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The University of North Georgia (Â鶹ÊÓƵ) has received a $232,000 contract from the National Security Agency (NSA) to develop a graduate and undergraduate compliance curriculum that Â鶹ÊÓƵ will then teach and that the agency can make available to other government entities.

The compliance certificate programs focus on preparing professionals to become certified in compliance and to work in the compliance area in government agencies, particularly the NSA.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ will offer the undergraduate and graduate certificates as part of the curriculum within the Mike Cottrell College of Business (MCCB). The curriculum will be shared with other schools and agencies wanting to implement the NSA-backed coursework. Dr. Mary Gowan, dean of the MCCB, is the principal investigator. She has assembled a large Â鶹ÊÓƵ team to assist in delivering this project.

In addition to MCCB faculty from the computer science and information systems, management and marketing, and accounting and law departments, the interdisciplinary project involves faculty and staff from the College of Health Sciences and Professions, College of Education, Information Technology Services, Business and Finance, the BB&T Center for Ethical Leadership, and Human Resources at Â鶹ÊÓƵ.

"The development of this compliance curriculum builds on areas of strength and staff and faculty expertise at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, and it has the potential to serve a much broader need than just the NSA," Dr. Chaudron Gille, Â鶹ÊÓƵ provost, said. "Compliance issues are multifaceted and relevant in all industries and government agencies."

We are grateful for the trust the NSA has placed in us to create this curriculum to prepare students for careers in the fast-growing field of compliance. We have put together a team of faculty and practitioner subject matter experts who will develop high-quality certificate programs.

Dr. Mary Gowan

Mike Cottrell College of Business dean

Wade said this curriculum will show the broader importance of thinking of compliance proactively rather than reactively.

"It's an amazing opportunity for Â鶹ÊÓƵ as a leadership institution to provide a curriculum for the NSA because the emphasis on compliance is not going away," Wade said. "The more prepared we are and our students are as they enter the workplace, the better off we will be. This program will help us develop our students into leaders in the field."

This NSA contract builds on Â鶹ÊÓƵ's already strong relationship with the federal agency. Â鶹ÊÓƵ is designated by the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. And in summer 2022, Â鶹ÊÓƵ will host its sixth GenCyber Warrior Academy for high school students and second cyber academy for middle and high school teachers thanks to National Security Agency (NSA) grants totaling $265,000.

Additionally, Christopher Locke, academic liaison to Â鶹ÊÓƵ from the NSA, noted that the NSA engagement with Â鶹ÊÓƵ is "directly attributable to Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s outstanding performance in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge these past few years." The Â鶹ÊÓƵ CyberHawks Codebreaker Challenge team placed first  out of over 500 schools in 2019 and 2020, and second out of over 600 schools in 2021 in the competition.