Biography

I hold a master’s degree in Cybersecurity from California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), and currently serve as the Director of Information Security at Merced College. In this role, I lead the college’s cybersecurity strategy and compliance efforts, ensuring alignment with both federal and state regulations such as GLBA, FERPA, HIPAA, and CCPA.

With over eight years of experience, my background includes governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), incident response, identity and access management, security operations, network security, and cloud security. Before transitioning into higher education, I worked in the fintech and insurance sectors in India, where I oversaw enterprise-level cybersecurity initiatives focused on data protection and regulatory compliance.

At Merced College, I’ve led the adoption of zero trust architecture, integrated AI-driven automation to streamline threat detection and compliance, and enhanced institution-wide cybersecurity awareness. My work centers on building scalable, policy-driven security programs tailored to the needs of the academic environment.

Whenever I get some free time, I’m particularly interested in developing AI-based GRC automation tools, mentoring future cybersecurity professionals, and exploring offensive security and vulnerability research in emerging areas such as IoT and robotics.