Cybersecurity Conference with NASCUS

Sarah W. Anderson owns SWA Law LLC and www.LegallyCyber.com, representing public and private entities on cyber incident response, regulatory compliance, and contract negotiations involving technology products and services. Sarah teaches seminars on cybersecurity law across the United States, for non-profits, trade associations, and government entities. Assisting with over 100 cyber incident responses, Sarah advises leaders and technology professionals on preventing and mitigating liability before, during, and after a cyber incident. She is the author of several items of cybersecurity legislation in Louisiana, recipient of the United States Secret Service Director’s Honors Award for Cybersecurity, and is GIAC certified in the Law of Data Security and Investigations. She is a veteran, continuing to serve in the U.S. Army Reserves at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Prior to founding SWA Law, Sarah was in-house counsel with a technology non-profit and a “big law“ equity partner, focused on toxic tort and property litigation. Sarah is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and Texas, with applications pending in Pennsylvania and Illinois. She graduated from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center cum laude and the University of Georgia Honor’s College, magna cum laude, where she was also a Distinguished Military Graduate. 

Todd Finkler is the NCUA as the Cybersecurity Advisor and Coordinator where he serves as the principal adviser to the Board and Executive Director on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure matters.

Prior to NCUA, Todd served at the National Security Agency in senior leadership positions and hands on research for both offensive and defensive cyber missions, flew for the US Navy and taught leadership at the US Naval Academy. He holds an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the US Naval Academy.

Dr. Kenneth Holladay is a Technical Advisor in the Defense and Intelligence Solutions division of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. His B.S. is in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, with M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Dr. Holladay’s research interests include the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to solving real-world problems associated with sensors, signal processing, and communication networks. He served for 11 years on the SwRI Advisory Committee for Research (ACR) helping direct the Internal Research and Development program.

When he is not glued to his computer, he enjoys traveling, hiking, and studying archaeology related to Old Testament history.

Jim Jenkins is a cybersecurity expert with a distinguished career spanning over three decades. His innovative approaches to fraud & risk management, security architecture, and developer security have made him a trusted authority in the field, ensuring that the credit unions he works with stay resilient in the face of evolving cybersecurity challenges. He has a deep understanding of the ever-evolving hacker landscape, and his insights and expertise offer invaluable perspectives on combatting pervasive cyber threats. He lives just outside of Seattle, Washington with his wife and has 2 grown daughters and a son.  

Melisa Kallestad is Senior Director of Compliance & Lending Education for Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the most influential financial services trade association which advocates for America’s credit unions. Kallestad brings career-long industry experience to her role and is responsible for the compliance, risk, lending, cybersecurity, collections, and audit education portfolio.  She and her team design and deliver an extensive portfolio of educational programs and resources for credit union professionals, leagues, and industry stakeholders. 

Prior to joining CUNA, Kallestad had a 20-year career with First American Credit Union of Beloit, Wisconsin.  While in college, she began working from the credit union branch basement microfilming documents. From there she finished her college journey while working as a teller and then moved to Member Service Officer, Branch Manager and Retail Manager.  Special areas of focus within the credit union included training, compliance, lending, member service, and branch operations.  In addition, Kallestad spent several years as a Continuing Financial Education Instructor for Rock Valley College.

Kallestad holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with a minor in Financial Planning. She has also participated CUNA’s World Class Customer Service and is a Certified Credit Union Financial Counselor.

Steve serves as Pure IT’s internal CISO and as a virtual CISO or CIO to many clients. He leads the Pure IT Professional Services group and is active in providing assessments and roadmaps for our clients in People, Process, Technology, and Business Management. He holds CISSP, CCSK, and several other certifications. He is an invaluable resource to credit unions because of his extensive knowledge of the industry, Business Operations, IT, and Security.

Steve is an advisor to credit union Boards who must provide a credible challenge to their technology teams and a regular speaker at national security and credit union industry conferences. After working as an enterprise architect, guiding IT architecture for large systems in finance, telecom, healthcare, oil, and gas, Steve raised $20m in funding to create a successful MSP. Sungard acquired this MSP, and Steve went to work for Oracle, where he taught companies the value of big data and business intelligence. He then discovered what made the CU industry great, dropped everything, dove in, and co-founded Pure IT Credit Union Services in September 2016.

Brig Gen Michael J. "Apollo" Lovell, USAF (Ret) is the Executive Director for Joint Base San Antonio's Electromagnetic Defense Initiative. He leads a task force for the largest Joint Base in the Department of Defense to harden utilities from Electromagnetic Pulse effects, accelerate advanced cellular communications, and implement resilient, clean, and dispatchable electrical power through geothermal and new nuclear generation. Prior to retiring from the United States Air Force, Brig Gen Lovell served as a Texas Air National Guardsman, assigned to United States Strategic Command as the Mobilization Assistant to the Director of Intelligence and flew 212 mission hours as the Airborne Emergency Action Officer on the E‐6B “Looking Glass” Airborne Nuclear Command Post. He is Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Cyber senior leader who helped the Air National Guard build cyber capabilities in 20 states with 6,000 Airmen. Brig Gen Lovell has a Master of Science in Executive Leadership, a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, and is a graduate of the Maxwell School’s National Security Studies at Syracuse University, and Kenan‐Flagler’s Executive Development at the University of North Carolina.

Brian Pandya is a Partner in the Washington, DC office of Duane Morris LLP, a global law firm with over 800 attorneys across the United States and internationally.  Brian joined Duane Morris after serving at the United States Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General.  Brian is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer representing companies in complex litigation and government investigations, particularly on intellectual property, antitrust, white collar, and regulatory matters.  In the financial services sector, Brian filed the first ever petition for Covered Business Method Review filed by a financial institution, represented numerous banks in litigations and arbitrations related to the software used to authenticate online banking log-ins, and has written and spoken on cryptocurrency and fintech issues.    

Becky Reed is a credit union industry veteran and thought leader with more than two decades of leadership in credit unions and CUSOs. Renowned for her unique perspective as both a credit union executive and CUSO leader, her expertise and advice are sought after by those who seek to embrace innovation. Becky believes that a frictionless member experience starts with a frictionless employee experience which can only truly be achieved by utilizing state of the art technology.

In her most recent role as the CEO of Lone Star Credit Union, Becky led the organization through a complete digital transformation starting with a technology foundational remediation in 2016 which allowed the credit union to achieve economies of scale through increased efficiency. Once the modern foundation was in place, the credit union transformed into a digital-first organization and underwent a complete overhaul including a core conversion, headquarters remodel and cultural revitalization. Today, the credit union embraces a remote-first philosophy which allows the staff to assist members from anywhere.

Often dubbed the 'CUSO Queen', Becky is a co-founder of the Credit Union Service Organization, PureIT CUSO, which provides technology infrastructure support and professional services to credit unions. She is the Board Chairman of NACUSO and has contributed to multiple Advisory Boards, such as Corelation, BankJoy, Members Mobile and BankSocial. CUSOs, she believes, are our industry superheroes. She also volunteers as the President of BlockAdvocates, a non-profit dedicated to Crypto education. Becky continues to stay at the forefront of innovation by working with emerging technologies, such as DLT and AI as well as assisting with DeNovo credit union creation. Her focus revolves around the 4 'Cs' - Credit Unions, CUSOs, Crypto and Collaboration.

Today, Becky is dedicated to supporting the credit union industry through her consulting service, Becky Reed as a Service or BRaaS, working with PureIT CUSO clients and serving as the COO of the FinTech company, BankSocial. In addition to her credit union expertise, Becky is published author of the book “Credit Unions and DeFI: A Financial Renaissance, Co-Host for the Podcast “Grow Your Credit Union”. Becky graduated Summa Cum Laude from Concordia University in Austin, Texas

Savannah finds joy in education - striving to make information more accessible for teaching and sharing resources. She has a B.A. in Business Administration, an M.S. in Finance, and has earned the IT Risk Fundamentals ISACA certificate. Currently, Savannah works as a Software Specialist and is a part of the content team at Tandem. Her enthusiasm for learning shows with interest in topics such as risk management, personal financial planning, and economics. Outside work, Savannah teaches personal financial planning to students at Lubbock Christian University. Additionally, she collaborates with a dedicated group supporting small businesses through vendor markets and indulges in candle and soap making.

Randy is a Principal in the Cybersecurity Consulting team at CLA. Randy leads a team of technology and industry specialists providing IT audits and security assessments for clients in a wide range of industries and diverse operating environments and has provided independent security assessments and IT audits for Credit Unions, health care and life sciences, non-profits, and state and local government for over 26 years. He is responsible for the continuing development of the open-source, *nix, and Windows applications used in all of the security audits, and he leads the firms PCI-QSA audit practice. 

Randy has been an instructor of IT and Cybersecurity Risk Management at the CUNA Management School at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado in Boulder, ACUARP (formerly ACUIA) national and regional meetings, a variety of State Government Finance Officers Associations, and the Minnesota Government IT Symposium.  Randy is frequent speaker at national conferences and training events.

Randy has been a consultant at CLA for twenty-six years and brings a strong background in computer technology, physics and education. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a Certified in Risk and Information System Controls (CRISC) professional, a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), a PCI-Qualified Security Assessor (PCI-QSA), and a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).  He has a master’s degree in educational technology from the University of Saint Thomas, and a Bachelor of Science degree in education from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Dr. Keeper L. Sharkey is a quantum information specialist with particular focus of applying quantum algorithms to post-quantum cryptography. She is a co-Chair of Quantum's effect on cybersecurity for next generation technology at IEEE, as well as serves in the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and the InfraGard Cross-Sector Council for Digital Exhaust as quantum advisor.  Dr. Sharkey was named 40 under 40 in cyber security 2023 by Capital Tech University's Top Cyber News Magazine.  She is the CEO and Founder of ODE, L3C and received her PhD from the University of Arizona.

Chelsea Treboniak owns Critical Ops, a firm specializing in smart, secure business modernization (website: https://criticalops.com/). Her specialty is mergers, standard operating procedures, and process improvements.

Chelsea is a National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions Certified Risk Manager (NCRM), Credit Union Enterprise Risk Management Expert (CUERME), and Certified Credit Union Supervisory Committee Member (CCUSC). She is a long-term Supervisory Committee Member for SAFE Federal Credit Union in Sumter. 

Chelsea is also a West Point graduate and United States Army Veteran. She is passionate about critical infrastructure protection. Chelsea channels this passion through advocacy, research, and events. Advocacy includes serving on the Board of Directors for Northern Ohio InfraGard Members Alliance and BlockAdvocates. Her research includes numerous endeavors, from publications on software sourcing to strategic deployment strategies for healthcare coalitions and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Transportation Research Board. Events include Critical Ops’ annual critical infrastructure modernization forum, regional workshops, and national consortiums.

Robert Villanueva currently leads the Cyber Threat Intelligence Division of Q6  
Cyber. 

Mr. Villanueva joined Q6 Cyber after 25 years of dedicated service in the United  
States Secret Service, where he specialized in transnational cybercrimes, access  
device fraud, network intrusions, and identity theft data breaches affecting the  
private sector. During his tenure, Mr. Villanueva was assigned to various offices, 
including Miami, Europe, Latin America, and Washington D.C., and served in both  
investigative and undercover capacities around the world. Mr. Villanueva founded  
the U.S. Secret Service’s Cyber Intelligence Section, which coordinates global cyber  
operations. Mr. Villanueva also headed the U.S. Secret Service’s Miami Electronic  
Crimes Task Force, which counts 800+ members from the private sector, academia  
and local/federal law enforcement.

Mr. Villanueva has conducted extensive research on computer botnets and malware  
development attributed to foreign actors. He has led numerous projects for the U.S.  
Secret Service in partnership with Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University,  
and various private sector companies.

Mr. Villanueva presently serves as an advisor to the Board of Directors of various  
organizations and universities, including Florida International University, The  
Florida International Security Association, The Florida International Banker’s  
Association and The International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators.

Isaida Woo is the Senior Vice President Corporate Affairs and Education and is responsible for managing NASCUS’s education and professional development functions, overseeing NASCUS’s meeting planning and venue engagement functions, and working with the CFO to ensure business continuity in NASCUS’s financial management functions. Dr. Woo works with the President/CEO and executive management team to coordinate marketing of NASCUS across events and platforms and to ensure NASCUS’s training/professional development functions align with NASCUS’s strategic plans, initiatives, and mission. She liaises with system stakeholders to enhance NASCUS’s visibility, brand, and value proposition.

Dr. Woo has been in the financial industry for over 20 years and has developed and administered the training programs each year that trains attendees around the country.

Dr. Woo holds a Bachelor Degree in Information Security from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master Degree in Business Administration from Trinity Washington University, and earned her Doctoral degree in Education from Nova Southeastern University.