I nominate George R. Bieber, Chief of the Information Assurance Education, Training, Awareness and Products Branch of the INFOSEC Program Management Office (IPMO) Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for FISSEA Educator of the Year.

Mr. Bieber is an outstanding educator, whose extraordinary impact in information assurance education and training has extended far beyond his government agency and assigned task area.  DISA originally focused on the need for training Defense Department on IA topics but due to his efforts has expanded its reach to include Federal Agencies and states.  He has tirelessly worked to collaborate and share ideas, course materials and products with representatives from the DOD and the Federal government in an effort to reduce the duplication of effort that exists today.  Through his membership and work on committees and working groups such as: Security Policy Board (SPB), Training and Professional Development Committee (TPDC), Security Managers Forum, NSTISSC's ETA issues group, Critical Infrastructure Assurance Organization (CIAO), National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), FISSEA Board and Critical Infrastructure Coordination Group (CICG) he has championed technologies, courses and products for maximizing and existing agency training money. Mr. Bieber's insightful and innovative solutions to education and training issues in information technology security have been recognized at the national level in the United States, often being reflected in national information systems security policy formulations.

Mr. Bieber worked with representatives from Treasury, Justice and Energy to tailor the DOD INFOSEC Awareness Product to meet the needs of the Federal Government. He worked with representatives from NASA to provide them an existing Security Awareness training product that they customized for their own needs thus saving them over 100K.  He worked with members from DOE to produce a web-based Security Refresher Briefing.  He is currently working with Treasury to provide the same type of support and savings that was achieved by NASA.

Gifted with a unique insight enabling him to recognize the fundamental elements of complex technologies and systems, Mr. Bieber has consistently addressed his immediate mission education and training challenges in a global context.  He consistently deals not just with the immediate educational requirements his office must meet, but factors in broader solutions dealing with similar problems being experienced by the Federal Government as a whole.  Further, the education and training courseware developed under his supervision takes into account analogous difficulties being experienced in the U.S. economy's private sector as well.

The wide recognition of Mr. Bieber's expertise as an educator and instructor has resulted in him being invited to participate as a panel, group, or team member of a broad spectrum of information system security fora.  He has consistently highlighted the necessary human element and need for appropriate education and training involved in addressing information security problems for which more superficial technical solutions are frequently advocated.  His synergistic perspective of the contribution of education and training to information security has had an identifiable impact on U.S. policy formulation concerning information assurance (IA), information operations (IO), Internet and Web security, and insider threat issues.  He has led the way in developing and promoting career paths for IA professionals.

Mr. Bieber created DISA's IA Franchise Program that provides instructional support and material to requesting Agencies.  Through the IA Franchise Program a cadre of instructors has been created to meet the training needs of other organizations to include the Army, Navy, and DITC - Japan, Hawaii, Korea, and Guam.  For those organizations that do not have qualified instructors or cannot get students into a classroom he has led the way in pioneering the use of computer based training to build a set of IA training materials for system administrators, information system security officers and managers, and certifiers. Mr. Bieber has promoted the used of distance learning technologies to reach those students who cannot get to or whose job does not allow them the time to attend traditional classroom instruction.

Congratulations George R. Bieber!