Theresa Semmens, chief information technology security officer, presented at two sessions during the 2013 Educause Security Professionals Conference, April 15-18 in St. Louis, Mo.

This year’s conference, “No Boundaries: Security in an Open World,” included sessions focused on strategic security, privacy and career development. More than 400 people participated in the face-to-face sessions, and nearly 200 additional people from 43 institutions participated online.

Semmens co-presented with Marcos Vieyra, chief information security officer at the University of South Carolina, at a session titled, “Avoid Reinventing the Wheel: Using the Educause Information Security Guide to Help Address BYOD Risks.” BYOD – bring your own device – is an emerging issue for IT security professionals. The presenters offered an overview of existing BYOD-related resources and investigated questions regarding whether the higher education IT security community can rely on already established principles and strategies or whether the issue requires radically innovative thinking.

During a second session, “ Successful Mentoring Relationships for Career Development,” Semmens co-presented with Brian Basgen, assistant vice chancellor for information technology at Pima County Community College in Tucson, Ariz., and David Seidl, director of information security at the University of Notre Dame. The presenters explored mentoring as a key success factor in career planning and development, offering advice to both mentors and mentees on how to develop successful relationships, foster effective communication and set appropriate expectations.

This was Semmens’ fifth year presenting at the conference. She served as chair of the conference in 2011 and was recognized in 2012 for her contributions to the long-standing event.

More information about the conference is available at www.educause.edu/sec13.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.