Florida A&M University, the historically Black educational institution in Tallahassee, was recently designated by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The designation will apply at least through the year 2022.
Deidre W. Evans, an associate professor in the department of computer and information sciences at Florida A&M, said that “the designation places FAMU in the company of leading universities and attests to the foundation we have built to deliver quality cyber security education and experiences to students within our program and across the university.”
Dr. Evans added that “the realization that cyber defense is a human or social issue elevated the need to understand it not only from a technical perspective but also from the viewpoint of diverse human attitudes and behaviors. HBCUs like FAMU are in a position to offer unique perspectives to threats and viable solutions for cyber security in many domains.”
Dr. Evans joined the faculty at Florida A&M in 1994. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta and holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
My father, David Bryant, an alumni of FAMU was EEOC manager at NSA and began its liaison with FAMU that resulted hundreds of thousands of technology and student exchanges between FAMU and NSA. He was perhaps a catalyst in the designation of this Cyber Defense Education award. He is in the FAMU Hall of Fame and held an honorary doctorate from the University. Until his death, he was very active in the Alumni Association, holding FAMU very dear to his heart. Hopefully Dr. Evans was able to meet him.