勛圖厙

2024 Ellis Lecture Series

2025 Ellis Lecture Series

2025 勛圖厙allas Cyber Summit:
Securing our World

October 15, 2025
勛圖厙,
Cardinal Farrell Hall

Since 2003, the National Security Agency has recognized the Gupta College of Business as a Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in cybersecurity. The 勛圖厙 Cyber Summit will give alumni and students a chance to share ideas, learn from experts and commemorate 勛圖厙s long standing reputation as an outstanding institution for cybersecurity.

The 勛圖厙 Cyber Summit will feature prominent cybersecurity speakers and a panel discussion with experts. This event will recognize outstanding alumni of the program. Attendees will be able to connect with the experts, current cyber students, alumni and faculty.


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Summit Agenda

Time Session Details
5:00 p.m.

Guest Check-In & Networking
Grab your badge, connect with fellow attendees, and get settled in for an evening of insight and innovation.

5:20 p.m.

Opening Remarks
Dr. Sandra Blanke
Cybersecurity Program Director and Associate Professor

Welcome to the Cybersecurity Summit: Students, Alumni, 勛圖厙 Cyber board members and Community Members

5:25 p.m.

Welcome to the 勛圖厙
Dr. J Lee Whittington
Dean, Satish and Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Building Community, Learning from Each Other, and Supporting Others with mentoring, training, internships and full-time cybersecurity positions"

5:45 p.m.

Dinner Buffet
Enjoy a buffet dinner while networking with peers and cybersecurity professionals.

6:30 p.m. Inside the CFTF: A Career in Cybercrime Investigations
Wendy Cassidy
Senior Special Agent, U.S. Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force (Dallas Field Office)
6:45 p.m. Cyber Fraud Case Detection and Details
Stefan Hare
Network Intrusion Analyst, USSS Agent
7:10 p.m. Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity: Capabilities, Constraints and Consequences
James Binford
Senior Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Chase
7:30 p.m. Presentation
Teresa Merklin
Lockheed Martin, 勛圖厙 Cybersecurity Board Member and Alumni
7:50 p.m.

Demo Session: Real-World Cybersecurity Defense
Donovan Farrow
Alias Cybersecurity, 勛圖厙 Cybersecurity Board Member

Real-world tools, techniques, and takeaways from active cybersecurity defense and incident response.

8:30 p.m.

Interactive Panel Discussion
Audience Q&A Session

Explore the evolving landscape of cyber threats, AI's role in modern defense, and career pathways in Cybersecurity.

8:55 p.m. Closing Remarks & Farewell

 

 

Summit Speakers

 

J. Lee WhittingtonJ. Lee Whittington is Dean and Professor of Management in the Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business at the 勛圖厙. He focuses his teaching, research, and consulting in the areas of Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Spiritual Leadership.

His research has been published in The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Management, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and the Journal of Business Research. 

J. Lees industry experience includes over twenty years in manufacturing and distribution. He has held executive positions in marketing, logistics, and general management. He maintains an active consulting practice that includes executive coaching and leadership development engagements

J Lee attended Austin College where he graduated with a BA in Economics and Political Science. He received his MBA and Ph.D. (Organizational Behavior) from The University of Texas at Arlington. J. Lee and his wife Laura have four children and six precious grandchildren.

 

James BinfordJames Binford is a Senior Director of Cybersecurity Architecture at JPMorgan Chase, and a cybersecurity expert with over two decades of experience securing global organizations like Google, US Bank, Amazon Web Services, and Humana. Specializing in Cloud Security, Offensive Security, and the Business Information Security Officer (BISO) role, he has successfully led global security programs that align technical defenses with business goals.

 

Stefan HareStefan Hare currently serves as a Network Intrusion Analyst with the U.S Secret Service. He is based in the U.S Secret Service Dallas Field Office as a part of the North Texas Cyber Fraud Task Force. His role includes community outreach, incident response, and digital forensics.

Prior to joining the U.S Secret Service Mr. Hare was a cybercrime Detective for the El Paso County Sheriffs Office. Mr. Hare supported numerous law enforcement investigations utilizing skills and training received from the U.S Secret Service National Computer Forensics Institute. Mr. Hare earned a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Administration.

 

Wendy CassidyWendy Cassidy has served as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service for 21 years, dedicating 14 of those years to investigating national and international financial fraud and cybercrimes. Her expertise spans a broad spectrum of criminal activity including counterfeit currency, identity theft, mortgage fraud, credit card abuse, bank fraud, network intrusion, business email compromise, ransomware, access device fraud, crypto fraud, elder fraud, and child exploitation cases. Through her work with the Cyber Fraud Task Force over the past 8 years, Agent Cassidy has been instrumental in recovering over $64 million in fraudulently lost funds for individuals, businesses, and organizations.

In addition to her investigative work, Agent Cassidy serves as a designated liaison, participating in more than 200 cyber, fraud, and security events, including presentations, tabletop exercises, and panel discussions. She regularly engages with academia, corporations, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, and the healthcare sector to promote awareness and collaboration in combating cybercrime and fraud.

Beyond her professional responsibilities, Agent Cassidy is deeply committed to community outreach. She volunteers as a USSS Ambassador for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), where she teaches students, parents, and educators about internet and online safety.

Agent Cassidy holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. Before joining the Secret Service, she served as a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorneys Office in Houston, Texas.

 

Donovan FarrowDonovan Farrow founded Alias in 2010. He brings more than 20 years of experience working for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, Loves Travel Stops, Chesapeake Energy and NTT Security in the fields of Information Technology, Information Security, Digital Forensics and Incident Response. Farrow currently serves as CEO of Alias. He has provided digital forensic analysis in more than 2,100 court cases, 160 incident response engagements, 250 penetration tests, was appointed Special Master by the Court, sits on the Oklahoma City Community College Advisory Board, and is ACE, PCE, CCE, and GCFA certified.

With Farrows leadership, Alias received national recognition in the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Companies of 2022. Farrow is a member of The Journal Records 19th class of Achievers Under 40 and was named one of Oklahomas Most Admired CEOs in 2022. In addition, Farrow was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Tulsa Small Business Summit and Awards Ceremony in 2018.

Teresa MerklinTeresa Merklin is a Fellow attached to the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Cyber Range. That facility is chartered to perform highly specialized cybersecurity testing and evaluation of DoD embedded avionics systems. In that capacity, she is designated as the technical lead for Cyber Risk Assessment across the complete portfolio of Aeronautics platforms. She has 30+ years of career experience, starting out in embedded software development which evolved over time into her current role in cybersecurity. 

Teresas primary areas of focus are Engineering for Cyber Resiliency and Cyber Risk Assessment. She is the author of the Aeronautics Cyber Resilience Systems Engineering (ACRSE) Guidebook which provides a conceptual overview of integration of Cyber Resiliency Engineering techniques throughout the acquisition, development, and sustainment lifecycles. She is also the creator of cyber assessment techniques including Mission Impact Assessment (MIA) and Cyber Check-Up. She is skilled in multiple Cyber Risk Assessment methodologies currently in use in the DoD as applied to LM Aeronautics Programs.

Teresa has a BSEE from Oklahoma State University, a Masters of Software Engineering from Texas Christian University, and a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Information Assurance from the 勛圖厙. She is also certified as a CISSP and CSSLP. 

 

Prior Events

Year Speaker Topic
2024

Brian Wrozek, MBA '08, CISSP
The Importance of Critical Infrastructure Resilience

Teresa Merklin, MBA '05, CISSP and CSSLP
Cybersecurity Breaches are Inevitable - Limit their impact with Cyber Resilience

Donovan Farrow CEO Alias Cybersecurity
Demonstration and Tabletop Exercise revealing Incident Response

Securing our World: A Focus on Cybersecurity Resilience
2023

Partner Data Privacy and Cybersecurity
勛圖厙 Cyber Summit : Celebrating 20 Years as a Center of Academic Excellence
2022

American Enterprise Institute
2020

U.S. Secrect Service Agent

2019

Fidelity Investments

Optive Securities

Trintech Security
2018

Secuirty Scorecard