Bobbie Stempfley will lead Carnegie Mellon CERT

Veteran federal IT official Roberta G. “Bobbie” Stempfley will take over the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute’s CERT Division, the oldest Computer Emergency Response Team in the world, SEI announced this week.

“From my positions in government, I have come to know and respect the work done by the talented cybersecurity professionals at the SEI’s CERT Division,” said Stempfley in a release. “It is now my honor to lead this division, which, for nearly 30 years, has been at the forefront of our nation’s cyber defense. I look forward to working with this team.”

Before coming to CERT, Stempfley was director of cyber strategy implementation at nonprofit government technology contractor the  MITRE Corp. She previously served as deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications for the Department of Homeland Security.

Prior to that, Stempfley worked at the Pentagon as CIO of the Defense Information Systems Agency and as chief of the DoD CERT, a program that she established.

Earlier this year, Stempfley was named as one of CyberScoop’s Top Women in Cybersecurity.

Founded in 1984, SEI was established on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after the university acquired a federally-funded contract from the Department of Defense for a center focused on computer software research for defense and security.

Four years later in 1988, CERT was established as the world’s first computer security response team, addressing various cybersecurity threats in conjunction with U.S. government agencies.

“Bobbie Stempfley brings a tremendous depth and breadth of experience in cybersecurity across both the Department of Defense and civil agencies,” said CMU Provost Farnam Jahanian in the statement Tuesday. “We are so pleased to have someone with her expertise to lead the CERT division of the SEI and to coordinate with researchers across the university as they work to enhance the security and overall trustworthiness of our nation’s information infrastructure.”

Stempfley holds a B.A. from University of Arizona in engineering mathematics as well as an M.S. in computer science from James Madison University.