Neal Ziring is the Technical Director for the National Security Agency’s Capabilities Directorate, serving as a technical advisor to the Capabilities Director, Deputy Director, and other senior leadership. Mr. Ziring is responsible for setting the technical direction across many parts of the capabilities mission space, including in cyber-security. Mr. Ziring tracks technical activities, promotes technical health of the staff, and acts as liaison to various industry, intelligence, academic, and government partners. Prior to the formation of the Capabilities Directorate, Mr. Ziring served 5 years as Technical Director of the Information Assurance Directorate.

Dr. Evan Austin is an independent researcher on administrative leave from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) under a deferred resignation agreement.  Previously, Dr. Austin was the Director for the Center for High Assurance Computer Systems at NRL where he oversaw five Sections of civilian scientists and engineers performing the full spectrum of RDT&E activities aligned with Naval cyber priorities including:  cryptographic high-assurance devices, tactical cross-domain solutions, computer and network security, software engineering, and formal methods.  Prior to serving as the Director, Dr. Austin was the Chief Science for the Center.  Before joining the Naval Research Laboratory, Dr. Austin was a research scientist at Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic (NIWC-LANT).  At the tail end of his time at NIWC-LANT, Dr. Austin was detailed to the Pentagon serving in the capacities of both the Deputy Director, and Acting Director, for Cyber Technologies within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.  Dr. Austin received the Naval Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his work performed in these two roles.  He holds Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Kansas, with his Ph.D. research funded by the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program.   

Mr. Jeff Dickerson is the Technical Director (TD) for the Cybersecurity Directorate (CSD) at the National Security Agency (NSA). As the CSD TD, he is responsible for a wide variety of technical assessments, external engagements, workforce development, and strategic direction issues for NSA’s cybersecurity mission.

Mr. Dickerson joined NSA in 1990 as a high school senior through the Stokes Educational Scholarship Program. He participated in the Resident Signals Engineering Program, taking a variety of technical positions, specializing in digital signal processing and analysis. He went on to serve in a variety of technical director positions at the Directorate and Deputy Directorate levels within the Signals Intelligence Directorate, before shifting to serve as the NSA/Central Security Service (CSS) Chief Architect and Chief Data Officer within the Technology Directorate from 2014-2016. Mr. Dickerson was the inaugural Technical Director for the Directorate of Operations from 2016-2018 before taking on the role of Technical Director for Computer Network Operations from 2018-2021, and most recently, he served as the Technical Director of Cryptanalysis and Signals Analysis from 2021-2024.

In 2007, Mr. Dickerson was selected for Defense Intelligence Senior Level, was awarded the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award in 2012, and awarded the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award in 2018.

Mr. Dickerson graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (and a minor in Literature), and a Master of Engineering in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1995.
 

Mr. Robert M. Kimball is the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center’s senior research scientist for cyber security. As a senior research scientist, Mr. Kimball investigates innovative capabilities to improve the cyber posture of the Army’s tactical communications networks. Mr. Kimball is the chair of the C4I COI and the Army working group lead of the Cyber COI. Mr. Kimball has lead the Army’s efforts to incorporate Zero Trust security architectures to protect the Unified Network. 

Mr. Kimball previously served as a Highly Qualified Expert (HQE) technical advisor to the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) Cyber Development Directorate where he led the orchestration and automation efforts, including Security Orchestration and Automated Response (SOAR) systems. He worked on end-point protection strategies, cyber automation, Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning (AI/ML) systems for both disconnected end-point protection and data analytics, Zero Trust, Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS), and Department of Defense Cybersecurity Analysis and Review (DoDCAR). 

Mr. Kimball began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories researching transmission physics of ultra-long haul optical fiber systems. In addition, he served as the Chief Technology Officer for Ciena Government Solutions where he led research teams studying software defined networks, low environmental impact networks and overbuilds of existing networks with high speed optics. He also worked at MITRE as an optical communications engineer supporting DISA, and was the lead optical engineer when DISA acquired the Defense Information Systems optical network. 

Mr. Kimball has a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University. He has several patents, and has published numerous peer reviewed papers.