Connar McCasland is an instructor at the University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity. Her career spans public and private sectors, particularly excelling in cybersecurity for county and city government entities. Before her teaching career, she held a leadership role in local government, where she spearheaded a county’s cybersecurity program. There, she led and organized significant cybersecurity projects and assisted smaller government offices with their cybersecurity programs. While in this role, employees often told her that cybersecurity was “only IT’s problem” and “too difficult to understand.” Since then, she has made it her mission to show people how critical cybersecurity is in the current digital age and make it accessible and easy to understand. Before working for the Center, she worked for Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), where she traveled across the U.S. and its territories, training IT departments, emergency management, first responders, and average citizens in cybersecurity and cyber preparedness. Beyond her professional achievements, Connar actively works to empower and promote other IT and cybersecurity professionals, participating in international organizations such as ISACA and Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS). She holds a B.A.S. in Cybersecurity from Pensacola State College and an M.S. in Information Assurance and Cybersecurity with a specialization in Network Defense from Capella University. She serves on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit IT Gulf Coast and is the Social Media Coordinator for the WiCyS Florida Affiliate.