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Alabama State University Presents

IT Mentors

Dr. Joe Besselman is an independent consultant to industry and government, focusing on enterprise security services and disruptive technologies.  He spent nearly 5 years leading the Air Force’s Global Combat Support System (GCSS-AF), growing it from birth to more than 200 integrated capabilities, 80 enterprise services, and 800,000 users all over the world.  He helped introduce edge computing, SOA, and real spiral development inside the Air Force.   He is a computer engineer that has held a variety of software-related acquisition jobs in the combat support and command and control domains.  He holds BS and MS engineering degrees from Louisiana State University and a PhD in Public Policy Analysis and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, where he did research in Software Process Improvement and Defense and Commercial sector purchasing.  A portion of his dissertation won the 1999 OSD and DSMC Acquisition Research/Communication Award.  He was one of Federal Computer Week’s 2005 “Federal 100” and the GCSS-AF program has won one of CIO Magazine’s 2005 “Bold 100” awards, MIT/Accenture’s “Federal Innovation” award for major programs, and Association for Enterprise Integration’s outstanding large program award for 2005. 

Mark A. Peterson is the author of the small business strategy book, GuerrillapreneurTM. Guerrillapreneur is the combination of the words “Guerrilla” and “Entrepreneur,” and is the name given to enterprising, cash, and environment-conserving small business executives.
Mark A. Peterson has over twenty-five years of entrepreneurial and strategic consulting experience. Peterson is the co-founder and former CEO of PrideRock Holding Company, Inc., a leading biometric and criminal history screening company.  Along with his business partner, Mitch Duitz, Peterson launched PrideRock in 2002 from their respective garages and grew the business to over $10 million in annual revenues. In 2011, Peterson and Duitz completed the sale of the business to Corelogic, a spin-off from First American.
Prior to co-founding PrideRock Holding Company, Inc., Peterson worked as the Vice President of Emerging Markets at ChoicePoint, Inc. where he was in charge of the company’s small business incubator. Prior to working at ChoicePoint, Peterson spent six years as a strategy consultant with Andersen Consulting’s (now Accenture) Strategic Services practice.
During his tenure as a consultant, Peterson specialized in strategy development, including eCommerce and eProcurement, for U.S. Fortune 500 companies including investor-owned electric utilities, financial services, and packaged goods companies.
Prior to joining Accenture, Peterson interned with, and then later worked as, an independent marketing and brand management consultant to a major packaged goods company. During his time at Dartmouth College, Peterson launched two entrepreneurial ventures: Le Noir Style, a company that sold health and beauty-aid products for African Americans to New England Area colleges; and ENform Magazine, a political and social magazine. Peterson is a 1987 graduate of Selma High School (Selma, Alabama) where he was named the city’s first African-American Paul M. Grist “Boy of the Year”. Peterson has a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth.

Charisse Stokes is the Vice President for Cybersecurity and Network Management for Telos Corporation, a leading Department of Defense Information Technology firm.  She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Clemson University in Ceramic Engineering and a Master’s of Business Administration (Finance) from Auburn University Montgomery.  After starting her career in the United States Air Force as an acquisition officer she continued providing acquisition and program management support to the government as an industry executive.  Over the past dozen years she has held numerous program management positions responsible for managing the cost, schedule and performance of large scale IT projects supporting the warfighter.  Charisse is a recognized community leader and currently serves as the Director of the Education Foundation for the Montgomery Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association and was most recently awarded the AFCEA International Distinguished Service to Education Award.
William N. Roberson has over 20 years of software development experience with state government and private industries. He is currently an IT Manager with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), where he manages the Progressive Software Development team and assists with managing the Internship Program. Prior to his current position, Mr. Roberson served as IT Project Manager with ALDOT. He also spent 10 years as a Programmer Analyst with the Alabama Department of Human Resources, and 5 years as an IT consultant with TechniSource in Overland Park, Kansas. Mr. Roberson recently joined the IT Career Academy Advisory Council, serves on the state of Alabama PTA Board, and is President of the Montgomery County Council PTA. Mr. Roberson received a B.S. degree in Computer Information Science from Troy University.

Mr. Austin has worked in the Cyber Security arena for over 10 years. His journey began working as a Firewall technician for the United States Air Force.  After separating from the Air Force in 2007 he began working as a military contractor. As his knowledge increased, so did his vision and desire to provide security services in a more proficient manner. In 2010 Mr. Austin determined that the best way to accomplish his goal, without any restrictions on his creativity was to start Cy3 Computing, LLC.

In 2010 he founded Cy3 Computing, which is a cyber security company based out of Montgomery, AL. Cy3 provides information assurance/security services to Federal and State government agencies. Some of those services include security compliance testing, Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process implementation, vulnerability and risk assessments, and risk management. “We have a strong commitment to solving our customer’s issues by focusing on implementing solutions rather than dwelling on problems.”

Ahmad has been featured on Visions TV, Roscoe Miller’s Radio Show, and writes a monthly Cyber Security article for In-Montgomery Multi Media Group. He has also developed and taught a Comptia Security + course at Alabama State University and coached the Robert E. Lee High School IT Academy students in the National Cyber Patriot competition.