UDM hosted National Cyber Director Harry Coker and U.S. Senator from Michigan Gary Peters, who earned an MBA at UDM, on Monday, April 15, 2024. Coker, who reports directly to President Biden in the White House, came to learn about UDM’s cybersecurity programs as part of his National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy.
Senator Peters invited Director Coker to UDM as a model in the nation for how to link cybersecurity education to workforce development in one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.
CLAE is partnering with the College of Engineering & Sciences to create a seamless educational experience for our students. This builds on the foundation established over 25 years ago by the Department of Cybersecurity and Information Systems (CIS) in order to leverage our combined resources to establish UDM as the place to study cybersecurity.
Prof. Greg Laidlaw, Chair of CIS, and our students in the Cybersecurity Club spoke to Senator Peters and Director Coker at length about their outstanding experience at UDM and their plans for the future. Gavin Rapuzzi (’26, Performing Arts/Political Science majors) came as a CLAE Student Ambassador and got some facetime with Senator Peters (see the picture below). Peters plans to come to UDM soon to speak with our CLAE students who deeply impressed him and Director Coker.
