The Modern CISO: Building Human-Centric Security Leadership for Higher Education

Today's higher education CISO faces unique challenges: protect cutting-edge research while preserving academic freedom, secure distributed campuses with limited resources, and build security programs that support, rather than hinder, the academic mission. This session presents a practical framework for effective security and privacy leadership in education, focused on creating programs that work with, not against, the collaborative culture of academia. We'll explore five critical areas of modern security leadership: translating security risks into terms that resonate with academic and administrative leadership; designing security controls that enhance, rather than obstruct, academic workflows; managing risks effectively with limited resources; building collaborative security cultures across distributed organizations; and leading through crisis while maintaining academic operations. Whether you're an experienced CISO, CPO, or an aspiring privacy/security leader, you'll leave with an actionable framework for building more effective, human-centric security programs that align with academic values and operations.