Andrew Stokes is the Assistant Director and Information Security Officer for Texas A&M Engineering.

In addition to security operations, his responsibilities encompass governance, risk, and compliance for resources in the Texas A&M College of Engineering and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. He reports directly to the Chief Information Officer for Texas A&M Engineering, and holds a voting chair on the Security and Infrastructure Governance Committee for the Texas A&M System.

Andrew has over fifteen years of experience working in enterprise technology environments and specializes in cybersecurity and enterprise system architecture. His operational information technology experience and expertise ranges across large transactional and analytical data stores, network and computing infrastructure, and enterprise information systems. His information security centric experience and expertise includes both governance and operations.

He has held the Certified Information Systems Security Professional credential from ISC2 for over three years. He contributes to the open source development community, and is an active member in several cyber-threat intelligence associations including the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Previously, Andrew served over four years as a squad leader in a U.S. Marine Corps Scout Swimmer platoon. He was deployed overseas twice during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his first deployment, his unit received the Presidential Unit Citation for its part in the operation to rescue Jessica Lynch. The second deployment was with the 1st Marine Regiment during the siege and subsequent security and sustainment of Fallujah, Iraq.

Andrew spent four years working as a database administrator and IT support manager for a non-profit organization in Little Rock, Arkansas where he was responsible for the operational security of the organization’s databases and data warehouse.

He spent four years directing information technology for the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. During this time, he implemented a NIST SP-800-53-based security program; developed the compliance strategy for an ISO-17025 certification; and oversaw the secure system integration between the laboratory, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

He was called away from his position at the diagnostic lab to serve as the core architect for the design and implementation of a security operations center (SOC) for the Texas A&M System. His primary responsibility in this role was to design and begin the implementation of the SOC including its makeup of people, processes, and technology.

Andrew also spent a year with Texas A&M AgriLife Research developing a transition strategy for technology developed during the performance of a DHS Science and Technology research grant. During this time, he worked with the research team and program managers to develop a transition and commercialization strategy for several proof-of-concept information systems and mobile applications. He was also asked to serve on a grant writing team for a new $30 million DHS Center of Excellence grant proposal, which was awarded in 2018.