Shannon Beck, PhD
Shannon Beck, PhD, is a faculty member in the Computer and Cyber Sciences department at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). Prior to joining the USAFA, Dr. Beck worked in cybersecurity and cybersecurity education, where she served in multiple roles.
In 2014, during her decade of experience working at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Dr. Beck enlisted on the front line in the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT). After shifting to cybersecurity research, she co-developed PcapDB, a network packet capture database technology accepted into the DHS Transition to Practice program and presented at the Black Hat security conference. Dr. Beck also developed content for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Cyber Fire cybersecurity education program and the Cyber Toaster summer school.
In 2018, Dr. Beck moved to the National Science Foundation (NSF), serving as Program Coordinator for the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program. While at the NSF, Dr. Beck began creating an inclusive, ethics-centric high school cybersecurity curriculum with two Virginia cybersecurity high school educators. The result of this collaboration was CyberVA. CyberVA served as the basis for a 2020 summer course for secondary educators at New Mexico Tech. Dr. Beck also worked as Research and Curriculum Lead for the non-profit that developed Teach Cyber, a year-long course designed for dual credit in high school and the undergraduate level.