Tomorrow’s World: Challenge, Change, and Career Readiness in Cybersecurity

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

In this series of articles titled “Tomorrow’s World,” members of Business & Technology faculty will reflect on the changes taking place in their field and consider how those changes might impact someone pursuing a career in that discipline. In this article, Dr. Andrew Hurd, the faculty program director for cybersecurity, considers challenges and changes in the field of cybersecurity and suggests how students should be career-ready for tomorrow’s world.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.

Cybersecurity can be considered one of the oldest disciplines in the computing world; the evolution of cybersecurity has developed from the merger of computer security and information security. It has evolved from the early days when government officials feared foreign nationals were stealing secrets off computers, to the modern day where the Office of Personnel Management was hacked (Finklea et al., 2015). These threats are real and candidates entering the workforce need to be prepared to handle problems that may not exist today. Educating students of problems that don’t exist is a difficult task for educational institutions; preparing them to think creatively, and to be agile in their approach to problem solving is a challenge. A major goal of Excelsior College is to facilitate students to not only think about the problem at hand, but also what the problem can turn into, and how to solve that new problem.

Cybersecurity’s Future Challenges: The Internet of Things

One of the biggest challenges for cybersecurity is the Internet of Things (IoT) (Manral, 2015). The myriad devices that have been introduced onto the technology scene pose a large and constantly changing landscape for the people trying to protect the information stored. The ability to problem-solve in ways that most people do not recognize is important for cybersecurity specialists. The financial implications in cybersecurity are large and growing (Moore, 2010). It is difficult to predict, or even quantify, the cost of a security breach. People entering the workforce, or transitioning jobs, have a difficult time estimating the cost associated with breaches.

The expansion of IoT increases the possibility of breaches, the types of those breaches, and their complexity (Markowsky, 2015). If the IoT continues to grow, and manufacturers continue to put out devices with minimal security and unchanged default configurations, challenges for cybersecurity specialists will continue to rise. The challenge is that security specialists must understand how these devices connect and communicate with each other before they can secure the information. Individuals in the industry must stay up-to-date with their skillset. The IoT plays an important role in individual’s personal identifiable information (PII), which has direct correlations with health care and many other financial entities. A great example of this is the Equifax breach that just happened. We as a collective will feel the repercussions from this breach for years to come.

The Skills of the Cybersecurity Specialist

Maintaining the proper skillset is challenging, but exciting. The world of cybersecurity is fast-paced and cybersecurity specialists need to be informed and vigilant. Middle and high school technology programs are preparing learners with the proper skillset to be successful in college (Simon and Banford, 2017). Programs like Project Lead the Way have been instituted to help young learners develop beneficial skills earlier in life. They can expand tthese skills throughout college and into their careers (Cahill, 2016). Initiatives into STEM programs become increasingly important because individuals within these areas will be working with cybersecurity specialists to safeguard information, or some of the individuals within these programs will go on to become cybersecurity specialists (Eberle, 2010; Cherinka and Prezzama, 2015).

Career Readiness in Cybersecurity

Some institutions are focused on bringing career readiness into their curriculums (Lui and Murphy, 2017). There are many ways for learners to try and keep their skills current and up to date. Some can continuously take college classes. Others can enhance their knowledge through industry certifications; still others may receive on the job training. The biggest competencies for cybersecurity workers are the ability to learn and the willingness to do so. Understanding how to evaluate risk and learning the techniques of risk mitigation play a large role in incident response and cybersecurity threat analysis.

Certifications and Credentials of Competence

Many believe that industry certifications are the best way to prove proficiency in the cybersecurity field (Evans and Reader, 2010; Morgan, 2016). Those who have industry certifications entering the workforce bolster their resume and present a willingness to learn more about a specific subject matter. Most industry certifications target a specific job role or skillset. Learners can specialize in areas that are of interest to them. Educational institutions that partner with entities like CISCO and become training academies offer a proven curriculum to their students. Training academies adopt the materials that are put forth by the manufacturer and learners get access to discounted exam vouchers for the industry certifications. This is a nice feature to promote career readiness and to offer a benefit to workers who are investing in the educational programs. There are five major industry certification vendors for IT and cybersecurity: (ISC)2, CompTIA, EC-Council, CISCO, and ISACA. Each specialize in their own areas and in many instances, there is an overlap of skills between vendors and certifications. Each vendor offers the assurance that if a student holds a certification with their company credentials, then they have an increased competency in the given area.

Large institutions like ABET and the ACM have been trying to figure out where cybersecurity can be integrated into their strategic goals (Greenlaw, Phillips, and Parrish, 2014; Chesnais, 2012). The door is wide open to workers of all levels to be part of a future cybersecurity landscape.

Careers in Cybersecurity for Tomorrow’s World

The demand for cybersecurity is not going away in the foreseeable future. If there is money to be made, then there is a need for specialists in cybersecurity. At Excelsior, the baccalaureate degree, the master’s degree, and the credit-bearing undergraduate and graduate certificates in the business and technology programs recently underwent revisions. The bachelor’s degree meets all the guidelines for the Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD). Excelsior College is designated as a 4-year CAE-CD by the National Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security. The credit-bearing courses institute the philosophy of hands-on, virtualized learning where applicable. The courses still contain foundational theoretical concepts, but the student must demonstrate their proficiency with the technical skills that align with the knowledge. The degrees also incorporate the development of soft skills that employers are looking for, such as the ability to work in groups and to present information to a group of people. These soft skills and the hands-on experience are essential to prepare students for careers in the industry. They prepare students to be agile and handle any given task while preparing them to tackle the problems of the future.

References
Cahill, J. (2016). Project Lead the Way—Bridging the College and Career Prep Divide: How to Provide Youth with Hands-On Experiences That Help Prepare Them for Their Careers. Young Adult Library Services, 14(4), 26.
Cherinka, R., & Prezzama, M. J. (2015) Innovative Approaches to Building Comprehensive Talent Pipelines: Helping to Grow a Strong and Diverse Professional Workforce. Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Volume 13, Number 6.
Chesnais, A. (2012). ACM’s annual report. Communications of the ACM, 55(1), 9–13.
Eberle, F. (2010). Why STEM education is important. Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society Publications. Retrieved from https://ww2.isa.org/standards-and-publications/isa-publications/intech-magazine/2010/september/why-stem-education-is-important/.
Evans, K., & Reeder, F. (2010). A human capital crisis in cybersecurity: Technical proficiency matters. Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Finklea, K., Christensen, M. D., Fischer, E. A., Lawrence, S. V., & Theohary, C. A. (2015, July). Cyber Intrusion into US Office of Personnel Management: In Brief. Library of Congress Washington D.C. Congressional Research Service.
Greenlaw, R., Phillips, A., & Parrish, A. (2014). Is it time for ABET cybersecurity criteria?. ACM Inroads, 5(3), 44–48.
Liu, X. M., & Murphy, D. (2017). Are They Ready? Integrating Workforce Readiness into a Four-Year College IT/IS Curriculum. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=sais2017.
Manral, J. (2015). IoT enabled Insurance Ecosystem-Possibilities Challenges and Risks. arXiv preprint (arXiv:1510.03146).
Markowsky, L., & Markowsky, G. (2015, September). Scanning for vulnerable devices in the Internet of Things. In Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications (IDAACS), 2015 IEEE 8th International Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 463-467). IEEE.
Moore, T. (2010). The economics of cybersecurity: Principles and policy options. International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, 3(3), 103-117.
Morgan, S. (2016). One million cybersecurity job openings in 2016. Forbes. Retrieved from https://pcage.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Forbes-Cybersecurity-Article-1.pdf.
Simon, N., & Banford, M. (2017, March). Cyber Crime Investigators: Pathways from High School to Cybersecurity Careers for First Generation College-Bound Students. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 717-717). ACM.

 

Perspectives: “Good Living” by Blue Lemay

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Excelsior College will be hosting social media discussions all this week surrounding the popular Netflix documentary, What The Health. We asked a few of our subject matter experts to give their thought-provoking commentary on the documentary and the topics surrounding the issue.

*Please note that the author’s opinion is their own.

“Even if this documentary is only 60% correct, what would that mean?”  This was the first question I asked after watching What the Health. Other than a few colds in my life, I’ve never been ill, and so serious questions about health had never really occurred to me. This was the first documentary, however, that clearly showed how health is not simply a personal concern; rather, personal health issues are intimately connected to the social and economic health of our nation. From the documentary, it’s clear that big business has vested interests in industrializing food through huge corporate farming to sell us processed foods. What matters to them is not the damage to the environment, the treatment of animals, or the toxic exposure to certain communities, but their profit. Pharmaceuticals don’t care about preventing illness, but selling pills. We may think cancer, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems are the inevitable results of genetics and our family history, but well-known doctors across the country state that nutrition is the biggest factor in determining our health. So, after watching numerous other health documentaries, my wife and I began to shift over to a plant-based lifestyle.

After two months, what did we find out? Well, we’re not dying. I’m not dying because I lack protein just because we don’t eat meat. Plus, I eat more of a variety of vegetables and foods than I have ever eaten before. Most importantly, though, it’s really made us examine what is important to us. Do we really want a lifestyle that is so busy, so full, and so exhausting that we need to constantly rely on quick and easy processed foods? What I did not expect to find, then, is how much I began to value food. We signed up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and we began to plan our meals around what a local farmer shared with us, thereby supporting our local economy. My wife and I spend more time together in the kitchen now, and that just feels good. That’s what good living means to us. Good and just living depends not only on my health alone, but how we invest in our relationship with each other and with other Americans.

Written by V. Blue Lemay, Program Director for Humanities, School of Liberal Arts

Book Review: ‘Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior’ by Jonah Berger

Posted on by William Trevor

This book review is an article originally published in the Journal of Business and Technology, produced by the School of Business and Technology at Excelsior College. 

 

Following the success of his best-selling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On (2013), marketing professor Jonah Berger of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has published Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior (2016).  A work that looks at the social forces that guide our thoughts and actions.  Berger is one of those contemporary ‘rock star’ academics, like Dan Ariely, and fellow Wharton faculty Adam Grant, who have moved beyond limiting their ideas to the pages of peer-reviewed journals and succeeded in making them accessible to a wider audience through social media and the TED format. But it should not be forgotten that Berger also has a reasonable corpus of scholarship behind him that upholds his academic credentials and the rigor of his published works.

The author opens by describing one of his earliest forays into studying social influence when he bicycled around a particularly ‘tony’ neighborhood in Silicon Valley to place a survey on the windshield of every BMW that he could find (p2).  Berger was trying to unearth the reasons why someone bought a BMW and so, quite logically, he went to where you would expect to find them.  Berger concluded that the owners of these status symbol cars did believe that societal influence plays a part in whether someone bought a BMW or not, they just didn’t believe that such forces had any effect upon them.  Social influence was, therefore, something that people acknowledged as acting upon others, but were reticent to accept the evidence of any effects upon themselves.

To illustrate this further, Berger’s book challenges the reader to think about a recent choice, whether one as mundane as choosing a place to eat, or as important as selecting the next President of the United States and to question the cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors that give rise to that choice.  In suggesting that we ascribe personal thoughts and opinions as the driving force behind our decision-making, Berger downplays this notion and instead concentrates his focus upon the impact of others as the key influence on what we choose to do and the decisions that we make.  And in driving home his point, he provides illustrations of how, for example, the influence of the voting intentions of others encourages us to do the same or how the presence of someone alongside us at the gym, spurs us to run faster on the treadmill.

He groups the societal influences upon behavior into several categories, around which he then provides accessible examples that illustrate them more fully, whether that is differentiation, mimicry, avoidance or imitation.  One of the more prominent examples of the latter, which Berger gives in the book is the novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling (2014), written by an unknown debut novelist, Robert Galbraith (p54). While it had initially seen modest sales, after three months had passed it was certainly not a best seller, languished at the bottom of the charts, and facing obscurity.  All of that changed, however, when Robert Galbraith was revealed to be none other than J.K. Rowling, the creator of bestselling fictional children’s character, Harry Potter.  While the content and the writing remained the same, the perception of the book and the reaction of the buying public changed and created an overnight sensation.

With his captivating style of storytelling, Berger is heir apparent to Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point (2002) and Outliers (2008), amongst other works, whose findings the Wharton scholar has previously challenged, while simultaneously acknowledging a debt to both Gladwell’s narrative style and his ability to popularize previously dry topics (Sacks, 2013).  But if Berger was a little known scholar before he penned Contagious, he certainly has a higher profile now, even if he is yet to reach the stature and the acclaim afforded to Gladwell.  While the book taps into Berger’s extensive research, it does not strive to be a piece of academic writing that explores the data in a scholarly way, rather it self-consciously aims to be a practical manual that helps the individual to make better decisions in the light of its insights.

Ultimately Berger seeks to explain what we do and why we do it, whether that decision happens to be political, emotional, or economic.  While he acknowledges our ability to think independently and to act accordingly, his focus is upon societal influence and the way in which our thoughts and deeds are often inextricably linked with our response to others.  And in developing the thesis of the book, he dexterously draws upon the eclectic academic output of a range of scholarship, whether that is the social sciences, marketing, psychology, or the field of education, which may suggest that the analysis is spread too thinly in places for specialists within some of those disciplines.

The knowledge and the accessibility of the examples should, nevertheless, appeal to a range of audiences and to readers from different backgrounds.  With a focus upon improving decision-making, this book will appeal to the general reader of business non-fiction, but there is also sufficient rigor behind the narrative style to appeal to the scholar.  It will resonate with readers seeking to apply its ideas to fields as diverse as management and HR, consumer behavior, marketing, and those who seek to gain a greater understanding of why we make the choices that we do. Ultimately the book doesn’t seem to have the focus and the purpose of Contagious and its breadth could be perceived as giving it less substance than his first title, but it remains a very readable and engaging book for all that.

 

References:

Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: Why Things Catch On. New York, Simon and Schuster.

Galbraith, R. (2014). The Cuckoo’s Calling. New York, Mulholland Books.

Gladwell, M. (2002). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can make a Big Difference. New York, Little, Brown and Company.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Sacks, D. (2013, 03). Fifty Percent Of ‘The Tipping Point’ Is Wrong.” Jonah Berger Shows You Which Half. Fast Company. Retrieved 10, 2016, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3006693/fifty-percent-of-the-tipping-point-is-wrong-jonah-berger-shows-you-which-half.

 

Book Title: ‘Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior’

Author: Berger, Jonah

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Year of Publication: 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4767-5969-2

Price: $26.99

Dr. Ted Lehmann and the Geopolitics of Energy

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Dr. Timothy (Ted) Lehmann, the faculty director for the Social Sciences in the School of Liberal Arts, recently published a book on the international politics of energy: The Geopolitics of Global Energy: The New Cost of Plenty. The book features research from leading energy experts across the world, and addresses timeless questions about the way in which our ever-growing need for energy intersects with the interests of governments and corporations. Such questions include:

  • How are the world’s societies shaped by the designs and investments of the largest energy actors?
  • What happens when the most powerful energy actors fight among themselves?
  • How do states and corporations decide which resources to develop, and what are the social, environmental, and strategic consequences of these decisions?
  • Is it likely that the world will transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable forms of energy, and how might this be accomplished?

Dr. Lehmann’s own contributions to the book include a weighty chapter looking at American energy policies since World War II. In this, Dr. Lehmann argues that the U.S. has pursued twin goals since WWII: maintaining North American energy independence, and controlling Middle Eastern energy sources to influence the independence of others, particularly in East Asia. Other scholars in the volume address the world-leading developments on renewable energy in Germany and Japan, as well as China’s expansion into the South China Sea in search of oil and gas, and the prospects of developing the Arctic’s oil and gas resources.

Dr. Lehmann has developed a class on some of these topics for Excelsior College called POL320 The Geopolitics of Energy and Global Climate Change.  This class looks at the ways in which the dependence on traditional energy resources and the reality of climate change have shaped and continue to shape social, economic, and strategic developments across the world. This is a topic of enormous importance, and its consequences are transforming our world.  Because the course uses open educational resources, students can complete the class without purchasing a textbook or any other materials.

The Social Sciences program at Excelsior offers a wide variety of other cutting-edge classes on American and global politics, all of which use open educational resources, including: POL351 War and Peace After the Cold War; POL363 Order and Disorder in the Middle East and North Africa; POL370 American Political Behavior; and POL390 The Rise of China and the Pacific Century.

Students in the Bachelor of Science in the Social Sciences degree program can also choose a concentration in Human Services, Environmental Studies, or International Relations.

Excelsior Introduces the Professional and Technical Writing Concentration

Posted on by Jenna Kerwin

To help meet its goals for student career readiness, Excelsior College has approved a concentration in Professional and Technical Writing (PTW), within the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts (BSL) major. Excelsior graduates with strong professional writing skills are poised for employment and advancement in areas including health care, technology, pharmaceutical, government, science, and the military.

 

The PTW concentration is designed for 1) students who want to enhance their writing skills for career advancement or career change; and 2) students who want to add a credential to their BSL. The PTW concentration is an attractive Liberal Arts option for students with applied course credits and with existing experience in technology, business, health sciences, medical, and the military.

 

The market for graduates with a professional and technical writing credential is well-documented. O*Net projects that technical writing jobs will grow faster in 2012-2022 than average (15% to 20%) with 50,000 employees and 22,600 job openings (2015).

 

Employers report that all employees need solid writing skills. For example, a January 2015 report by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the Association of American Colleges & Universities notes that “employers say that when hiring, they place the greatest value on demonstrated proficiency in skills and knowledge that cut across all majors. The learning outcomes they rate as most important include written and oral communication skills….” (p. 1). Further, “…employers nearly universally agree that to achieve success at their companies, a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than his or her undergraduate major” (p. 6).

 

As part of Northeastern University’s 2013 annual innovation poll, 60% of business hiring decision-makers indicated that softer skills such as oral and written communication are most important for recent college graduates. The National Association of Colleges and Employers 2015 Job Outlook survey showed 73.4% of respondents chose written communication skills as the third most asked-for attribute after leadership and ability to work on a team.

 

Students enrolled in the Professional and Technical Writing concentration will take an introductory course in business writing and five more additional writing courses—or their equivalent—at the advanced, upper level. Those courses could include a career planning course called Careers in Professional Writing, Professional Editing, and Scientific and Technical Writing.

 

For more information about the innovative Professional and Technical Writing concentration, contact the School of Liberal Arts.

New Courses in Leadership

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” This statement, made by Martin Luther King Jr., reflects the personal humility and social responsibility that is sometimes needed to be a transformative leader. Who are transformative leaders? What are their characteristics, ethics, and challenges? What other type of leaders are there and what motivates them? Who failed at leadership and why? Students explore these questions and more in COMM 423 Leadership and Team Building or MLS620 Philosophies of Leadership.

In COMM 423 Leadership and Team Building, students delve deeper into leadership theory and practice successful leadership models. Simultaneously, they build teamwork skills, which depend on working with different but complementary points of view to achieve challenging objectives to reach a common goal. This course may focus on leaders, but it provides anyone with more effective skills to succeed in life. Leadership and Team Building does not require pre-requisites, and uses interactive self-tests, free open educational resources, and case studies using Storyline Interactives.

In MLS 620 Philosophies of Leadership, students study the philosophies and practices of great thinkers and leaders from the ancient world to present day. They’ll also draw on past leaders’ ideas to develop their own, personalized leadership philosophy. In the process, students will consider questions like, “Do I have to be a good person to be a good leader?”, “Do great leaders make history or does history make great leaders?” and “What does it mean to act by not acting?” Philosophies of Leadership is designed for graduate and advanced graduate students who want to be leaders in any field, from business to government, the military to the non-profit sector.

You can find more information on these courses through the Course Search  on our website. Speak to your advisor to see if they will fit with your degree plan.

Statement by Excelsior College President James Baldwin on the Decision to End DACA

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Excelsior College President James Baldwin has issued a statement on the decision to end DACA.

I am saddened and troubled by the decision of the President of the United States to end DACA.

DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, has provided some 800,000 recipients a pathway out of the shadows. These individuals were brought to the United States as minors and have grown up here. DACA represents a humanitarian effort to allow them the opportunity to live and work in the United States while deferring any government action that would result in their deportation. To qualify, the federal government subjected these individuals to background checks and required them to apply for renewal every two years.

DACA is about opportunity. The opportunity for undocumented immigrants to pursue a higher education and earn a degree. The opportunity to find meaningful work, contribute to the economic and social welfare of our communities and our country by paying taxes, and serving in the military.

DACA recipients may not be American citizens, but they embody the American spirit. They are law-abiding members of our communities. They grew up here. They were educated here. They are our neighbors. They are skilled workers. They are aspiring citizens. They are America’s “dreamers.”

Some of these dreamers may call Excelsior home. And we will continue to stand with them during this difficult time. Education is a transformative experience and we will never turn our backs on those who seek to improve their lives and take control of their future through hard work and a commitment to personal growth.

Immigrants built America. And they remain the backbone of this great nation.

As a community, we call on Congress to affirm our shared commitment to equality and opportunity by moving quickly and unconditionally to provide DACA recipients with protection and a pathway to citizenship.

How the National Science Foundation Grant Supports Workforce Readiness

Posted on by Dr. Michael Johnson

 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Excelsior College $864,000 in grant funding to ensure workforce readiness in the manufacturing industry.  Tina Vasquez, Marketing Manager at Excelsior College, caught up with associate dean in the School of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Michael Johnson, and asked what this grant means for the College, our students, and how will it help them in preparing for their future careers.

Vasquez: Excelsior College has received a large grant from the National Science Foundation. What is it and why has the College received it?

Johnson: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Excelsior College $864,000 in grant funding to ensure workforce readiness. Excelsior has partnered with Polk State College in Florida to prepare technicians for skilled positions in the energy and manufacturing industries. Excelsior and Polk State Colleges will develop simulations to teach and then assess key skills in power generation and advanced manufacturing to improve the pipeline of technicians into key economic sectors. When completed, these open education resources can be used by colleges throughout the nation.

Vasquez: This is an extremely large sum of money. How is Excelsior going to use the grant?

Johnson: The funding, which comes from the NSF’s Advanced Technological Education program, will enable Excelsior College to develop simulations to teach and assess key workplace skills among associate degree technology students in power generation and advanced manufacturing. Simulations permit learners to develop skill mastery through repeated practice and learn how to deal with hazardous procedures before hands-on implementation.

Vasquez: The receipt of this grant will allow the College to provide continued support, so what does this mean for our students?

Johnson: The simulations will be incorporated into three associate-level degree courses within the Nuclear/Power Plant, Electronic/Instrumentation, and Electromechanical concentrations. Incorporating simulation into new and existing courses will close current gaps in teaching and assessing safety, blueprint reading, and the use of tools and equipment – hands-on skills until now taught only in a laboratory setting.

Vasquez: How will this help our students in developing readiness for a career? 

Johnson: Students earning a B or better in the degree program have the potential to earn the Center for Energy Workforce Development certificate, Energy Industry Fundamentals. This innovative use of simulation technology is expanding the possibilities for students preparing for new careers in fully online programs.

The Benefits of a Mentor-Mentee Relationship

Posted on by Nursing Staff

By Bonny Kehm, PhD, RN Faculty Program Director, BS & MS Programs in Nursing

Tamara Coca, student in the MSN Education Tract, had a dilemma. She needed to complete her Practicum with a Mentor, but couldn’t find one. Tamara is currently living and working on the US Navy Base in Yokosuka, Japan and the Hospital Administration recently cancelled all future educational practicums due to personnel shortages.

She reached out to her department chair, Dr. Marcos Gayol at Aspen University, for help. Dr. Gayol contacted a colleague, Dr. Bonny Kehm, faculty program director in BS & MS Programs in Nursing at Excelsior College, who had experience mentoring graduate nursing students. Together with the help of the Capstone instructor, Dr. Nina Beaman, they came up with a possible solution of allowing Tamara to complete a Virtual Practicum with Dr. Kehm as her mentor. Dr. Gayol notified Tamara and said, “You are in luck! Dr. Kehm is a wonderful educator and tremendous mentor and will be a great asset to you for suggestions and ideas as you complete your practicum experience.”

To overcome the potential obstacle of a 15 hour time difference, Dr. Kehm and Tamara would skype Saturday mornings 7:00 a.m. Dr. Kehm’s time and 10:00 p.m. Tamara’s time to discuss her capstone project.

Tamara’s Capstone project, “Risks and Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Military Families,” was presented to community members at the Yokosuka Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Nurse Network of Yokosuka and Ikego, and at Yokosuka, Japan US Navy Base Health Fair. Tamara prepared a wellness topic presentation and developed a brochure about risks and prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Military Families. Some of these risks include: limited access to affordable produce in overseas installations; easy access to fast food restaurants; no healthy restaurant options; and stress associated with frequent moves. Dr. Kehm worked with Tamara to develop an assessment and evaluation tool for the health fair.

“The ideal mentor-mentee relationship does not end when the practice experience is over. The ultimate goal of the relationship should be to encourage the mentee to grow both personally and professionally and to actively seek opportunities for this growth to occur,” says Dr. Kehm.

Dr. Kehm, who was accepted to be a presenter at The Annual Nursing Education Institute conference called “Lessons from the Field: Innovations in Veteran Education and Care” this past June in Latham, NY, knew Tamara’s needs assessment from her capstone project of veterans health needs/ health disparities while living overseas was an important and relevant topic. Dr. Kehm felt that others needed to hear about Tamara’s unique perspective on our Military and their family members living in poverty overseas.

Through the encouragement and guidance of Dr. Kehm, Tamara submitted an abstract to The Annual Nursing Education Institute conference in New York. After several weeks, Tamara was notified that her abstract, “Risks and Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Military Families,” was accepted as a podium presentation.  Dr. Kehm continued the mentor-mentee relationship by collaborating with Tamara on her presentation.

Tamara flew from Japan to New York on June 1st, and Dr. Kehm flew from St. Louis to New York, to attend the Educational Day and meet in-person for the first time.  Tamara gave her presentation to more than 80 nursing education professionals nationwide. She highlighted the contemporary topic of vets living in poverty, including young military families qualifying for WIC and Food Stamps. She also discussed the diabetes costs for the military (VA expense and cost to recruit and train a military person), and shared her brochure.

“Thank you Dr. Kehm! I’m grateful for your guidance and I feel you have made me a more scholarly writer and a better nurse,” says, Tamara.

5 Questions with Dwayn Hanford, A Well-Rounded Intelligence Pundit

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

Dwayn Hanford

Dwayn Hanford is a “Jack-of-all-trades.”

Hanford retired from the U.S. Army as an all-source intelligence technician, and is a team chief and senior intelligence officer for the Department of the Army Civilian in the 1st Information Operations Command, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He is also the president of the Excelsior College Alumni Association. Notably, Hanford is a graduate of Excelsior College, earning his Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts in 2005.

On September 8, Hanford will lead an online seminar discussion on “Pursuing a Career in Intelligence as a National Security Professional.”

Excelsior Life sat down with him to discuss his educational and professional journey.

 

Excelsior Life: Where did you first hear about Excelsior College?

Hanford: I first heard of Excelsior College when it was Regents College. I was in the Army stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland in the early 90s. One of the civilians I worked with had her degree from Regents. At that time, I was enrolled in Anne Arundel Community College attending face-to-face classes. The Internet did not exist and I was not aware that Regents offered a distance education program. Years, numerous colleges, and many courses later, I found myself facing a residency requirement at a new college upon arriving at a new duty station. My education counselor advised me to look into Excelsior based on the amount of credits I had already earned. After speaking with an Excelsior advisor, I only required a few courses, which motivated me to enroll and finally finish my bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts in 2005.

Excelsior Life: As an active duty army warrant officer and analyst/technician, you have had more than twenty years of experience. What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned from your military career?

Hanford: In both education and my career, the most valuable lesson I learned is team work.  Although I thrive in taking on a task by myself, I have found that working in teams can help me accomplish more than I can alone. These days I typically find myself as one of the oldest people on a team. It is a change from my “doer” to “manager” role, but I do enjoy helping younger people avoid the pitfalls that I fell into in my younger days. I have achieved more working with groups of people in my later years than most of my hard work trying to do everything by myself in my younger years.

Excelsior Life: Which courses are you currently teaching at Excelsior College?

Hanford: I am currently teaching BNS 307: Intelligence in National Security as a part of the Bachelor’s in National Security Program. I enjoy this course because I also had the privilege of designing this course.

Excelsior Life: How did you get into the career of national security?

Hanford: Many people do not stick with the career they chose when they were children, but I have. At the age of six I set a goal to join the Army and someday become President of the United States. After graduating high school, I accomplished goal one and joined the Army. I enlisted as an intelligence analyst in order to learn international relations and national policy to prepare for a career in politics. As the years progressed, I worked with many politicians and military decision makers discovering that I belong in the advisor to national policy role more so than being the elected leader. Politics may be in my future, but for now I am doing what I feel is the best way to serve my country.

Excelsior Life: What can attendees learn from your upcoming webinar?

Hanford: The webinar will discuss Excelsior’s National Security program. Attendees will learn what the college offers in this program. They will also hear some advice on getting a job in the Intelligence Community (IC). The advice will focus on where the jobs are, the fast-growing world of cyber, what not to do — especially online if you want to work in the IC—and some resume advice. I have hired more than 10 analysts into the IC in the last three years and I have experienced good analysts that have poor resumes or interview skills that unfortunately don’t make the cut in this highly competitive career field.

Join Dwayn Hanford as he introduces participants to career possibilities in the Intelligence field and how best to leverage their experience and education to move into or up in this dynamic field. Whether you are in the military or working in the Intelligence Community within the Federal Government or similar agency, participants will learn what factors must align for their success and what avenues to take when encountering pitfalls.

To sign up to attend Hanford’s webinar, register here.

How to Avoid Labeling Yourself—or Letting Others Label You—as a Victim

Posted on by Gary McClain

Gary McClain, PhD, is a faculty member in the School of Health Sciences and therapist who specializes in helping clients deal with the emotional impact of chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

Victim. We seem to hear that word a lot lately. “Victim” is often used to describe individuals who are living with challenges that are not of their own choosing, that came about randomly, or were perpetrated upon them by others. Furthermore, victim also implies that other people have to step in and take care of you, because you can’t take care of yourself.

“Victim” is also sometimes used as a derogatory term, to describe people who refuse to take responsibility for themselves and instead look to others to take care of them. We have a very complicated relationship with that word, for sure.

If you’re living with a chronic condition, I suspect that what you have read so far has already pushed a button or two, or brought up some unpleasant memories.

Health and victimhood

My clients often talk to me about their own perceptions of, and experiences with, the word “victim.” Here are a few examples:

“I didn’t ask to live with a chronic condition. It’s the last thing I would have chosen. So while I don’t want to be referred to as a victim, let’s face it, I kind of am.”

“I was just venting with a friend about some issues I was having lately with managing my chronic condition. She said to me, ‘Do you think it’s healthy for you to play the victim role?’ I was so angry and hurt. All I needed was for her to listen, not judge.”

“My wife worries about me, and I appreciate that. But sometimes she does things for me before I have a chance to do them for myself. I have tried to explain to her that when she does that, she makes me feel like I am some kind of victim. And I’m not!”

To me, these comments bring home the complicated feelings that individuals living with chronic conditions have in regard to the victim word.

When I hear the victim word applied directly to someone as a result of a health condition, it is generally referring to a diagnosis of a more catastrophic nature. I guess that’s why, for example, we often hear of someone described as a “cancer victim.”

To read more, click here.

Nursing Students Inducted into Sigma Theta Tau

Posted on by Jenna Kerwin

“You are Sigma Theta Tau; we are Sigma Theta Tau.” With these words spoken by honor society president Jennifer Pettis, the nurses gathered in the Fort Orange Ballroom at The Desmond Hotel in Albany, New York, on July 13, 2017, were inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

Founded in 1922, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) has recognized excellence in scholarship, leadership, and service in nursing. Its diverse and global membership includes more than 500 chapters worldwide, with members ranging from nurse executives, clinicians, educators, researchers, policymakers, and many others. The couple dozen new members—and those not present—joined these ranks of more than 135,000 other honor society members in more than 90 countries around the world.

Guest speaker Lynda Dimitroff, Ph.D., opened the ceremony with discussions on the positives and negatives of nursing school, the importance of mindfulness, and several techniques to deal with the stressors nurses come across in the profession. She emphasized the art of humble inquiry (less telling, more asking) and introduced the idea that most nurses are human doings as opposed to human beings. She ended by reminding the honorees to take strength from what they value.

Chair of the Awards Committee Patricia Edwards introduced the recipient of the Excellence in Leadership Award, Karen Cox, Ph.D. The executive vice president and COO of Children’s Mercy-Kansas City, Cox showcased exemplary leadership qualities in her years with the hospital. Thanks to her leadership creating environments that enhance nursing care, Children’s Mercy-Kansas City was the first hospital in Missouri to receive magnet designation in 2003. Under her guidance, the hospital received magnet re-designation in 2007, 2012, and 2016.

Cox congratulated those inducted and reminded all in attendance of the special time for the honorees who are also part of the 2017 graduating class. “My Excelsior experience is what really set me on a path of really aspiring to have clinical excellence in the workplace and in academic excellence,” she said.

The moment everyone was waiting for finally arrived. In front of their friends and family, the honorees recited the pledge to be inducted into STTI, promising to uphold the values at the root of the nursing profession: love, courage, and honor.