For eight years prior to becoming Maryland Attorney General, Mr. Gansler had been Montgomery County’s chief prosecutor, where he launched innovative and successful programs to fight gangs, punish criminals, and protect the public. He has an unparalleled record of experience as a State’s Attorney, former Assistant United States Attorney and private litigator.

Prior to being elected State’s Attorney, Mr. Gansler was an Assistant United States Attorney from 1992 to 1998. He prosecuted over 1,000 cases involving almost every conceivable type of crime, including public corruption, hate crimes, narcotic trafficking, sex offenses, child abuse, economic crimes, gang-related violence, and homicides. In one of his most noted cases, he prosecuted the drunk-driving diplomat who killed a 16-year old Maryland girl near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. While he was a federal prosecutor in the homicide division, he was part of a community-based team that formed the model for many of the advances in community-based justice that he has implemented in Montgomery County.

State’s Attorney, Mr. Gansler recently launched Maryland’s C.L.I.C.K.S. initiative - Community Leadership in Cyber Knowledge & Safety - an educational outreach program designed to equip Maryland’s community leaders with the resources to teach students and their parents about Internet safety.

Laurie Nathan is the Lead Outreach Coordinator for the NetSmartz Workshop, a program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Prior to her arrival at NetSmartz, Ms. Nathan was a staff analyst in the Exploited Child Division (ECD) at NCMEC. During her tenure in the ECD, Laurie garnered extensive knowledge of Internet search capabilities, became familiar with the ways children can be exploited through the usage of the Internet, and worked closely with law enforcement to have these cases resolved.

Prior to her work at NCMEC, Ms. Nathan was the Director of Programs at Prevent Child Abuse of Metropolitan Washington. Laurie managed over 40 volunteers who answered calls on PhoneFriend, a support line for children ages 5 to 15. Additionally, she worked on child abuse prevention outreach campaigns for the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Ms. Nathan graduated with highest honors from Emory University in Atlanta, GA with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Art History.

First Sergeant Robert Smolek is an 18-year veteran of the Maryland State Police, currently assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division where he supervises the Computer Crimes Unit, a specialized investigative unit dedicated to the investigation of computer intrusion, fraud, identity theft, child exploitation, and the forensic analysis of digital media seized during criminal investigations. 1SGT Smolek also directs the Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (MDICAC), a federally funded, multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional virtual task force designed to increase the capacity of Maryland law enforcement to respond to computer facilitated crimes against children.

As a Maryland Police Training Commission certified police instructor, 1SGT Smolek regularly lectures, trains, and provides technical assistance in the area of computer crime investigation to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and serves an adjunct professor at Anne Arundel Community College where he teaches a Cybercrime course. 1SGT Smolek holds an MS in Management from Johns Hopkins University.

Trooper First Class Eliott Cohen, a nine (9) year veteran with the Maryland Department of State Police, is currently assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division, Computer Crimes Section. The Computer Crimes Section heads the Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is responsible for the investigation of Online Child Sexual Exploitation. Tfc. Cohen has been an investigator in the Computer Crimes Section for five (5) and is responsible for conducting criminal investigations relating to crimes facilitated by the use of computers and other areas of high technology. As an investigator, his primary responsibility is to investigate crimes of Online Child Sexual Exploitation. Tfc. Cohen has been recognized as an expert in computer related investigation by Maryland courts and his peers. He regularly instructs federal, state and local law enforcement on how conduct computer related investigations. He also educates children, parents, counselors and school administration about the risks children face when online and how their online presence exposes them to a variety of sexual predators.

As a Maryland Police Training Commission certified police instructor, regularly lectures, trains, and provides technical assistance in the area of computer crime investigation to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Tfc. Cohen graduated from Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ with a B.S. in Political Science and a minor in Psychology.

Andrea Goodwin is the Associate Director of Student Conduct at the University of Maryland. Her responsibilities include administering and overseeing the University's Academic Integrity Process and advising the Student Honor Council on campus. She meets regularly with students to resolve cases of academic misconduct and serves as a resource to faculty, staff and students regarding issues of academic integrity on campus. Andrea received a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a Master's degree in Higher Education Administration from Syracuse University. Andrea received her Ph.D. in Education, Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Maryland.

Dara Gordon Murray, CISSP
Director, IT Security Staff, Chief Information Security Officer and Senior Security Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Program Support U.S. Health and Human Services

Dara Gordon Murray is the Director, IT Security Staff, Chief Information Security Officer and Senior Security Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Program Support at U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS). Formerly as HHS’ Director of the Information Systems Security Division, Program Support Center and the Program Manager, HHS-wide IT Security Program Team, Ms. Murray had oversight responsibility for the implementation of an agency-wide risk management and comprehensive computer security awareness training program for approximately 2000 federal government employees and contract employees. Prior to working for HHS, she was employed for the National Science Foundation and with the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division and the Telecommunications Services Staff. Her responsibilities included the deployment of network security for the Justice Consolidated Network, (JCN) which is the first high-speed network using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) processing sensitive but unclassified federal government information ever to be maintained by a public switch carrier under the Federal Telecommunications Services (FTS) contract. Due to her efforts, she has won several network security awards for technical excellence from the General Services Administration for the implementation of the JCN.

She started her federal career in 1987 as a DB2 and COBOL programmer, prior to being appointed a Computer Security Specialist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Prior to 1987, she worked as a CICS programmer for the IBM Federal Systems Division in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She holds an AA in Computer Science from Montgomery College, a B.S. in Computer Science and MBA from University of Maryland, Graduate School, and a Post-Masters Certificate in Telecommunications Engineering from Johns Hopkins University..

Ron Teixeira
Executive Director
National Cyber Security Alliance

As the executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), Teixeira is responsible for the overall management of cyber security awareness programs and national education efforts. Teixeira works closely with various government agencies, corporations and non-profits to increase awareness of Internet security issues and to empower home users, small businesses and the education community with tools and best practices designed to ensure a safe and meaningful Internet experience. Teixeira has provided security tips on a number of news outlets like CNN, Newsweek, Associated Press, Parade Magazine and Radio and TV News Shows all over the country.

Bob Kirby
Senior Director for K-12 Education
CDW-G

Bob Kirby, senior director, K-12 education, CDW-G will provide an exclusive look at the comprehensive results of the CDW-G 2007 Student Safety Index and results from the release of the self-assessment tool and discuss the trends and solutions that CDW-G believes are essential to ensuring the security of our schools.

CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G) released the findings of its first Student Safety Index at the National Education Computing Conference in June 2007. The Student Safety Index set a national benchmark highlighting school districts’ security successes and challenges. Surveying 381 K-12 school district security and IT managers, the Student Safety Index uncovered where districts stand in terms of computer network security, security incident response and emergency planning, and explored the areas that still need attention and improvement. CDW-G believes that feedback from district IT and security personnel is essential to helping communities make security decisions that are in the best long-term interests of students and schools. In August 2007, CDW-G followed up the study with the release of the School Safety Index self-assessment tool to enable members of the educational community to participate in the national study. Both the Index and self-assessment tool help parents, administrators and policymakers understand the importance of implementing and actively supporting physical and cyber security policies.

Nancy E. Willard, M.S., J.D. is a former educator and attorney who has focused on youth online risk issues for more than a decade. She is director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use and Cyberbully.org. She also is the author of two books: Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Addressing the Challenge of Online Social Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press) and Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass).

Iris K. Beckwith, frequent lecturer and child advocate, has spent 13 years of her professional career presenting children, educators and families with abuse prevention and Internet safety education.

Ms Beckwith currently serves as Vice President of Program and Partner Relations of the Internet Keep Safe Coalition where she works to bring Internet safety training and curriculum to children and educators across the country. She recently presented at the D.A.R.E. International conference, Pennsylvania School Study Council, and offered satellite training for Attorney General Tom Corbett (PA) for his Operation Safe Surf Initiative.

As a devoted child advocate and certified abuse prevention education trainer, Iris worked with Childhelp® for 10 years. She has lectured on child abuse recognition and response to professionals and has taught abuse prevention programs to more than 25,000 students. Through AOL’s Internet “SafetyBot” Robot Program, she reached over 40,000 elementary school children with information on how to keep safe online. She has been interviewed for numerous television, radio and newspaper/magazine stories on both child abuse and Internet safety.

Ms Beckwith enjoys spending time with her husband, three grown children, and new grandchild; traveling; Penn State activities; and photography. She has lived in Virginia for the past 35 years.

Davina Pruitt-Mentle serves as Director for Educational Technology Policy, Research and Outreach (ETPRO).Her primary responsibilities include providing professional development opportunities for educators through workshops and graduate courses, many of which are run on line, and overseeing grant initiatives and research projects that advance effective learning and teaching through technology integration. She has also been instrumental in developing ETPRO’s K-12 STEM Outreach model which introduces or re-engages youth to STEM using culturally savvy, community connected activities, in an informal fun fashion while bridging informal activities to classroom content.

She has extensive experience in the research, development and delivery of educational media, including computer software, multimedia, distance learning and print materials. She served on the advisory committee for the national TSSA standards (Technology Standards for School Administrators) and Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and presently serves on the Maryland State Technology Plan Advisory Committee, the Maryland TL8 Advisory Council, Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce Education and Workforce Steering Committee and serves as the Education Chair for the Prince George’s County Technology Council. In 2006 she was appointed to serve on the K-16 Maryland Committee on Library Information Literacy and Ethical Use. She has a three ISTE NCATE Program Review Board appointment.

Her research and development interests have focused on the role of distance learning in education, particularly cultivating the Internet as an environment in which to conduct professional development (PD) opportunities, and cultural differences towards technology use. A main initiative within this PD framework involves educators and students knowledge of Cybersecurity, Cybersafety and Cyberawareness (C3). In partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance, Homeland Security, Educause Security Task Force, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Federal Trade Commission, several initiatives have been put in place to include an annual C3 conference, C3 workshops and graduate level courses, on-line tutorials and the National Cyber awareness month interactive calendars (April and October). Other research initiatives focus on constructivist learning and teaching via technology, through her Young Scholars Mindtools Program, Digital Fluency curriculum and professional development through gaming theory. She has acted as consultant to a wide number of technology and education-related organizations. She has authored and presented at numerous national, regional and state conferences and teaches graduate courses to practicing educators on a wide range of technology related topics.