Symposium 2026 Speakers

Alexis Wales is the Chief Information Security Officer of GitHub. She leads a team of security experts focused on safeguarding the GitHub platform, products and the open source community, empowering 150 million developers worldwide to build and deploy software securely on GitHub.

Alexis has 20 years of experience defending critical national and private sector networks, spanning positions with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). This experience sparked her passion for collaboration between the public and private sectors to solve the hardest security challenges that threaten the technology we use every day. 

Alexis is a self-described "borderless" leader. She believes that, just as threats and vulnerabilities transcend borders, the most significant security impact is achieved through open dialogue and collaboration to make risk-informed decisions and achieve secure outcomes. Outside of work, Alexis enjoys staying active through yoga and cherishes her “long” walks to the mailbox with her senior pug, Lola.

Luiz A. DaSilva, Executive Director of CCI, is internationally recognized for leadership and innovation in wireless communications and networks research.

DaSilva’s 26 years of experience in academia include 17 years as a professor at Virginia Tech, where he is the Bradley Professor of Cybersecurity in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

His research interests include wireless networks, particularly networks of adaptive and cognitive radios and the application of game theory to network resource management.

DaSilva was the telecommunications chairholder at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and director of CONNECT – the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Future Communications and Network. CONNECT is a multi-university initiative that focuses on future networks and communications, encompassing the expertise of 250 researchers across 10 universities in Ireland.

DaSilva is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to cognitive networking and to resource management in wireless networks. 

He pioneered the application of game theory to analyze and design wireless networks, writing the first book on the topic. He is also responsible for seminal work on cognitive networking and spectrum and network sharing. 

DaSilva has written two books, more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, and is a frequent keynote speaker and lecturer at events around the world. He is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-18), a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and a former Virginia Tech College of Engineering Faculty Fellow.

DaSilva received his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and Ph.D in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas.

Sarah Hayes manages a portfolio of programs supporting CCI's innovation and commercialization and workforce development mission lines, ensuring Virginia remains a global center of excellence in cybersecurity research and education.

Under her leadership, the Innovation and Workforce Development portfolio has grown to eight annual programs that serve CCI’s students and faculty at Virginia institutions of higher education.

The programs create opportunities for meaningful experiential learning and intellectual property commercialization support.

Hayes has supported federal, commercial, and start-up clients in projects ranging from cybersecurity resilience assessments, human capital strategy, business process development and re-engineering, and project management office development and support.

She received a bachelor’s degree in international studies and a master's degree in political science from Virginia Tech. She received her MBA from James Madison University. She also holds an active Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Will Jedrzejczak is a junior in the Honors College at James Madison University, majoring in Information Technology. Jedrzejczak has developed full-stack applications and AI-driven chatbots through internships with Amazon, defense contractors, and multiple startups in partnership with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI). Jedrzejczak is currently an Incoming at Palantir, focusing on cloud, AI, and cybersecurity.

Sneha Apsangi is an alumnus from George Mason University that graduated in Fall 2025 with a B.S in Cyber Security Engineering. She began her cybersecurity journey in high school through the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), where she was part of the inaugural cohort of industry partnerships in collaboration with the Northern Virginia Science Center Foundation. Since then, she has remained actively involved in CCI programs, including conducting CCI-funded research with Dr. Mohammed Gebril on AI-assisted Threat Detection. Most recently, she interned as a DevSecOps specialist at Blue Sky Innovators, gaining practical experience in Agentic AI applications for Cybersecurity. With a growing passion for defensive cyber operations, network security, and AI applications in cybersecurity, she continues to explore innovative solutions as an early career professional.

Lanvy Phan is a student with an interest in cybersecurity and software engineering, focusing on learning to build applications that analyze data to enhance system security. Phan is pursuing a double major in Data Science and Computer Science at the University of Virginia.

Carla Belfiore is a senior Cybersecurity major at Old Dominion University, where she also serves as a Teaching Assistant for the COVA CCI Cyber Clinic. Originally from Italy, she is fluent in multiple languages and passionate about advancing cybersecurity and supporting the military community through her work and studies.