How to Land Your First Cybersecurity Job

Rebecca Watts, Ph.D. is the Northeast Regional Vice President at WGU.

Rebecca is an innovator in education policy, educator preparation, and post-secondary educational access. In her role as WGU regional vice president in the northeast region, she is responsible for strategic leadership in 12 states spanning the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Maine, including Washington, D.C.

Paul Bingham is Vice President and Dean of the WGU School of Technology.

Paul joined WGU in 2019, after 24 years as an FBI agent, conducting and managing domestic and international investigations. He is an accomplished instructor and featured presenter in topics including cybersecurity and incident response. Paul holds cyber certifications including the CISSP, GCIH, GSEC, and GPEN and a Master of Accountancy and Bachelor of Science in accounting from Brigham Young University.

S. Paul Lukoskie is the Director of Intelligence Services at Dragos. He obtained his M.S. in Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance at WGU.

Through his work as director of intelligence services for Dragos, Paul focuses on providing ICS/OT CTI to customers. Over the course of 15 years in the cybersecurity space, he has served in the US Navy, a lead analyst at the US Department of Homeland Security's CISA, cybercrime manager for Symantec, and built intelligence services for Accenture.

Jillene VanNostrand, is an Internal Risk Mitigation Analyst at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. She received her B.S. Cybersecurity and Information Assurance and MBA IT Management at WGU.

A member of the second cohort of the Cybersecurity Talent Initiative, Jillene has worked as an internal risk mitigation analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for one year and is currently pursuing her WGU MBA in IT Management. Jillene is committed to empowering incoming cybersecurity talent and is always open to connection requests on LinkedIn. Please feel free to reach out!

Justin Weeks is the VP of Cybersecurity & Compliance at Aligned Technology Solutions. He completed his B.S. in IT Security at WGU.

With over 10 years of experience, Justin is vice president of cybersecurity & compliance at Aligned Technology Solutions. He leads a team that provides cybersecurity services to companies in high compliance verticals such as healthcare and the Defense Industrial Base, including 24x7 SOC, Security Engineering, and Strategic Consulting/Compliance Advisory. He has over 15 internationally recognized industry certifications.

Rashaan Green is a Principal Security Service Engineering Manager at Microsoft. He obtained his B.S. IT Management and M.S. Cybersecurity and Information Assurance at WGU.

As a ninth-grade high school dropout, Rashaan later learned computer repair and earned a GED through Job Corps, a US Department of Labor program for at-risk youth. His eight-year career since then spans across varying IT and cyber jobs. With Microsoft, Rashaan is responsible for leading an exclusive team that defends Microsoft products against some of the world’s most challenging cybersecurity threats.