Illinois’ higher education sector spans large public universities, private institutions, specialized colleges, and mission-driven campuses with very different operating models but similar security pressures. The CISOs in this feature are working across environments shaped by research, distributed users, legacy infrastructure, regulatory obligations, digital learning, and the constant need to support openness without compromising resilience. Their backgrounds reflect the wide scope of modern higher education security, from governance and compliance to infrastructure, identity, incident response, and institutional strategy.
David Scuffham — Chief Information Security Officer, Bradley University
David Scuffham is chief information security officer at Bradley University, where he has spent nearly his entire career building upward through the institution’s technology and security ranks. His progression from network engineering into systems integration, security leadership, and ultimately the CISO role reflects long-term institutional knowledge paired with hands-on technical depth. That kind of continuity can matter in higher education, where security leaders often have to balance modernization with the realities of long-standing campus systems and academic operations.
Before becoming CISO, Scuffham served as Bradley’s director of information security and earlier led systems integration and security functions. His background suggests a leader grounded in infrastructure, integration, and operational security, with a view shaped by decades inside one university environment. That depth makes him a notable figure in Illinois higher education cybersecurity, particularly for an institution where stability, internal trust, and institutional memory all play a major role.
Chris Adamescu — Chief Information Security Officer, Columbia College Chicago
Chris Adamescu is chief information security officer at Columbia College Chicago, where he reports to the Board of Trustees and Cabinet on information security, privacy, compliance, and strategic technology issues. His role spans far beyond technical security operations, covering annual audit planning, audit committee presentations, governance participation, vendor risk, data privacy, compliance assessments, awareness programs, and security communications. His profile shows a leader operating at the intersection of institutional risk, governance, and day-to-day operational security.
Adamescu’s earlier roles at Columbia show a steady progression through architecture, systems administration, data protection, and security leadership. Before taking the CISO title, he served as director of information security and data protection, interim director of cybersecurity, principal systems architect, and assistant director of technology. That path stands out because it combines hands-on infrastructure experience with enterprise policy, incident response planning, and regulatory alignment across FERPA, PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, GLBA, NIST, and CMMC-oriented environments.
Dennis Seymour — Chief Information Security Officer, Olivet Nazarene University
Dennis Seymour serves as chief information security officer at Olivet Nazarene University, where he provides strategic direction for the institution’s cybersecurity efforts. The material provided points to a leader focused not just on protecting information assets, but also on building security awareness across the campus community. That emphasis fits the higher education setting, where faculty, staff, and students all play a role in the institution’s overall security posture.
Seymour’s profile also suggests a leader who has helped establish security best practices, training efforts, and a broader culture of cyber awareness at the university. His background in computer science from Olivet Nazarene University adds a layer of institutional familiarity, while his role appears to extend into mentoring and education as well as operational oversight. In a sector where the human side of security is just as important as the technical side, that combination makes him a fitting inclusion here.
Matt Morton — Assistant Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, University of Chicago
Matt Morton is assistant vice president and chief information security officer at the University of Chicago, where he leads security at one of the state’s most prominent academic institutions. His profile points to a leader with a strong background in information security management, IT strategy, governance, budget planning, and organizational development. He brings a blend of security leadership and broader institutional technology experience that is especially relevant in university environments where governance, scale, and academic complexity all intersect.
Before joining the University of Chicago, Morton held senior higher education security leadership roles across the University of Nebraska system, including executive director of security and identity and chief information security officer, as well as chief information security officer and assistant CIO at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Earlier, he also worked in consulting and software development leadership. That background gives him a broad view of how to build, mature, and govern security programs inside complex academic institutions.
Brian Skouby — Chief Information Security Officer & Director of IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Brian Skouby is chief information security officer and director of IT governance, risk, and compliance at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His experience reflects a long internal progression through systems administration, data center operations, project management, enterprise applications, infrastructure, disaster recovery, business continuity, change management, and identity governance. That breadth is especially relevant in higher education, where security leadership often depends on understanding not just security tools, but also the broader operational machinery of the institution.
Before taking the CISO role, Skouby served in senior roles tied to infrastructure, enterprise applications, and the project management office, while also handling audit and compliance responsibilities, disaster recovery coordination, and IAM governance. His profile suggests a leader whose value comes from operational range as much as formal security ownership. In a university setting, that ability to connect risk, governance, continuity, and core IT functions can be especially important.
Joseph T. Brown — Deputy CISO, Illinois State University
Joseph T. Brown is deputy chief information security officer at Illinois State University, where his work includes developing standard operating procedures, playbooks, awareness training, disaster recovery planning, vulnerability assessment support, and cross-departmental efforts to improve institutional resilience. His profile shows someone focused on the operational foundation of a security program, particularly the structures that help a university respond consistently and build accountability across both academic and administrative environments.
Brown’s earlier career in the United States Air Force adds a distinctive background in cyber operations, network attack environments, operational planning, secure communications, disaster recovery, and mission readiness. That experience brings a different perspective to higher education security leadership, one shaped by disciplined operations, large-scale planning, and resilience under pressure. For a university environment, that combination of military cyber background and campus security execution stands out.
Fred Kwong — VP, Chief Information Security Officer, DeVry University
Fred Kwong is vice president and chief information security officer at DeVry University, where he oversees the university’s cyber risk program and focuses on protecting the data of students and colleagues through a risk management framework. His profile frames cybersecurity as something broader than defense alone, emphasizing organizational change, cultural competency, and the translation of technical risk into business opportunity. That perspective is particularly relevant in education, where institutional trust, accessibility, and student outcomes all matter alongside compliance and control.
Kwong’s earlier roles span both education and industry, including CISO leadership at Delta Dental Plans Association, security leadership at U.S. Cellular, and university-related roles at Roosevelt and Benedictine. He has also served in advisory and board roles outside the university. That range gives him a blend of higher education, enterprise security, and external leadership experience that makes him one of the more visible figures in this sector.
Securing open institutions in a high-risk environment
The leaders in this feature reflect how cybersecurity in higher education has become a wide-ranging leadership function rather than a narrow technical specialty. Their work touches governance, privacy, infrastructure, audit, awareness, resilience, research support, and institutional strategy. Together, they show how Illinois colleges and universities are building security programs that can support open learning environments while still protecting the systems, people, and data those institutions depend on.
Explore more profiles of the leaders shaping cybersecurity across numerous industries in our CISOs to Watch collection.