New Degrees, More Security

Newly established programs will allow Eagle cybersecurity students to fly even higher.

Even as it celebrates its 20th year on the EWU campus, Eastern’s cybersecurity program continues pushing forward to better equip its graduates for the challenges of the future.

Its latest move? This spring, cybersecurity faculty members conferred degrees on 10 students from two new programs, both of which will help bolster our region’s digital defenses: the Bachelor of Science in Cyber Operations and Master of Science in Cyber Defense.

“These students have an incredible skill set that has really developed through our program,” said Stu Steiner, an associate professor of computer science and director of EWU’s Cybersecurity Institute. “Watching them from when they came in as freshmen to graduating as seniors, they have grown so much. They have had so much hands-on learning.”

The recent graduates are not only strong on the technical side of cybersecurity, Steiner added, but also possess outstanding “soft skills,” such as communication and collaboration. “They are all going to be incredible assets to whatever businesses they are going to,” he says. Each of the 10 grads have already been hired in the cybersecurity field, or have gone on to graduate studies.

Two of those new alumni, Lilly Carlascio, 23, from Yakima, and Alex Moomaw, 27, of Omak, Washington, were the first to receive the new master’s degree in cyber defense during Eastern’s College of STEM commencement ceremony in June.

After three summers of interning at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, Carlascio was recently offered a permanent position. “I’m really excited to get there and start full time,” she says. Carlascio credits her success to a supportive faculty, hands-on learning, cyber competitions and a great cohort of students. “I think it’s an amazing program,” she says.

Moomaw, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, was the first person in his family to earn a college degree. “It feels great that everything I’ve worked hard for the last six or seven years now is finally coming to fruition,” Moomaw says. He is currently a finalist for a U.S. Department of Defense cyber operations position.