Marshall University’s new cybersecurity director says he’s ready to help the school lead the industry

HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA — Marshall University’s new and first-ever chief cybersecurity officer said that with more than 30 years of experience in the field, he is ready to help make Marshall one of the nation’s leading schools for information technology and computer security education.

After being named the first executive director of Marshall’s Institute for Cyber ​​Security in April, Dr. Henry Collier officially took over the role Monday. He said he is excited about the new opportunity.

“There’s a lot of progress in the direction we want to go, things that have already been built before when we first designed and developed ICS, and I’m excited about taking it to the next level,” Collier told MetroNews.

Collier joins Marshall from Norwich University in Vermont, where he served as director of technology programs at the College of Graduate and Continuing Studies.

Prior to that, Collier served as program director of the Computer Technology and Cybersecurity and Medical Informatics program at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire, where he relaunched the Cisco Networking Academy and managed a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education grant to expand the college’s cybersecurity and medical informatics program.

Collier also holds a doctorate in engineering with a concentration in security from the University of Colorado as well as a master’s, bachelor’s and associate’s degree in technology. He is also a veteran of the United States Army and currently holds the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 3 in the Army Reserve with 27 years of service.

Collier said he plans to work with U.S. Cyber ​​Command during his time at Marshall, one of the U.S. Department of Defense’s 11 unified combatant commands that unifies the direction of cyberspace operations.

He said that with this connection and the connections of other cybersecurity entities, Marshall has many opportunities to become an industry leader.

“The connection with Cyber ​​Command is going to allow us to do things that other universities can’t do, and I think it’s going to allow us to compete with institutions like MIT or Carnegie Mellon for premier institute status,” he said.

Marshall is now the second such college to build a cybersecurity center, with construction expected to begin next month after state lawmakers approved funding for the center last year.
They expect construction to take about two years.

Collier said there is currently a shortage of 2.1 million jobs to fill in the cybersecurity sector, and as they move forward and continue to grow the program at Marshall, he said they will create a pipeline to help fill those positions.

He said the new center will play a central role in advancing cybersecurity education, as it will house all the appropriate and up-to-date labs and classroom resources specifically related to the subject for students to use.

“One of the most frustrating things as an educator has always been that the technology that I have is ten years out of date and I’m not teaching with the latest technology, which means I’m not really preparing my students to the best of my ability. So having a new institute, having a new building, it’s going to give us what we need to make sure students are successful,” Collier said.

Collier said the new center will also allow them to be more adaptable to current trends seen in the cybersecurity industry.