Julie Haney leads the Human-Centered Cybersecurity program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She conducts research about the human element of cybersecurity, including the usability and adoption of cybersecurity solutions, work practices of cybersecurity professionals, and people’s perceptions of and interactions with cybersecurity. Previously, Julie spent over 20 years working in the U.S. Department of Defense as a cybersecurity practitioner and technical director. She has a PhD in Human-Centered Computing and an M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science.

Rob Knowles has been lurking around cybersecurity long enough to remember when “zero trust” was just how people felt about their VPN. After over a decade of fixing everything from printers to BlackBerrys—often at the same time—he escaped the technical debt of systems and network engineering and moved into insider threat, where the puzzles are harder and the answers are never in a log file.

Now nearly eight years into his time at Navy Federal, Rob focuses on the threats that don’t come from outside the firewall—where technology meets human behavior. Along the way, he’s worked in utilities, healthcare, and government contracting, an experience that left him educationally enriched and permanently concerned about the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.

Rob holds an M.S. in Cybersecurity from George Mason University and serves as Steering Committee Chair for the FS-ISAC Insider Threat Working Group. He’s the creator of insiderthreatanalyst.com, builder of PhishCheck, certified beyond good judgment, forever feeding the CPE machine, and convinced the best security work starts when people aren’t treated as the problem.

Ava Woods-Fleegal is an Associate Director leading Training, Engagement, and Awareness within Cyber, where she drives enterprise strategy focused on human behavior and cybersecurity.

With experience leading security awareness programs across organizations like RTX and Zoom, Ava specializes in transforming awareness from a compliance exercise into a measurable driver of behavior change. Her work focuses on helping organizations understand their current state, define a desired future state, and implement strategies that influence how people make security decisions in real-world moments.

She has led the evolution of fragmented awareness efforts into cohesive, data-driven capabilities grounded in governance, user experience, and impact. Ava also contributes to the broader security awareness community through industry collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Ava is passionate about redefining how organizations approach human risk—shifting the focus from training delivery to sustained behavior change at scale.

Lisa Plaggemier is Executive Director at the National Cybersecurity Alliance. She is a recognized thought leader in security awareness and education with a track record of engaging and empowering people to protect themselves, their families, and their organizations. Lisa is a University of Michigan graduate (Go Blue!) and while she wasn’t born in Austin, Texas, she got there as fast as she could.