FITSI Founder and Executive Director Jim Wiggins Named FISSEA "Educator of the Year"

 March 22, 2011

                At its three-day annual conference on the campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on March 15, 2011 the Federal Information Systems Security Educators’ Association (FISSEA) named FITSI Founder and Executive Director Jim Wiggins as the winner of its Educator of the Year Award. The award was bestowed based on Mr. Wiggins’ long-standing reputation as a technical trainer of IT professionals who operate and defend federal information systems. His accomplishments as a trainer in the Washington DC area are well known and for the past 11 years he has been instrumental in helping students achieve their educational and certification objectives within the IT security community. Additionally, Mr. Wiggins was cited in his nominations for establishing the Federal IT Security Institute (FITSI) and the impact FITSI is making in relation to the federal workforce.

FITSI is a non-profit organization that offers a role-based IT security certification program to federal IT managers, designers, operators and auditors.  The certification program is based primarily upon the guidance and standards developed and promulgated by NIST.

            “At a personal level, this prestigious award is obviously very gratifying,” said Mr. Wiggins.  “More importantly, I am pleased for FITSI and its Federal Information Technology Security Professionals (FITSP) who have pushed role-based IT security credentialing to a new level of awareness across the federal IT space.”     

        Each year, FISSEA presents its Educator of the Year award to an individual "who has made significant contributions in education and training programs for information systems security." Nominees may be involved in any aspect of information systems security awareness, education or training, including instructors, security program managers and practitioners who further education and training. Interested parties can view the nomination letters from FISSEA members at the following website: http://csrc.nist.gov/organizations/fissea/educator-year/recipients.shtml. 

About FITSI:

The Federal IT Security Institute (FITSI) offers role-based certification to four groups of federal IT professionals: managers, designers, operators and auditors.  FITSI provides certification exams with the objective of making federal IT systems more secure by assuring that the people who create and manage them understand and apply the appropriate federal IT security standards.  FITSI is based in Alexandria, VA.

About FISSEA: 

Founded in 1987, FISSEA is an organization run by and for federal information systems security professionals. FISSEA assists federal agencies in meeting their computer security training responsibilities. Toward that end, NIST provides FISSEA with technical support. FISSEA’s website is: http://www.fissea.org.  FISSEA can also be found on GovLoop at: http://www.govloop.com/group/fissea.