I spent much of this week in Washington, D.C. with our colleagues from the Cyber Innovation Center. We have several joint initiatives that have been supportive of national and regional cybersecurity and defense needs. The CIC and Louisiana Tech have worked diligently for more than a decade to have greater impacts on education, workforce development, research & development and economic development in Louisiana, particularly our region. There have been a number of successes that have resulted from these efforts.

One of the most significant successes is the establishment of the Cybersecurity Education, Training and Assistance Program (CETAP)  at the CIC, funded by the Department of Homeland Security. The CIC serves as the lead technical organization for developing and delivering cyber-based classroom curricula and resources to teachers across the country on behalf of DHS.  Over the last 5 years, cyber education curricula have been made accessible to more than 13,000 teachers in all 50 states and two U.S. territories resulting in the education of over two million students to date. We met with DHS this week for a kickoff meeting on the next 5-year phase of this project.

We also had meetings on Capitol Hill with members of our Louisiana delegation to provide updates on our activities and plans. They have been highly supportive of our efforts. 

I returned back to the office on Thursday for several meetings as we kicked off the Winter Quarter.  On Friday, I returned to Bossier City for a meeting with CIC Director Craig Spohn to follow up on our DC trip and plan for more activities next week.

I am most grateful for our colleagues in Bossier City who have worked tirelessly to elevate North Louisiana’s education, workforce and economic development opportunities. We will see the benefits of this for years to come.