First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas recently hosted a White House event to highlight a new initiative to bolster cybersecurity in the nation’s schools. They were joined by representatives of government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), FCC, and the FBI, as well as tech companies, national organizations such as the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), and school districts large and small.
Among those in attendance was Frank Pileiro, tech director for the Public Schools of Linwood, New Jersey, a smaller district with roughly 830 students pre-K through eighth grade. "I was really honored. I received a 'save the date' email from Erin Mote of Project Unicorn and InnovateEDU. The official invitation from the First Lady came a few days later. I was surprised to be invited -- I’m sure they wanted to have representation from different sized districts,” says Pileiro. “In total, there were about 200 people in the East Room. Including myself, there were only 15 tech directors and CIOs from around the country.”
