke, diet coke, sprite, ginger ale

Coffee and Tea:  freshly brewed fair trade locally roasted coffee, decaffeinated coffee and a selection of green, black and herbal teas served with cream, sugar, sweeteners and lemon

Chilled Spring Water:  refreshing cool ice water with lemon wheels

Skills-Based Hiring on the Digital Front Lines
How the DoW CIO is balancing academic pathways, apprenticeships, and hands-on capability to build a faster, more efficient cyber workforce   

In academia, the GPA is a vital metric of a student's discipline, theoretical mastery, and intellectual endurance. But on the cyber battlefield, the ultimate metric is operational readiness. This creates a critical tension: how do we bridge the gap between a student who excels on paper and a practitioner who can actively defend a network under live fire?


The Department of War (DoW) heavily values the foundational rigor of higher education, continually investing in traditional pipelines like the Cyber Scholarship Program (CSP). However, to outpace modern adversaries, we are expanding our aperture. Through our integrated Skills-Based Hiring (SBH) initiative and registered apprenticeship programs, the DoW CIO is shifting how we assess incoming talent. We are not moving away from academic excellence; rather, we are augmenting it with a strict, practical mandate: "Show us what you can do."

The DoW does not dictate academic curricula, but educators must be aware of how the national security apparatus is evolving its evaluation of talent. This presentation provides a transparent look at the DoW’s multi-tiered hiring ecosystem, exploring how we balance academic achievement with hands-on, skills-based assessments. By understanding these diverse pathways, educators can better advise their high-performing students on how to translate their academic success into immediate, mission-ready capability.