Digital Solutions Conference

Ryan Gerdes, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Dr. Gerdes’ work focuses on designing resilient computing systems, with an emphasis on cyber-physical systems operating in adversarial environments and leveraging the physical layer for defensive and offensive purposes. She is the principal investigator on NSF and DOE…

Ben Gardiner is a senior cybersecurity research engineer contractor at the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) specializing in hardware and low-level software security. Prior to joining the NMFTA team in 2019, Gardiner held security assurance and reversing roles at a global corporation, as well as worked in embedded software and systems engineering roles at…

Dan FitzGerald is the director of cybersecurity with A. Duie Pyle based in West Chester, PA. Prior to joining A. Duie Pyle as its director of cybersecurity in 2021, Dan previously worked for several global financial services companies. His career has focused on service management and delivery in large, multi-national organizations, ensuring consistent delivery and…

Jeremy Daily, Ph.D., is the associate professor of systems engineering at Colorado State University. In 2019, Dr. Daily accepted a position as an Associate Professor of Systems Engineering at Colorado State University where he continues to work on heavy vehicle cybersecurity and forensics. Prior to that, he served as an Assistant and Associate Professor of…

Jerrel Conerly is a cybersecurity advisor for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Region 6, in Houston, TX. Jerrel is charged with helping critical infrastructure owners and operators protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats and enhance resilience through voluntary and non-regulatory collaboration. This includes private sector owners, operators, and employees; state, local, tribal, and…

Chloe Callahan is an IT operations manager at Peninsula Truck Lines, Inc. based in Federal Way, WA. She has a particular interest in cybersecurity with a passion for sharing and teaching cybersecurity skills to others with a goal of creating a security-minded culture in the trucking industry. Peninsula Truck Lines, Inc. is a regional, less-than-truckload…

Ernesto Ballesteros, JD, MS, CISSP, CISA, Security+, is the cybersecurity state coordinator (CSC) for the State of Texas at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in Region 6. As the CSC for the State of Texas, Ernesto’s role is to build strategic public and private sector relationships in Texas to facilitate the development and…