Faculty Spotlight – David Law

David Law, Assistant Professor in the Community Education, Business & Applied Technology division, says he enjoys helping students on their educational journey. Whether it’s preparing for a degree, certificate, or a follow-on degree, improving their skills in their current career, or transitioning to a different line of work altogether, he says, “Being a small part of their journey while teaching a subject I’m passionate about is extremely rewarding.”

Asst. Professor Law teaches Information Systems Security (ISS) and Computer Information Systems (CIS) courses at Harford. To help his students succeed, he’s started transitioning his classes to a Competency-Based Mastery Learning (CBML) style, which is more student focused. This approach allows students to move at their own pace while mastering and retaining the material.

He hopes his students will glean valuable cybersecurity principles from his classes: “I hope they will improve on their existing foundational knowledge. Most of the classes I teach overlap and build on one another. I hope students take away the relationships between the subject material across the related classes.”

In addition to teaching, Asst. Professor Law has served the College in other important ways. One of his key accomplishments was spearheading the effort on Harford’s reaccreditation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE) designation by the National Security Agency (NSA). “I led the team that gathered data from across campus about the College’s cybersecurity practices and integration within the community and the cybersecurity industry. As the lead, I was the College’s liaison to the NSA team that reviewed the data we presented in the CAE-CDE portal.”

He also worked on the Hire Harford First grant to transition CIS 135 “Introduction to Networks” and CIS 210 “Fundamentals of Network Security” to Competency-Based Mastery Learning courses. He worked with Harford colleagues Dawn Grissom, Pam Karwowski, Frank Mayer, Charlie Richardson, Michael Shirk, and Russell Burchill as well as two NSF consultants, Dr. David Toby and Casey O’Brien.

He has also been involved in the Cybersecurity Pathways program, Harford’s partnership with local high schools that gives students the opportunity to earn both their high school diploma and their associate degree in a four-, five-, or six-year format. He serves on the committee representing the Computer Information Systems and Information Assurance and Cybersecurity degrees.

Law led the effort on the Curriculum Working Group (CWG) to update and streamline the curriculum for the Information Assurance and Cybersecurity Associate of Applied Science degree. He currently serves on the College’s CIS and Information Assurance and Cybersecurity (IAC) Advisory Groups.

Prior to coming to Harford, Law worked at Marine Corps Aviation and Cyberspace Operations for 20 years, Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations contracting for four years, and served as a Park University adjunct computer programming instructor for 22 years. He is a member of the professional organization ISC2.

He earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy, an M.S. in Computer Information Systems from Boston University, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School.

In his free time, he supports his children’s youth sports and also enjoys playing soccer and lacrosse.

Assistant Professor Law’s achievements, significant contributions and dedication to Harford’s students, faculty, and the Community Education, Business & Applied Technology division are deeply appreciated, and we are proud to recognize him as this month’s Faculty Spotlight. Congratulations, David!