I'm a Cybersecurity and Management Information Systems graduate from Millikin University with a minor in Entrepreneurship.
I enjoy troubleshooting problems, learning how systems work behind the scenes, and building projects that give me practical experience. My background includes cybersecurity labs, cloud infrastructure, networking, databases, web development, automation, and hands-on IT support.
I am currently gaining experience supporting technology in a manufacturing environment while continuing to develop my cybersecurity and technical skills.
- 🎓 B.S. in Cybersecurity and Management Information Systems
- 📈 Minor in Entrepreneurship
- 🏅 Graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.85 GPA
- 🖥️ Interested in cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, networking, and system administration
- 🔐 Long-term goal: ethical hacking and penetration testing
- 🤼 Former collegiate wrestler and current wrestling coach
- 🛠️ I enjoy projects that let me troubleshoot, test ideas, and understand how technology works
Completed a time-boxed ethical hacking assessment using OWASP Juice Shop during my college Ethical Hacking course.
In approximately one to two hours, I successfully demonstrated chatbot prompt manipulation and cross-site scripting. I also attempted SQL injection, directory discovery, and ICMP traffic testing while documenting my results, limitations, and recommended security controls.
This project helped me practice working under a deadline, separating confirmed findings from assumptions, collecting evidence, and explaining how vulnerabilities could be reduced.
Skills: OWASP Juice Shop, web application security, XSS testing, AI security, SQL injection testing, Kali Linux, vulnerability documentation
Built and documented an AWS network containing public and private subnets, an EC2 Linux instance, a private MySQL server, an internet gateway, route tables, and security groups.
I troubleshot failed connectivity by adding an internet route, allowing outbound HTTPS traffic for package installation, and limiting MySQL traffic to the private database server. I then connected to the database from the EC2 instance, ran SQL queries, documented the CIDR ranges, and created an AWS network architecture diagram.
This project helped me better understand how routing, ports, security groups, and subnet design work together inside an AWS VPC.
Skills: AWS VPC, Amazon EC2, public and private subnets, route tables, internet gateways, security groups, CIDR notation, Linux, MySQL connectivity, network troubleshooting
Created a Windows 10 virtual lab and used Nessus Essentials to compare uncredentialed and credentialed vulnerability scans.
I installed outdated software to simulate increased security risk, reviewed the findings, removed the vulnerable software, applied Windows updates, and scanned the system again to verify improvement.
This project helped me understand that vulnerability management is a continuous process of scanning, prioritizing, remediating, and validating fixes.
Skills: Nessus, VMware, Windows administration, vulnerability scanning, patch management, remediation validation
Completed a tutorial-guided Elastic SIEM home lab using Elastic Cloud, a Kali Linux virtual machine, Elastic Agent, and Elastic Defend.
I configured endpoint telemetry collection, generated activity using nmap and Linux commands, searched process logs, created an event-count dashboard, built a custom detection rule for scan-related activity, and completed an email-alert testing workflow.
The repository credits the original tutorial and documents the limitations of the surviving evidence, including the lack of preserved screenshots and quantitative metrics.
Skills: Elastic SIEM, Elastic Agent, Elastic Defend, Kali Linux, log analysis, endpoint telemetry, dashboards, detection rules, alerting, Nmap, security monitoring
Developed an Information Systems Security Policy framework for Swift, a fictional student transportation platform, during my Introduction to Information Security course.
I documented security governance, organizational responsibilities, risk management, data classification, incident response, access control, system security, vulnerability management, backups, logging, and compliance considerations. I later reorganized the original coursework into structured GitHub documentation and separated the original project from future improvement ideas.
Skills: Security governance, GRC, risk management, security policy development, data classification, incident-response planning, access control, vulnerability-management planning, compliance awareness
Completed the defensive portion of a tutorial-guided Linux firewall lab using Python, Scapy, tcpdump, and iptables.
I monitored incoming TCP SYN traffic, manually created and removed firewall rules, configured a Python virtual environment, installed Scapy, and ran the supplied firewall automation script. I also analyzed how the script tracked repeated activity, temporarily blocked source IP addresses, and removed firewall rules after the configured duration. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
The repository clearly credits the original tutorial and code author while documenting the defensive setup, dependency troubleshooting, testing, code behavior, technical limitations, and possible improvements that I personally completed. My original notes confirm that I used my own VM and completed the defender side rather than recreating the tutorial’s full attacker environment. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
Skills: Linux, Python, Scapy, tcpdump, iptables, TCP/IP, SYN packet analysis, firewall administration, Python virtual environments, dependency troubleshooting, network defense, code analysis
Created a relational MySQL database for a fictional basketball league as one of my first college database projects.
The database uses seven connected tables to organize divisions, conferences, states, teams, players, positions, and career statistics. I preserved the original project and later added an entity-relationship diagram, MySQL Workbench screenshots, and demonstration queries using joins, grouping, calculations, and subqueries.
Skills: MySQL, SQL, relational database design, primary keys, foreign keys, joins, subqueries, data modeling
Built and integrated a visitor reporting system for my personal website using AWS, Cloudflare, and Resend.
I configured website hosting, domain and DNS records, HTTPS protection, visitor analytics, automated email reporting, and security controls. The project helped me understand how several cloud services can work together to host, protect, monitor, and support a live website.
Skills: AWS, Cloudflare, Resend, DNS, HTTPS, web hosting, email infrastructure, analytics, security
Web application security, vulnerability management, Nessus, Elastic SIEM, security monitoring, log analysis, endpoint telemetry, detection rules, Linux network defense, Scapy, tcpdump, iptables, TCP/IP analysis, network scanning, XSS testing, SQL injection testing, security governance, risk management, incident-response planning, access control, patch management, and remediation validation
Windows, Linux, Active Directory, VMware, TCP/IP, DNS, subnetting, hardware and software support, and technical troubleshooting
AWS, Amazon S3, EC2, VPC networking, Cloudflare, DNS configuration, HTTPS, Resend, web hosting, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
SQL, MySQL, relational database design, data modeling, Power Automate, web scraping, and Python fundamentals
Technical documentation, project leadership, client communication, teamwork, problem-solving, time management, and process improvement
I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Millikin University with a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity and Management Information Systems and a minor in Entrepreneurship.
Outside of technology, I competed as a collegiate wrestler for four years and earned Scholar All-American, All-Conference, Regional Placer, and multiple top-three tournament finishes.
My experience as an athlete and coach has helped me develop discipline, leadership, communication, accountability, and the ability to stay composed while solving problems.
I am continuing to build practical experience in IT support, cybersecurity, networking, cloud technology, and system administration.
My long-term goal is to move into an ethical hacking or penetration-testing role where I can identify security weaknesses and help organizations improve their defenses.