I nominate Ms K Rudolph, Chief Inspiration Officer of Native Intelligence, Inc., for FISSEA Educator of the Year. Ms K Rudolph is a sought-after trainer, speaker, and creative genius. K has been an active participant in security since 1985. Her work efforts included conducting security reviews, developing security policies and best practices, and providing awareness briefings. She was among the first to provide user-focused web-based security awareness courses.

Many innovations followed, to increase interaction and provide useful and behavior-based metrics. The improved effectiveness of her approach is clearly evident in the feedback received from those who have taken her courses. While the feedback received is overwhelmingly positive, even the few negative responses evidence an in-depth attention to the courseware, a level of attention that is not often given to web-based courseware.

K usually provides personal, in-depth, individual responses to end user feedback. She treats questions and comments from users as opportunities for expanded training and course improvement. She and her firm have been referred to by several customers as providing the "gold standard" for service.

Ms Rudolph has shown a special talent for making almost any subject entertaining and interesting. She engages the audience through her candor, humor, and her ability to make the abstract relevant.

In addition, K has constructed numerous tools and devices to assist organizations in educating their staffs. These include: newsletters, posters, courses, screen savers, calendars, motivational items, and surveys. The security surveys and courses provide innovative metrics. The data gathered helps to improve the organization's security stance appreciably. This ability to measure behavior and responses also helps tune the security focus to aid the individual as well as the whole business unit.

It is easy to use my own agency as an example of Ms Rudolph's industriousness and tenacity. Here at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Ms Rudolph provided a superb customized NOAA-wide web-based Security Awareness Training (SAT) course. NOAA has used this customized course for several years. Satisfied NOAA staff have stated that "the work is truly outstanding and Native Intelligence people are among the best in the IT Security industry at staying in the forefront of awareness needs." Every year for the past four years, a new IT Security Awareness course has been developed by Ms Rudolph and placed online during the first week in each January. This year with a deadline for employee completion of February 17, 2006, all 18,338 employees have succeeded. With the assistance and dedication of Native Intelligence, NOAA again met this agency requirement. K's work demonstrates a wealth of security knowledge, with a touch of good humor, and a "get the job done" attitude.

For anyone who has seen Ms Rudolph speak or work, it is easy to see that it is a labor of love. Her excitement is infectious while her deep drive and intent are worthy of emulation. Though she frequently speaks at various Government agencies and such conferences as the National Computer Security Conference, eGov's IA Conference, FIAC, and the Computer Security Institute, as well as FISSEA, most of these presentations are uncompensated, showing her sincere desire to help audiences understand. Another example of this is how she personally replies to comments and inquiries resulting from students who have taken her courses. These are not simple notes but generally require time and heart, especially when the writer is having difficulty with a concept. Having seen some of her responses, she takes pains to ensure that the submitter does understand by the time they end their interchange. Having her heart involved explains why she willingly donates some of her clever security message posters to schools, nursing homes, and organizations (e.g., CCCure.org) which do not have funding for security awareness. Her ability to educate through writing has also been apparent in numerous articles as well as book chapters, a recent example of which is the "Security Awareness Program" Chapter from the 2005 three-volume Handbook of Information Security.

I will close this nomination by stating that Ms K Rudolph is a tremendous asset to our industry and we are fortunate to have her. K's affect on our field far exceeds the work she has done for organizations as she has impacted on the minds of our workers through her creativity and this transcends the workplace. Honoring her with the Educator of the Year Award will openly demonstrate how much we appreciate her efforts in the FISSEA mission.

Congratulations K Rudolph!