Univ. of Fairfax names first two GSN Fellowship recipients

The University of Fairfax has announced the first two recipients of GSN Fellowships, a joint scholarship program between the university and GSN: Government Security News, aimed at helping to defray the costs of their online graduate-level education in information assurance.

The GSN Fellowship fund, which currently stands at $125,000, is expected to pay a portion of the tuition costs for approximately eight to 10 students, said the president of the university, Dr. Victor Berlin.

The first two students to win these fellowships are William Bailey, an information assurance manager at Raytheon's Warfighters Protection Center in Huntsville, AL, who is pursuing a doctorate in information assurance, and Rhonda Farrell, who most recently served as a senior quality assurance engineer for Bytemobile, Inc., of Mountain View, CA, and is also pursuing a doctorate degree in information assurance.

"The Fellowship Fund's purposes are threefold," said a statement issued by the university, based in Vienna, VA. "First, it encourages INFOSEC and IT professionals to advance their careers to senior levels by earning a graduate degree focused on INFOSEC. Second, it helps students offset the cost of tuition at the University of Fairfax. And, lastly, it helps fulfill the annual demand rate that IDC, a premier global provider of market intelligence for the IT, telecommunications and consumer technology markets, projects will grow by 8 percent annually after 2010."

Dr. Berlin praised GSN for its constructive role in the establishment of the scholarship fund. "GSN is helping to alleviate the shortage of information security professionals in the federal sector," he noted.

Bailey, who describes himself as "a youthful 70," has been in the government security arena for more than three decades, having worked with Raytheon for more than nine years, and having served earlier at the U.S. Navy base at Norfolk, VA. He likes to point out the distinction between INFOSEC employees who work in the discipline called "Information Assurance – Tactical," as he does, from those who work in the field of "Information Assurance – Enterprise." IA Tactical professionals help assure that the security requirements that apply to combat systems, such as radar, sensors and fire control, are fully met, Bailey explained, while IA Enterprise professionals help safeguard the security of an organization's computers, laptops and cyber networks.

Farrell, who lives in California and has already earned a masters degree in strategic management from California State University at Hayward and a law degree from Concord Law School, in Los Angeles, expects her online coursework at the University of Fairfax will serve as "a bridge to the next stage of my career," which she hopes will take place in the Washington, DC, area at a government employer, such as the Department of Homeland Security, National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Security Agency or the Department of Justice.

Farrell heaped praise on GSN for its role in launching the GSN Fellowship. "You are really paving my road to the future," she said.

The University of Fairfax describes itself as "the only U.S.-based, graduate-level institution focused exclusively on addressing the overwhelming shortage of qualified INFOSEC professionals in this country."