Special Recognition

Welcome! For those who do not know me – I worked for NSA for 37 years and retired as a Senior Executive in 2018. At the end of 2018, I was recruited by Chris Inglis and Dick Schaeffer to serve as the first CEO of the Foundation. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what I was in for, but it has been a challenging and fun ride so far. To be clear – this is not retirement!

Over the past three years, the NCF has undergone remarkable change as we have expanded our mission and reach across the nation. As Dick mentioned in his remarks, we have dealt with some challenges, but have seized on the opportunities for virtual education to broaden our reach through a variety of programs..... Click on Laura's name or photo to read her full remarks.

During his remarks, GEN Nakasone spoke about how NSA and USCYBERCOM are addressing strategic challenges by investing in three critical areas: Talent, Technology, and Trusted Partnerships. He noted that the U.S. Cyber Command and NSA partner across the U.S. government, private sector, academia, and foreign allies to achieve common goals and outcomes. New partnerships are continuing to form such as the new partnership between the NSA and NCF. He said, "The NCF will create opportunities for the public and private sectors to engage on cybersecurity and national security issues. This is a force multiplier, especially for our ability to enhance cyber security education, through the Cyber Center for Education and Innovation."

Ms. Laing spoke about the NSA-NCF shared mission to address the growing need for qualified cyber professionals. During her remarks, she stated, "The Agency is committed to partnering with the NCF to create a sense of national urgency around the cybersecurity threat, jointly support nation-wide cybersecurity education programs, and build nation-wide talent pipelines to fill cybersecurity roles."

Ms. Verstandig spoke about the importance of the shared vision of the NCF and NSA through "Progress through Partnership” and the importance of having the partnership codified in the Memorandum of Agreement. She highlighted the months of work by both parties that was put into the vision statement signed by Laura Nelson and GEN Nakasone in early November 2021. Through this partnership, the NCF and NSA will bolster understanding of the 21st century cyber landscape and facilitate collaboration across its multi-sector stakeholders.

At the conclusion of her remarks, Ms. Verstandig announced that the NCF will receive a $3M gift from the Verstandig Family Foundation to further develop the Cyber Center for Education & Innovation programs, as well as the public-private partnership between the NCF and NSA.

Today is a celebration of partnerships, what we’ve accomplished together, and what we can accomplish in the future. Most of the folks in this room have read the Congressional Cyberspace Solarium Commission report. Our partnership with USCYBERCOM, DreamPort, Whiteford Taylor Preston, The National Cyber Group, and University of Baltimore, led to a series of Commission webinars resulting in a white paper that highlighted issues impeding cybersecurity education. Among them were time and money, lack of teachers, lack of ubiquitous technology, lack of national, state, district, and local requirements/standards, lack of cybersecurity awareness, and lack of coordination and sharing of resources......Click on Mark's name or photo to read his full remarks.

Let’s Raise a Toast to our Founders!

Thanks to all of you- for your passion to Educate, Stimulate, and Commemorate. Because of you, today the National Cryptologic Foundation is bursting at the seams with education programs and many more in the pipeline. In the past two years we have added eight new NCF-CCEI Founders and increased Founder pledges by $4.5M (not including today's generous pledges).....Click on Rebecca's name or photo to read her full remarks.