SOM Receives $25,000 for HSEM
Glenna Wood could be living the laid-back retired life. Instead, she prefers traveling and supporting causes for which she is passionate. With a background in sciences and agriculture, she is a staunch supporter of the Arbor Day Foundation.
As a UAF alumna - B.S. Natural Resources 1981 and M.S. Science Management 1983 - she was seeking a way to support management degrees for technical managers. She found a home in the program in SOM.
With her gift of $25,000, Glenna launched the Glenna Wood Excellence in Systems Integration and Analytics fund supporting cybersecurity management. Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. Implementing effective cybersecurity measures is particularly challenging today because there are more devices than people, and attackers are becoming more innovative.
Glenna feels it is important that SOM is taking a more systematic and technical view of computer systems instead of a completely theoretical view. With Glenna’s support of the HSEM program, Cam Carlson, Director of HSEM, and his team have developed a 400-level course, “Cyberdomain in the 21st Century.” A second course is in the works and more importantly, a new Cybersecurity Director will soon be hired who has the critical IT credentials and strong teaching skills to benefit our SOM students.
Glenna felt like she received a solid education at UAF interacting with a wide range of people and taking advantage of numerous opportunities. She worked a full-time programming job for the ķƵ Computing Network while attending graduate school. She went on to hold key positions with the USDA Forest Service as a Systems Analyst, and the U.S. Department of Defense, where she served as a Project Manager for major financial systems implementations for the U.S. Navy.
With her extensive background, Glenna has sage advice for current UAF students: take advantage of every opportunity that comes along and keep your education broad, because you may find opportunities where you wouldn’t necessarily go looking. Take a lot of writing classes and learn how to communicate. Consider a graduate degree.
As for advice for UAF alumni, Glenna says there is a program somewhere on campus (maybe not the degree program from which you graduated) that could use your help. No contribution, large or small, goes unappreciated.