Bio:
Dr. Aleksandra W. Scalco received a Ph.D. degree in systems engineering from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA, in 2022. In addition, she received an M.ENG.degree in systems engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, in 2012, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ, USA, in 2009, and a BJ degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA in 1988. Dr. Scalco is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She is a member of the seventh cohort of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Institute for Technical Leadership (TLI Cohort 7) and an INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP). She is Expert Certified in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) IT Service Management. In addition, she is Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Engineering Certified at the highest Level 3, as well as other professional certifications. From 2012 to 2016, she was an Information System Security Designer (ISSD) and Client Advocate with the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS). In this role, she Employed systems engineering and security engineering principles, along with knowledge of the partner’s “problem space” and available products and practices (the “solution space”). Since 2016, Dr. Scalco has been an Engineer with the United States Department of the Navy, Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic. Dr. Scalco is designated as a Navy Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Mission-Critical Control Systems (MCCS) in support of the Technical Warrant Holders (TWH) for cybersecurity requirements within the cybersecurity domain. Dr. Scalco is experienced in developing, creating, and implementing Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)/Digital Engineering (DE) using Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to empower teams, enhance collaboration, visualize the system, and ensure compliance with standards.
Dr. Scalco is also an adjunct faculty member at The Citadel in the Department of Cyber and Computer Sciences, where she supports the learning journey tradition of developing principled leaders. Dr. SCalco is responsible for the curriculum development and the delivery of learning assets and instructional design of content for a 400-level course about cyber-physical systems (CSCI 490 Cyber-physical Systems) funded by a National Security Agency (NSA) grant. She is the author of many professional publications about cybersecurity for control systems. Her research interests include cybersecurity of control systems, digital transformation of engineering practice, and systems engineering practice for cybersecurity capabilities. She is a cyber book reviewer member of The Cybersecurity Canon Project, A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for cybersecurity books. Dr. Scalco’s awards and honors included the NSA/CSS Crescent Performance Award for Mission Excellence in 2013, and she was a CSU Outstanding Dissertation awardee in 2022. She is working on a book about control system cybersecurity mitigation with coauthor Dr. Steve Simske and publisher River Publishers.