Faculty & Staff
Dr. Blaine Burnham
Executive Director of NUCIA
Dr. Burnham is the Director of NUCIA and a Senior Research Fellow for the College of Information Science and Technology. Most recently, he was the Director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. Previously, Burnham worked in a variety of information assurance roles at the National Security Agency (NSA), Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia Laboratory.
Dr. Dwight Haworth
Associate Professor of Management Information Systems
Dwight A. Haworth received his B.S. degree from the United States Air Force Academy, CO, in 1963. While serving with the USAF, he was a base disaster preparedness officer and a control officer for Top Secret materials. He received his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, in 1990. He currently teaches courses in Computer Security Management and E-Commerce Security. Dr. Haworth has published in the areas of software maintenance and information assurance education, and has given local and regional presentations on internet security threats and countermeasures.
Dr. Kenneth Dick
Chair, Dept. of Telecommunications
Dr. Dick is a Senior Research Fellow for the College of Information Science and Technology. Dr. Dick leads the college's efforts in the area of telecommunications. He has extensive industry experience having served as WorldCom's director of strategic enterprise direction and architectural standards.
Dr. Leah Pietron
Associate Professor of Management Information Systems
Dr. Leah R. Pietron is an Associate Professor in Information Systems in the College of Information Science & Technology. She received her B.S. degree from Mayville State College, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of North Dakota, and MBA from Northwest Missouri State University. In addition, she has done post-doctoral work at the University of Minnesota and Indiana University. Dr. Pietron has worked as a consultant in developing training programs, developed security policies for ERP applications, involved in systems analysis, design, and development, geographical information systems for law enforcement agencies. She has published in the area of teaching pedagogy, CASE technology, end user development, Strategic Planning for GIS systems, etc. Also, she has made presentations on information security programs at national and regional conferences. Currently, Dr. Pietron is teaching the following courses: Introduction to Information Assurance, Information Warfare and Security, and Information Security Policy, Privacy, and Ethics.
Steve Nugen
Senior Technology Research Fellow
Stephen (Steve) Nugen is Senior Technical Research Fellow at the Nebraska University Consortium on Information Assurance, College of Information Science and Technology. Steve is also the founder and President of NuGenSoft, LLC, a provider of Information Security services since 1998.
Prior to founding NuGenSoft, Steve worked as a senior technologist and manager for Harris Corporation, Iowa State University, GTE Government Systems, and Hughes/Raytheon developing new technologies and complex information systems for private and public sector customers in the United States and Europe. Research accomplishments include innovative applications of artificial intelligence in detecting manufacturing defects, lower-cost satellite communications for world-wide dissemination of weather information, and knowledge management for information security. Current research interests include automated vulnerability discovery.
Steve's credentials include: BS in Computer Science, MS in Computer Engineering, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), NSA InfoSec Assessment Methodology (IAM), and NSA InfoSec Evaluation Methodology (IEM).
Steve supports the information security community through teaching (at University of Nebraska, College of Saint Mary, and NEbraskaCERT), service (NEbraskaCERT Board of Directors, InfraGard Executive Board) and invited presentations to business managers, information security professionals, and software developers.
Tim Vidas
Senior Technology Research Fellow
Tim Vidas is a Senior Technology Research Fellow in the Nebraska University Consortium for Information Assurance, in the College of IS & T. His current research topics are concentrated in the cyberforensic and wireless areas. In addition to teaching at UNO, for the past several years Tim's main focus has been in the private sector with System / Network Security, Defense in Depth, and Systems Integration. His interests include Automation, Information Assurance, Education, Integration, OSS, and wireless technologies. Tim is locally associated with ACM, NEbraskaCERT, Infragard, OLUG, SANS, and the Omaha Perl Mongers.
Tim's credentials include: MS/BS in Computer Science, EnCase Certified Examiner / Trainer (ENCE), CompTIA Security+ and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
Connie Jones
Community Outreach Program Manager
As Community Outreach Program Manager, Connie is responsible for development and coordination of workshops and summer camps for school age students in the Omaha area. Of particular interest to NUCIA is reaching out to under-represented groups in IT, including women. This has led to the development of a very successful all-girl technology summer day camp held in conjunction with the Girl Scouts. When asked about the events she works on, Connie replied, "The pupose of the workshops and camps is to introduce technology to kids in a fun, exciting way that will empower them and get them to consider an area they might previously have thought was inaccessible."
Connie received her Bachelors degree in computer science and mathematics, with a minor in chemistry, from UNL. She is currently working on her M.S. in computer science, with a concentration in IA, here through the College of IS&T. In addition to her community outreach work for NUCIA and the College of IS&T, she is also involved in the Bioinformatics program with the college and teaches a course in web development.
