Award Recipients

Michael E. Whitman

2012 Academic Leadership of the Year

Michael E. Whitman, Ph.D., CISM, CISSP is a Professor of Information Security in the Information Systems Department, Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, where he is also the Director of the Coles Center for Information Security Education (infosec.kennesaw.edu) and Editor-in-Chief of the Information Security Education Journal.

Dr. Whitman has taught classes at the graduate and undergraduate level in information systems and information security since 1990. He has served as the Coordinator for the Bachelors of Science in Information Systems, the Bachelor of Science in Information Security and the Director of the Master of Science in Information Systems during his tenure at KSU. He co-developed the BS-ISA in 2004, implementing it as the 2nd degree program of its kind at a public university in the U.S., and the first in the Southeast.

He is the lead author of nine academic texts including Principles of Information Security; Management of Information Security; Principles of Incident Response and Disaster Recovery; Readings and Cases in the Management of Information Security; Readings and & Cases in Information Security: Law and & Ethics; The Guide to Firewall and VPNs; The Guide to Network Security; Roadmap to the Management of Information Security and The Hands-On Information Security Lab Manual, all from Cengage / Course Technology.

Dr. Whitman is an active researcher in Information Security Governance and Management, Security Policy, and Ethical Computing. He has published articles in the top journals in his field, including Information Systems Research, the Communications of the ACM, Information and Management, the Journal of International Business Studies, and the Journal of Computer Information Systems. He has spearheaded KSU's effort to achieve the prestigious Department of Homeland Security/National Security Agency National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education ... three times as well as the new National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance and Cyber Defense.

Dr. Whitman works actively with the information security education community and sponsors two major security-related activities through his Center - the Information Security Curriculum Development Conference, held in the fall, and the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, held in the spring. Dr. Whitman can be reached at mwhitman@kennesaw.edu.