Alice in Cyberspace

Director Jared Maples

Jared Maples was named Director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) by Governor Philip Murphy on April 17, 2018. In his role, he serves as the federally designated Homeland Security Advisor (HSA) to the Governor and is the Cabinet-level executive responsible for coordinating and leading New Jersey’s Counterterrorism, Cybersecurity, and Emergency Preparedness efforts.

Director Maples serves as Chair of the NJ Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force (DSPTF) and is an Executive Member of the NJ Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Philadelphia Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Port of NY/NJ Area Maritime Security Committee (AMSC), and the Oyster Creek Safety Advisory Panel. Additionally, Director Maples is Co-Chair of the Statewide Public Safety Communications Commission and serves on the National Governors Homeland Security Advisors Council (GHSAC).

Director Maples holds an MBA from Georgetown University, a Bachelor’s degree from Villanova University, and an Associate’s degree from Valley Forge Military College.

Top of Page

Mandy Galante

Mandy Galante believes that cybersecurity learning should be available to everyone, giving students active experiences that make lessons more meaningful – and fun! With over 15 years as a cyber educator, she created her own innovative curriculum, helping her students to win scholarships at competitions like CyberPatriot and GirlsGoCyberStart. Mandy has been named Monmouth County Teacher of the Year, CyberPatriot Coach of the Year, and has received the Yale Educator award. To round out her own cybersecurity knowledge, Mandy earned her Master’s in Cybersecurity from University of Maryland, and several professional certifications including the GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC).

Top of Page

Roota Almeida

Roota Almeida is a dynamic senior IT Executive responsible for successful implementation of information security, risk and compliance systems and strategies across multiple industries with global operations.  Currently, she is the AVP - Head of Information Security at Delta Dental of NJ and CT, leading the development and implementation of enterprise-wide information security strategy, policies, risk assessments and controls.

Prior to Delta Dental, Roota was the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Covanta Holdings Corp., a leader in Energy-from-Waste. As a CISO she led all aspects of Information security and risk, including global information security awareness programs, policies, business continuity and incident response teams.

Dr. Patricia Morreale

Patricia Morreale, PhD, is a Professor and Director of the School of Computer Science at Kean University in Union, NJ.  She conducts research into secure, trustworthy software design for mobile and networked applications. Before her university career, she worked in industry, securing enterprise networks and services. She is the author of several books, and holds a patent in real-time fault detection for networked systems.  She is a member of NCWIT's Academic Alliance Advisory Board. At Kean, cybersecurity degree options are available in both the BS Computer Science and BS Information Technology degrees, as well as a cybersecurity minor.  Dr. Morreale holds a BS from Northwestern University, a MS from the University of Missouri, and a PhD from Illinois Institute of Technology, all in Computer Science.

Top of Page

Lynn Costantini

Dr. Costantini is an information technology professional with more than 30 years of experience in the electric utility sector.  She has held executive level positions including Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, where she helped launch the Electricity Sector ISAC.   As a subject matter expert on cyber security, Dr. Costantini has written federal and state regulations that are intended to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks and has testified before Congress regarding electric utilities’ cyber disaster preparedness. While at NERC, she helped write the first two versions of the CIP standards. Her responsibilities at the NJ Board of Public Utilities include building and sustaining effective partnerships with government and private sector stakeholders to foster cyber security information sharing; to identify and mitigate cross-sector cyber dependencies; and, to spur innovative solutions to persistent security problems. 

Mary Gu

Mary Gu has been at Zocdoc for 5 years working in various fields of the business and joined the Information Security team in 2016. With her versatile background, resourcefulness and communication skills, she has driven multiple Information Security initiatives while contributing to areas such as policy development, third party risk management, industry partnerships, awareness training and HITRUST. 

Top of Page

Jessica Robinson

Jessica Robinson is Founder and CEO of PurePoint International helping people and companies to be safe by bridging the gap between physical and cyber security. She is owner of the #1 security company of choice for women-led and/or owned businesses and organizations globally and is the winner of the JCI Philippines-New York ICON of IMPACT Award for International Affairs and Women's Security.  As a business cyber security and personal security expert, she supports clients with outsourced Chief Information Security Officer, CISO, and Data Protection Officer, DPO, services including cyber security board governance, incident response, creating cyber security policies and procedures, conducting security assessments and employee training on cyber security prevention, information security, and threat prevention. PurePoint International provides training and consulting focused on creating a safe and empowered workplace for insurance, Financial Services, Global middle market companies, and international non-profits. Jessica is North America Volunteer Chair, and NYC co-leader for Women in Application Security and a 2018 Agent of Change Fellow with the Center for Social Innovation. Jessica is co-author of the #1 Amazon best seller "Mission Unstoppable." Jessica has spoken at the UN. 

Top of Page

Danelle Au

Danelle is vice president of marketing at SafeBreach. She has more than 15 years of experience bringing new technologies to market. Prior to SafeBreach, Danelle led strategy and marketing at Adallom, a cloud security company acquired by Microsoft. She also served as Director of Security Solutions at Palo Alto Networks, driving growth in critical IT initiatives like virtualization, network segmentation and mobility, and lead product management efforts for security and networking products at Cisco. Danelle was co-founder of a high-speed networking chipset startup, co-author of an IP Communications Book and holds 2 U.S. Patents.

Top of Page

Lena Licata

Lena Licata is a Director in the Consulting Services Group, with more than 10 years of experience that includes public accounting and private industry. She assists clients primarily in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries, providing a host of IT audit and risk services.

Lena helps ensure controls are working properly and business process documentation is current, through annual risk assessment and internal control testing. She identifies and evaluates control deficiencies and designs remediation efforts for the short and long term. In addition, she performs various services related to business process improvement and financial compliance projects.

Prior to joining the firm, Lena was an information risk and security consultant. Her previous experience also includes serving in the pharmaceutical industry as an IT Internal Audit Senior Manager as well as a Manager in Information Technology Advisory Services at a Big 4 accounting firm, where she was involved with identity and access management remediation, vendor risk management projects and internal audit co-sourcing engagements.

Top of Page