IST Alumni Symposium

Hadi Hosseini, Associate Professor, College of IST, and Associate Director, Center for AI Foundations and Engineered System

Hadi Hosseini is an Associate Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, where he also worked as an instructional developer at the Centre for Teaching Excellence. Hadi’s research lies at the interface of artificial intelligence, multiagent systems, and economics, focusing primarily on algorithmic game theory, fair division, matching theory, and computational social choice. He is a recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER award, Penn State’s Junior Faculty Excellence in Research award, the government of Canada’s NSERC fellowship, and several university-wide teaching awards. He is the founder of MatchU.ai and MatchXplain.org, two not-for-profit publicly available platforms that blend education with research through interactive and provable algorithms. Hadi is a member of the Board of Directors at IFAAMAS and serves in various leadership roles in venues such as IJCAI, AAAI, and AAMAS. At Penn State, he is an Associate Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Engineered Systems (CAFÉ), the coordinator of the Data Science program at IST, and the director of the FAIR Lab.

Kevin Houk '17, Senior Technical Program Manager, Microsoft

Kevin Houk is a Senior Technical Program Manager on Microsoft’s Cyber Defense Operations team, specializing in security incident containment. With over a decade of experience in cybersecurity, Kevin has led responses to nation-state threats, developed advanced forensic workflows, and architected automated threat enrichment systems. Prior to Microsoft, he played a key role in AWS Corporate Security Response, where he spearheaded containment efforts for critical security events and built innovative phishing detection pipelines. His earlier work at CrowdStrike involved managing incident response engagements and conducting deep forensic investigations for global clients. Kevin holds a B.S. in Security and Risk Analysis from Penn State and has completed advanced training in malware analysis, cloud security, and network forensics. He brings a deep understanding of evolving threat landscapes and practical strategies for defending enterprise infrastructure.

Sarah Hume '20, Lead Purple Team service at Security Risk Advisors

Sarah leads the Purple Team service at Security Risk Advisors (SRA). She has led hundreds of Threat Intelligence-based Purple Team exercises for organizations in the Fortune 500 and Global 1000 over the past 7 years. Her background is in offensive security, primarily internal network, OT/ICS, and physical security penetration testing. Sarah also has experience in external network penetration testing, web application assessments, OSINT, phishing/vishing campaigns, vulnerability management, and cloud assessments. She was a DEF CON 33 speaker. Sarah graduated Summa Cum Laude from Penn State with a B.S. in Cybersecurity. She is a Certified Red Team Operator (CRTO), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Google Digital Cloud Leader, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, and Advanced Infrastructure Hacking Certified. She lives in Philadelphia with her dog, Paxton.

Alex Mellott '20, Senior Manager, Coalfire

Alex Mellott is an accomplished cybersecurity strategist with a proven track record leading federal cloud and compliance initiatives. As a Senior Manager at Coalfire, he directs complex FedRAMP and DoD cloud security engagements, aligning secure cloud architectures with federal mandates and business goals. A Penn State graduate in Security & Risk Analysis with a minor in Entrepreneurship, Alex is recognized for his strategic leadership, innovation, and commitment to mentoring future leaders through community outreach and volunteer initiatives.

Mike Morelli '17, Cyber Operations Manager, Fidelity Life Insurance

Michael is a Cyber Operations Manager at Fidelity Life Insurance, Inc., where he leads a team of security engineers and analysts while overseeing enterprise security initiatives. His expertise includes cloud security, incident response, identity/endpoint management, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/Center for Internet Security (CIS) compliance, and third-party risk assessments.

Michael graduated from the Penn State College of IST in 2017, earning a bachelor's degree in Security and Risk Analysis with a focus on Cyber Security. During his time at IST, he served as a teaching assistant, Vice President of the Competitive Cyber Security Club, and member of the IST academic integrity board. Since graduating, Michael has held key roles at organizations like Boeing and Avalara, where he led cybersecurity programs for merger and acquisition security, regulatory compliance, security operation centers, email security, endpoint security, and incident response.

Priya Kumar PhD, PNC Career Development Assistant Professor, College of IST

Dr. Priya Kumar is the PNC Career Development Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology. She conducts theory-driven, qualitative research on the connections between digital technologies and the social practices of communication and learning, with a focus on privacy. Her research has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, NPR, NBC, CNN, and Slate, and her TEDx talk on children’s privacy has garnered more than 22,000 views on YouTube. For more information, visit https://priyakumar.org/.

Jayme Anne Goldberg '92 BUS, Founder of Consequential Flowers LLC

Jayme Anne Goldberg is Founder & CEO of Consequential Flowers, an AI-native company transforming content-rich organizations through responsible AI applications. As architect of BloomRadius, she leads development of proprietary models including SeedVision™—which transforms unstructured content into structured, AI-ready data to accelerate learning and engagement—and other intelligent systems that blend educational neuroscience with enterprise AI.

A Certified AI Trainer and former External Advisory Board member of Penn State's Schreyer Honors College, Jayme brings deep expertise in data strategy, platform innovation, and responsible AI implementation across multiple industries including STEM, business, healthcare, legal, construction, and sports. She previously co-founded SilverLine Athletics (consumer data analytics) and served as Chief Strategy Officer at CenterSquare Investment Management (BNY Mellon). She is an advisor for The Critical Thinking Institute and speaks on AI leadership and strategic implementation.

Edward Amoah '20, '25g

Edward Amoah is graduate student pursuing his Ph.D. in Ecology under the supervision of co-advisors Erica Smithwick and Christina Grozinger. He is interested in ecological systems monitoring, modeling, and management with AI-powered technologies and innovations. He earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Penn State in 2020 and looks forward to using his engineering skillset to integrate technologies like computer vision and IOT based systems into methodologies for ecological research.

Moderator: Mary Ward '16, '19g, Product Lead, Capital One

Mary Ward is a Product Lead at Capital One, spearheading the development of GenAI infrastructure. With nearly a decade of experience in product management, software engineering, robotics, and machine learning, she brings a wealth of expertise to her role, which she started in 2023.

Mary earned a bachelor's degree in 2016 and a master's degree in 2019, both from the College of IST at Penn State, where she was also a Division I varsity softball player. Throughout her career, Mary has passionately advocated for women in STEM—serving as a leader and mentor in non-profit organizations such as Women in Tech and Stem for Her—and championing women's empowerment in sports.

Mary grew up on a farm in central Pennsylvania, and currently resides in Arlington, Virginia.