Securing the Future: Striking the Right Chords for Cybersecurity Education (Opening Remarks)

Credit: NICE

On behalf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States Department of Commerce, I want to welcome you to this year’s NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference In Nashville, Tennessee. The 2025 conference theme, “Securing the Future: Striking the Right Chords in K12 Cybersecurity Education”, serves as a great metaphor for what you will learn this week in Music City U.S.A.

I play a little guitar myself. I have 6 string and 12 string acoustic guitars and a 4 string bass guitar. The first thing that I do when I get them out to play is to make sure each string is in tune. There are a variety of instruments or tools that you can use to tune your guitar, although I have pretty good pitch, so I tune the strings by ear. I trust that you will find this week’s conference to be a great way to “get in tune” with your peers and learn about all the exciting programs, projects, and initiatives occurring across the United States. However, if we strum the strings of a guitar at the same time it doesn’t make a very pretty or melodic sound. But when you add your fingers to the frets to play chords the blending of the diversity and variety of each string come together to make a beautiful harmonic sound. Similarly, each of you bring to this conference your unique gifts, talents, and experiences that together will create beautiful music as we work together to advance cybersecurity education and workforce development across the country.

When I think about the conference theme to “Secure the Future” I also think about the future generations of workers and citizens that you are educating today. We know that today’s cybersecurity is in the hands of every American since insecure networks, systems, and applications are easily exploited by threat actors. I hope for a future where security and privacy are built in by design and the students you are educating today have the capacity and potential to create more secure products and services for everyone so that we can spend less time defending them after-the-fact. You are not only creating the conditions for students to acquire knowledge and learn new skills, but you are also influencing their career choices as you introduce young people to careers that were not previously held by their parents, aunts and uncles, or grandparents. You can inspire a future generation to explore careers in technology, including cybersecurity, that will lead to good jobs and long-lasting careers.

These jobs will span the fields of digital technology as documented in the recent National Career Clusters Framework. First, notice the positioning of Digital Technology as a Cross-Cutting Cluster that represents a skill area that is needed in every sector of the economy. In other words, skills gained through this career clusters area are applicable across all other career clusters and integrating cybersecurity across disciplines is both recognized and encouraged. Despite the recognition of Communications Technology and Information Technology as critical infrastructures, the security of these digital technologies is something that every organization – public or private, large or small, and from retail companies to our transportation systems – must embrace and prioritize to secure digital technologies as part of their enterprise risk management. Second, the Digital Technologies Career Cluster includes the traditional disciplines of IT support services, software development, and networking, and systems administration. But it also includes emerging fields such as autonomous vehicles, data science, and artificial intelligence. The NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference is an opportunity for you to communicate and demonstrate how cybersecurity careers are available across every sector of the economy and the cyberspace that we seek to secure is comprised of a variety of different areas of digital technologies.

Some of you may have heard that last week I announced my plans to retire from federal government service at the end of this year. My 11 years as the NICE Director has been the thrill of a lifetime, and I have enjoyed cheering all of you on from the sidelines these past 11 years. As I transition into retirement, I am pleased to know that the community will continue its great work, and I leave you in good hands with new NICE leadership. Effective last week, Karen Wetzel is now the Director of NICE. Many of you may know Karen as the Lead for the NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity or NICE Framework that she will continue to lead and direct. Joining her will be Danielle Santos, Deputy Director of NICE, who assumed that role in June and has been our lead for international engagement. Together with the rest of the NICE team, including Davina Pruitt-Mentle and Susi Barraza who are in attendance at the conference, you will find them more than capable to take the baton and continue the race.

I owe much gratitude and thanks to Davina from the NICE Program Office for her leadership of the K12 cybersecurity education community these past several years. I am also extremely appreciative of our partner, iKeepSafe, especially Amber Lindsay and Felicia Lamb, who professionally administer and orchestrate the conference year after year. And I continue to be amazed by the volunteers across the community who serve as members of the Planning Committee. And I am thankful for all of you who are presenting workshops or sessions at the conference as well as our many vendors in the exhibit hall.

As I attend my final NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference, I leave you with a big THANK YOU and hope that you will continue to engage with the NICE Community in 2026 as we carry on many of the traditions of NICE – and likely introduce new ones. Thanks for the work that you do in your schools and in your communities that is helping the nation to secure its future.