Wright-Patterson Air Force Base casts a long shadow over Dayton’s security community, and two of the six CISOs below came straight out of it, one from 17 years as an Air Force intelligence analyst and the other from 22 years in uniform. The rest took routes that are harder to predict. One was a stockbroker for seven years before writing his first security policy. Another dealt cards and hosted VIP guests at Harrah’s before spending more than two decades protecting a hospital system. A third describes himself as a cybersecurity leader, author, and farmer. Together they protect three health systems, two higher education institutions, and a data analytics business.
Greg Elkins – CISO, Insurance & Healthcare, LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Greg Elkins started as a registered representative at PaineWebber and JC Bradford, spending seven years in financial services before moving into technology. He joined LexisNexis in 1997 as a senior customer systems engineer and then spent more than 12 years as a security consultant at parent company Reed Elsevier. There he worked on penetration testing, secure software design training, incident response, and investigations involving law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels. At LexisNexis Risk Solutions he served as a business information security officer and then led the security architecture group as cloud security architect, designing controls for workloads moving to the cloud. Elkins became CISO for the Insurance and Healthcare businesses in January 2023, where his work centers on regulated data under HIPAA, DPPA, GLBA, and UK and EU privacy law.
Michael Berry – CISO, Kettering Health
Michael Berry worked at Harrah’s Entertainment from 1993 to 2001 as a dealer, games supervisor, and VIP host before moving into healthcare security. He has been CISO at Kettering Health since 2005, more than 21 years. Early in that tenure he also served as information security officer for Greene Memorial Hospital, and since 2009 he has managed the health system’s information security function. Berry describes his leadership philosophy as rooted in service, and his aim as making sure security strategy supports care delivery rather than getting in its way. Outside Kettering Health, he mentors emerging professionals and contributes to the wider healthcare security community.
Ernie Sigler – CISO, Premier Health
Ernie Sigler spent nearly 17 years at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson as a principal all-source cyber threat analyst and FBI cyber task force officer. He led a U.S. delegation of more than 75 analysts working on cyber threats with allied partners, and directed a global targeting federation in Afghanistan that disrupted enemy networks and neutralized $220 million in adversary revenue. At DeepSeas he scaled managed detection and response operations by 1,200% in 18 months and delivered OT detection and response for a large life sciences manufacturer. As director of security operations transformation at Procter & Gamble, he cut incident response time by 75% year over year and moved the SOC to a cyber fusion model. Sigler became CISO of Premier Health in September 2025. He also founded Project COHORT, a support group offering networking, coaching, and mentorship to people between jobs.
Nicholas Schopperth – CISO, Dayton Children’s Hospital
Nicholas Schopperth served more than 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Master Sergeant. He spent 13 years as a system administrator and nine as a cyberspace defense operator, with experience spanning intelligence, communications, electronic warfare, and information operations, including deployments supporting real-world operations. His final assignment was at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson, managing the Cyberspace 200 curriculum. Schopperth joined Dayton Children’s Hospital in 2022, where as CISO he leads security operations covering detection and response, endpoint and identity security, vulnerability management, security awareness, and managed detection and response.
Jeff Ingalls – CISO, Sinclair Community College
Jeff Ingalls is a three-time Microsoft MVP, an author, and, by his own description, a cybersecurity leader with a farm. He started in directory services at Langley Air Force Base, then spent three years at Microsoft in technical support and as a premier field engineer for identity management. He went on to architect identity systems at Kaplan, lead identity engineering for mergers and acquisitions at Walmart, and review security governance at Wells Fargo. At TransUnion he spent nearly six years in technology risk, rising to senior manager of technology governance, risk, and compliance. Ingalls became CISO of Sinclair Community College in December 2025.
Michael Natale – Associate CIO & CISO, Wright State University
Michael Natale has worked at Wright State University since 2000, when he started as a desktop technician. He went on to manage desktop services, then led the university’s information security department for nearly eight years as information security manager. Since 2015 he has served as CISO and Director of Infrastructure, directing networking, operations, and telecommunications alongside security, and overseeing compliance with PCI DSS, HIPAA, ITAR, FERPA, and NIST 800-171. He was named Associate CIO and CISO in June 2022. He holds a CISSP.
Built Around the Base
Dayton’s security leaders show the influence of Wright-Patterson, but not only through the uniform. Sigler and Schopperth came directly from Air Force intelligence and cyber operations. Ingalls started at another Air Force base before a career in identity and risk. Berry and Natale built their careers by staying put, each spending more than two decades at a single Dayton institution. Elkins took the long road from brokerage to cloud security architecture. In a region where national defense and healthcare are two of the largest employers, these leaders bring both operational discipline and long institutional memory to the job.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
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- From Audit Rooms to Smart Cards: France’s CISOs to Watch
- Beyond the Ringstrasse: Austria’s Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- From the Carabinieri to the Grid: Italy’s Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.