I nominate Colonel Curtis (Curt) Carver, Vice Dean for Resources, United States Military Academy, for FISSEA Educator of the Year.

COL. Carver is an outstanding educator, whose extraordinary impact in information assurance education has extended far beyond the US Military Academy. At a national level, Curt has been instrumental in promoting security education through conference governance. Curt has been the program chair of the Federal Information Systems Security Educators’ Association (FISSEA) Conference for the last five years. He has been a FISSEA executive committee member over the same period of time. Curt’s conduct of the conference has been outstanding and marked with proactive leadership with a focus on the emerging field of information assurance education. In a similar manner, Curt has been on the governing body of the Federal Information Assurance Conference (FIAC) and has helped run that conference for the last four years. Curt’s support to FISSEA and FIAC has been extraordinary by any measure of success. In addition to conference governance, Curt remains a gifted and passionate national speaker for security education. With six keynote speeches, thirty conference presentations as an invited or panel speaker, and fifty-five conference papers, Curt has had a significant impact on thousands of conference attendees over a long period of time befitting the FISSEA Educator of the Year award.

COL. Carver is an outstanding researcher in the area of information assurance education as well and has made significant contributions to the field. He conducted novel research in security attack taxonomies and adaptive agent-based intrusion response while obtaining his PhD in computer science. Recognizing that "learning is enhanced by doing", he was a driving force for the active learning exercise on spear phishing codenamed Carronade. The exercise has had a tremendous impact at the Military Academy since 2003 and has spread to the State of New York, Veteran Affairs, and is currently being considered the Department of Defense for DoD-wide implementation. The Veteran Affairs exercise conducted 6-8 February 2007 is appropriately codenamed the “Carver Methodology”. He was also a senior researcher on the $803,000 National Science Foundation grant to explore the development of a network-based simulation to teach the principles of information assurance through serious gaming to middle school students. His research has significant implications for information assurance education at the national level and consistent with the high standards of the FISSEA Educator of the Year.

Finally, COL. Carver is as master educator at the Military Academy. His teaching style and techniques are impeccable. He is literally educating the next generation of leaders of a technology based Army. Even in his current role as a Vice Dean, Curt continues to educate future leaders of character. In addition to the students, Curt has been a Master Teacher under the Military Academy’s Center for Teaching Excellence since its inception. Each year he mentors one or more faculty members on the art and science of teaching. Outside the classroom, he has worked tirelessly to empower students to learn about security through active learning. He is the champion of the cadet information security officer program that empowers students to educate and train other students on computer security. Inside and outside the classroom, Curt has worked tirelessly to educate and train cadets on information security.

In summary, COL. Curt Carver is the complete package: a nationally recognized leader in information assurance education, a noted researcher, and an exceptional educator. As a previous recipient of this prestigious award, I can think of no better candidate that COL Curt Carver as the FISSEA 2006 Educator of the Year.

Congratulations Curtis Carver!