Carnegie Mellon University

Group posing for a photo at the SFS Hall of Fame awards ceremony

January 22, 2025

Second Annual INI Alum Inducted into Scholarship for Service Hall of Fame

Elizabeth Schweinsberg’s Induction Underscores the INI’s Contributions to the National Cybersecurity Workforce

By Taia Pandolfi

INI communications

Last week, Information Networking Institute (INI) Director Dr. Dena Haritos Tsamitis returned to the nation’s capital to celebrate an INI alum’s induction into the Scholarship for Service Hall of Fame — the second year in a row that a graduate of the INI has earned this national recognition.  

The Scholarship for Service (SFS) Hall of Fame awards one honoree each year to celebrate their contributions to national security through federal service and industry leadership. The 2025 honoree, Elizabeth Schweinsberg, graduated in 2005 with an M.S. in Information Security Technology and Management, now the M.S. in Information Security (MSIS), and was a recipient of the National Science Foundation CyberCorps SFS, a competitive federal scholarship that supports students pursuing degrees in security. 

“Our alumni have always been exemplary, and it is truly incredible to have two INI alumni win this honor two years in a row,” said Dr. Haritos Tsamitis, who nominated Schweinsberg and introduced her during the January 7 ceremony. “Our SFS scholars represent the best of the best in information security, and they continue to be crucial leaders in federal service. I could not be prouder.” 

dena-sfs-2025.png
Dr. Haritos Tsamitis presents Elizabeth Schweinsberg at the SFS Hall of Fame 2025 Ceremony. Photo: Hanan Hibshi.

Schweinsberg was recognized for her decade of federal service— including at the National Security Agency and United States Digital Service — and her industry leadership at two major technology companies, Google and Facebook. Schweinsberg is a passionate advocate for Zero Trust security and is active in the digital forensics community. 

“I find information security work to be a lot of problem solving, and I love taking different concepts and putting them together in a new way to better protect information,” said Schweinsberg, who is currently serving as a Senior Technical Advisor at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. “I returned to federal service so I could take some of the techniques I learned at the large corporations where I had worked and help affect change.” 

Schweinsberg graduated as part of the inaugural cohort of the INI’s MSISTM program, which was one of the first master’s degrees in the nation to focus on information security. The SFS@CMU pathway through the MSISTM program incorporated coursework in information security, systems engineering and information networking, paired with courses focused on professional and leadership development. Today, the SFS@CMU program continues to combine interdisciplinary courses that bridge these areas, creating graduates who are uniquely prepared for careers in federal service.  

“The INI set me up for success by helping me develop some deep technical knowledge in security and networking, but also by giving me more exposure to policy and business than I would have gotten in a computer science or electrical engineering program,” said Schweinsberg. “Those skills really help me communicate with leaders in other parts of companies and agencies so we can work together better.” 

Schweinsberg’s time at the INI overlapped with another SFS@CMU alum: Samuel Edoho-Eket. Last year, Dr. Haritos Tsamitis successfully nominated Edoho-Eket for the 2024 SFS Hall of Fame. He graduated in 2004 from the INI with an M.S. in Information Networking (MSIN), then spent six years serving national security at the Department of Defense (DoD). He went on to found PrismSix Technologies, an information technology consulting company that helps federal agencies improve and secure their systems. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Edoho-Eket is an engaged mentor and active member of the INI community. He gave the keynote address at the INI’s 2024 Diploma Ceremony in May that year.   

A Career of Service 

After graduating from the INI, Schweinsberg started her career at the National Security Agency (NSA) as a Global Network Exploit and Vulnerability Analyst. She transferred to the NSA’s forensics team, where she was promoted twice and awarded time off to contribute to federal efforts to combat cybercrime and improve malware analysis. She left federal service after six years to join the Security Incident Response Team at Google, where she expanded her expertise in digital forensics and incident response. In 2017, she moved to Facebook to help rebuild its threat detection and response team.  

Schweinsberg returned to federal service in 2020, when she joined the United States Digital Service to apply her deep knowledge and hands-on expertise in the design and management of security systems. Since then, she has co-authored the Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and General Services Administration (GSA) and assisted the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer with the evaluations of various U.S. Departments’ responses to the Federal Zero Trust Strategy. Today, she is a Senior Technical Advisor to the Chief Information Security Officer at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she runs the department’s Zero Trust transformation. 

schweinsbrg.png
Photo: Portraits by Heartbox Photography

She has also maintained a strong commitment to building the digital forensics community and serving as a thought leader on Zero Trust security. Schweinsberg has served on the Technical Program Committee of the Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS) USA conferences for over a decade and has been organizing monthly digital forensics meetups for the past eight years. As a Zero Trust expert, Schweinsberg has presented at various industry conferences, including Grace Hopper and BSides Charm in 2023, Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) and DEF CON in 2021 and DFRWS in 2017. 

About SFS@CMU 

facutly-and-students-at-sfs.png

Through the INI, CMU has participated in the SFS program since 2001, graduating over 260 alumni. This competitive federal scholarship prepares emerging leaders in cybersecurity for careers in the federal government. Known as SFS@CMU, the program has had a significant impact on the national recognition of security education at the university. Over the course of the program, SFS@CMU has brought over $26 million in funding to support security engineers pursuing their education at CMU. 

“SFS@CMU has been a cornerstone of security education at Carnegie Mellon for over 20 years,” said Dr. Haritos Tsamitis. “The SFS students are highly engaged, participating in national hackathons and Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competitions, supporting cybersecurity education outreach through programs like picoCTF and building lifelong connections with the security faculty and researchers here at CMU.” 

The alumni of SFS@CMU have made a significant impact on national security through federal service and cybersecurity advancements in industry. SFS@CMU alumni currently serve within federal agencies, including the National Security Agency, federal research labs like Sandia National Laboratory, top technology companies like Apple and Google as well as security and defense firms Lockheed Martin and CrowdStrike. They exemplify the strengths of the INI’s information security curriculum and the leadership development of the SFS program.