Stephen Tate
I would like to recognize Stephen Tate for going above and beyond in assisting me with the Pinnacle call system setup. Not only did he resolve my ticket quickly and efficiently, but he also took the extra step of offering a one-on-one session to walk me through the setup and training process.
Stephen could have simply directed me to the documentation and expected me to figure it out on my own, but instead he took the time to provide live assistance and ensure I knew how to use the system correctly. His willingness to help, patience, and commitment to excellent customer service made the experience significantly smoother and more productive.
Thank you, Stephen, for your outstanding support and dedication to helping others succeed. Your efforts are greatly appreciated and reflect the highest level of customer service.
-Tommy Dang
Kate Orf
Kate Orf exemplifies what it means to be Valued to the Core through her technical expertise, collaboration, and commitment to building sustainable solutions for the university.
Kate has been instrumental in helping me implement Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) for BeyondTrust Remote Support, making it the first service at George Mason to use ACME through our Sectigo deployment and later helping support its migration to CertiNext.
ACME automates the issuance and renewal of TLS certificates, greatly reducing/eliminating manual effort, improving reliability, and helping us keep pace with increasingly shorter certificate lifecycles.
This accomplishment is especially important because certificate validity periods continue to decrease and manual certificate management becomes increasingly difficult and operationally risky. Certificate lifetime is currently 199 days, in 2027 it will be 99 days, and by 2029 it will be 46 days.
It is my hope/belief that ACME will become the standard approach for certificate renewal across many services at George Mason, and Kate’s work helped position the university ahead of this industry shift.
Kate also helped me successfully obtain an ECDSA P-384 certificate. ECDSA provides significantly stronger security per bit than RSA while using much smaller key sizes. ECDSA P-384 offers security far beyond what is practical with production RSA deployments, has been broadly supported across major platforms for more than 13 years, and provides performance benefits through smaller certificates and more efficient TLS handshakes. This means lower bandwidth usage, reduced processing requirements, and faster connections.
As the industry prepares for the challenges of post quantum cryptography, adopting modern approaches to certificate automation and cryptographic standards becomes increasingly important. Through her partnership, and willingness to tackle new challenges, Kate not only helped solve an immediate technical need but also helped establish a foundation that will support George Mason’s future security and certificate management efforts for years to come.
Kate’s contributions have created lasting value for the university, and she is truly deserving of recognition as Valued to the Core.
Thanks Kate!
-Jed Frye
Alfonso Romero
Alfonso consistently embodies what it means to be a true teammate and a dependable security professional. No matter the demands of his queue or the complexity of his responsibilities, he always makes time to support others. Whether he’s improving SOC procedures, applying sharp critical thinking to strengthen operations, or diving into macOS endpoint troubleshooting within a Microsoft support case, he approaches every challenge with accountability, patience, and expertise.
He never hesitates to pause his own work to help the team, offering one on one guidance, thoughtful problem solving, and a level of support that elevates everyone around him. His commitment to collaboration, his reliability, and his genuine camaraderie make a measurable difference in our daily operations and team culture.
Recognizing Alfonso is the least we can do to show appreciation for his hard work, his leadership through action, and the positive impact he brings to the SOC every day.
– Grant Stewart
Mark Craft
Mark Craft played a critical role in our migration from Splunk to Azure Sentinel, supporting us from the outset. His contributions included configuring and deploying multiple Azure resources essential to our logging infrastructure.
Despite his involvement in multiple initiatives, Mark consistently responded to our requests in a timely and effective manner. He has become our primary resource for Azure expertise. Mark is highly professional, respectful, and collaborative.
One of Mark’s outstanding strengths is his ability to communicate complex technical concepts in a clear and accessible manner, greatly benefiting team members who are new to Azure. He demonstrates a strong work ethic and frequently goes above and beyond, including working extended hours to resolve critical issues.
Mark is deeply respected by my team and exemplifies the core values of ITS. His contributions were instrumental to our success.
– Nabiha Hasan
Noor Aarohi
I want to thank Noor for stepping in at the last minute to do an Orientation session. I love her spirit. Her response when asked was, “Happy to contribute. This is our common responsibility. P.S. I like chatting up people.” Thank you again! I appreciate your help.
– Christina Crockett
Richard Jackson
Thank you, Richard, for stepping in to fill in for an Orientation session. You never hesitate to pitch in when you can. I truly appreciate you and enjoy working with you. Thank you again!
– Christina Crockett
Casey Campbell, Ethan Ervin, Kyle Goodell, Tomy Isra, Richard Jackson, Ubaidul Khan, Mike Rothgeb, Mark Sadler, Alaa Saleh, Allen Santora
This group provided extensive and invaluable support during our migration from Splunk forwarder to Cribl and Azure Products. They contributed significantly by testing Cribl Edge across various server environments and providing detailed feedback on our installation documentation. Their consistent participation in Cribl meetings enabled the identification of effective solutions and workarounds for diverse system configurations.
Richard Jackson consistently demonstrated exceptional attention to detail, technical expertise, and professionalism. His contributions, particularly in testing Cribl Edge on Linux servers, were highly impactful. Mike Rothgeb and Kyle Goodell provided similarly valuable feedback through their testing on Windows servers.
Tomy Isra developed Puppet automation that significantly improved the efficiency and scalability of installations. Ubaidul Khan utilized the Cribl API to develop an application enabling administrators to monitor server connectivity to Cribl Cloud. Allen Santora proactively identified potential SELinux-related challenges, helping to mitigate risks early in the process.
Casey Campbell demonstrated strong leadership by supporting and motivating his team to complete installations on schedule. Casey also ensured that Azure-related service requests were addressed promptly, contributing to compliance with university policies.
Ethan L. Ervin, Alaa Saleh, and Mark Sadler provided sustained support in Azure networking. They were consistently responsive and effective in troubleshooting networking issues. Despite significant workloads, they participated in troubleshooting sessions on short notice and successfully resolved challenges related to firewalls, load balancers, and routing. As project requirements evolved, they adapted quickly and continued to deliver high-quality support.
Overall, this group exemplified the collaborative spirit of ITS. Their collective commitment, professionalism, and teamwork were essential to the success of the migration.
– Nabiha Hasan
Akiko Turhan
Akiko Turhan has been an invaluable partner throughout this migration effort. Her consistent dedication, strong work ethic, and collaborative approach have been critical to the success of the project.
Akiko demonstrated exceptional commitment by working extended hours with me to troubleshoot and resolve critical issues. She is highly reliable, efficient, and detail-oriented, ensuring that all tasks are completed thoroughly and that no work is left unfinished.
She played a key role in migrating a significant number of Splunk dashboards and provided ongoing support to team members, contributing to overall team success. Akiko is focused, proactive, and always willing to assist others.
Her professionalism and expertise have also been recognized by our customers, who consistently value the opportunity to work with her. Akiko’s contributions have been instrumental, and her partnership on this project has been greatly appreciated.
– Nabiha Hasan
Michael Richardson
Mike Richardson provided critical support in setting up the Azure Data Box for historical log migration. He demonstrated strong technical expertise and attention to detail throughout this process.
Mike developed a script to transfer historical logs from Splunk’s cold storage to the Azure Data Box. He carefully scheduled and monitored the transfer process to ensure that logs were migrated accurately and efficiently. Additionally, he ensured that the Azure Data Box was returned to Microsoft on time, helping to avoid unnecessary additional charges.
Beyond this effort, Mike also provided access to two Windows test servers, which were instrumental for Cribl Edge testing and documentation. His responsiveness and willingness to support Akiko during my absence were also greatly appreciated.
– Nabiha Hasan
Matthew Dalton
Matthew Dalton has provided exceptional leadership and consistent support throughout this migration. He has been actively involved from the outset, helping the team develop solutions that effectively mitigated potential delays and overcame key challenges.
Matthew’s engagement with the Cybersecurity Operations team leads fostered an environment of transparency, collaboration, and trust. His ability to listen and encourage open communication has been instrumental to the project’s success.
He is highly respected for his knowledge, experience, and technical expertise, and is regarded as a strong and dependable leader. Matthew is consistently professional, approachable, and responsive to his team members. He has invested significant time and effort into supporting the team, which has strengthened relationships and improved overall team cohesion.
Matthew has also played a key role in facilitating important decisions and ensuring alignment across stakeholders. His clear, direct, and honest communication style has been essential in building trust and maintaining momentum throughout the project.
– Nabiha Hasan
Bates Nunamaker, David Robertson “Drob”
Drob, Bates, and the team were great to work with—very responsive, consultative, and easy to partner with. We were able to stay on track with our timeline, hit very few defects, and (most importantly) they built solid confidence with our HR Team about the new tool and process.
The smooth experience we had with Benefits has given confidence to other teams – we now have Payroll, Class & Comp, and Employee Relations eager to start after this successful rollout. I look forward to the continued partnership.
– Carlos Sánchez