Professor Barbara Endicott-Popovsky was invited to brief the White House on Friday, July 20, on issues concerning transitioning veterans into educational and training programs designed to prepare them for careers in information assurance and cybersecurity.

Endicott-Popovsky was among 16 principal investigators (PI) receiving grants from the National Science Foundation through the Innovations in Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure program to study road blocks to veterans transitioning to academia and was the only PI to partner directly with the military--in this case the Washington National Guard at Camp Murray.

Outcomes from the study sparked interest at the White House where the administration is preparing to cope with 60,000 veterans returning fromthe Iraq and Afghanistan wars to face high unemployment. Information assurance and cybersecurity are fields where significant numbers of jobs are going unfilled. Returning citizen soldiers from the Guard in the Northwest, where information operations is a major part of their mission, are particularly well suited to transition into civilian jobs in these fields.

Endicott-Popovsky has been asked to prepare specific materials to support a Presidential announcement expected next month that will announce special pathways for transitioning soldiers into information assurance and cybersecurity careers.