STEM Education and Workforce Development Panel

Edward Vasko, CISSP, is the Director of Boise State University’s Institute of Pervasive Cybersecurity. He architected and leads the Idaho Cyberdome, a Boise State led consortium of Idaho colleges and universities committed to providing Idaho cybersecurity students real-world competency development before joining the workforce. He is a cybersecurity leader and entrepreneur with over 30-years of experience in the cybersecurity industry. Prior to joining Boise State University, Edward established and was a Senior Vice President at Avertium, a leading national managed security and consulting provider. Before establishing Avertium, he was the co-Founder and CEO of Terra Verde, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to being acquired by growth equity in 2018, Terra Verde was one of the nation’s largest providers of cybersecurity advisory and managed security services, with over 2,000 active clients around the world. Edward’s other passion is tackling the challenge of cyber workforce development. He has served on a wide range of secondary and post-secondary advisory boards across the nation, providing expertise around cybersecurity industry needs. He was appointed to a Commissioner role in Arizona’s Commission for Post-Secondary Education from 2015-2019. He was also appointed as the co-Chair of Arizona’s Cyber Team (ACT) Workforce Development Committee. He was the Industry Co-Chair for the 2019 NIST NICE Conference. Most recently, he has been a member of Idaho's Cybersecurity Task Force and the Idaho Cybersecurity Education Consortium. Most importantly though, Edward is a proud father and husband.