Dena Haritos Tsamitis Wins Women of Influence Award
Dena Haritos Tsamitis, Director of Carnegie Mellon’s Information Networking Institute is the 2008 winner of the Women of Influence Award for professional and academic leadership in developing innovative information security education programs.
Dena Haritos TsamitisTsamitis, who is also a Program Coordinator for Carnegie Mellon|Portugal’s joint Master of Science in Information Technology – Information Security (MSIT-IS) and Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN) programs as well as the director of education, training and outreach for Carnegie Mellon CyLab, said “I am deeply honored with this award because it reflects the leading edge work we continue to do at Carnegie Mellon, and the great strides women are making in the business world.”
The award, sponsored by Alta Associates and CSO (Chief Security Officer) Magazine and presented at the annual Executive Women’s Forum, recognizes women in four categories: public sector/academia; private solutions provider; corporate practitioner; and the one to watch.
Tsamitis was honored in the public sector category for her positive influence on the professional community, her sustained record of accomplishments in the information security education field and for her mentoring prowess.
Since 2004, Tsamitis has served as director of the INI, where she handles the day-to-day operations, including graduate programs in information networking, information security technology and management, and information technology and information security programs. She is also responsible for international programs offered in Greece, Japan and Portugal.
“This award is a tribute to Dena’s outstanding ability to develop and execute innovative educational programs that help educate future information technology leaders,” said Pradeep K. Khosla, the Philip and Marsha Dowd University Professor and dean of Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering.
In addition to her role as INI director, Tsamitis was part of the founding group of Carnegie Mellon CyLab, a university-wide initiative focused on developing new technologies for measurable and secure computing and communications systems. She has also been designing and developing education and awareness initiatives aimed at making America’s households more “cyberaware.” Her team created a successful cyber safety game now used by many regional school districts to help students guard against Internet and computer threats. Her mentoring skills led to the recent creation of the Women@INI student organization to provide growth opportunities for all women enrolled at the INI.
“We want to help women reach their potential because we need talented leaders for our global workplace,” Tsamitis said.
