By Brittany Bailer
Howard University is pleased to announce Andrea Simpson will serve as Chief Information Security Officer.
“It is my great pleasure to introduce Andrea Simpson as the University’s new Chief Information Security Officer. Andrea is a highly regarded expert in cybersecurity and will serve within the Office of Enterprise Technology Services in policy development and strategic planning roles,” said Tashni Ann-Dubroy, PhD, MBA, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Howard University.
Simpson is a master’s graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business and Management’s Information and Telecommunications Systems program. She comes to Howard with more than 20 years of professional experience in the cybersecurity industry, bringing impressive achievements from CISO roles with the Federal Communications Commission and AmeriCorps. Her accomplishments range from audit reconciliation and cyber incident management and recovery to technology deployment and contract management.
“In July 2022, God gave me a vision that I needed to use my experience in cybersecurity to impact young Black women,” said Simpson. “Immediately following that revelation, I received the offer from Howard. Being at Howard provides a wider audience than I had in the federal government by positioning me to create a space for young adults to gain hands-on cyber experience, which was missing in my college experience. I’ve been challenged in ways that are expanding my cyber and leadership experience since becoming a member of the HU community.”
While at the FCC, Simpson directed the pilot program for government-issued laptop deployment for the agency’s telework initiative as part of its pandemic response plan. The initiative enhanced end-user experience reduced network vulnerability and provided a higher level of control over the assets which directly impacted security. She also identified duplicate web application firewalls (WAFs) to reallocate more than $200,000 to other IT efforts and successfully resolved a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit with 11 findings within a year.
“We are excited to have Andrea as part of the unit fortifying the technical infrastructure of the University’s learning, human capital, and research sustainability and growth,” said Dubroy.
