Enhancing Cybersecurity Readiness in Non-Profit Organizations Through Collaborative Research and Innovation, a research initiative led by Maryam Roshanaei, assistant professor at Penn State Abington, and her team, is proud to announce its successful progress thus far, made possible through the resources provided by the Presidential Public Impact Research Award (PPIRA) Program. The program’s support has significantly accelerated the project’s progress while providing invaluable learning experiences for students involved.
“Our mission has always been to empower non-profit organizations with the tools and knowledge to strengthen their cybersecurity posture,” Roshanaei said. “Through collaborative research, student engagement, and strategic partnerships, we’ve laid the groundwork for lasting impact across Pennsylvania’s nonprofit sector. More information can be found on our website.
The team also includes Impact Team Leadership Members Jennifer Breese, assistant professor at Penn State Greater Allegheny and Brian Gardner, assistant professor at Penn State Schuylkill.
In Roshanaei’s project, which focuses on delivering cybersecurity training and enhancement in underserved communities to improve job readiness and employment opportunities, the PPIRA program support enabled the team to create an overall sense of community learning through engagement within the research. This support has not only pushed this community research forward but also enabled students to gain hands-on experience with research methods by developing research questions, hypotheses, and conducting systematic literature reviews.
“Working on the PPIRA project has been a transformative experience—designing surveys, managing cross-campus teams, and building the WeAreCyberReady website taught me real-world skills that go far beyond the classroom,” said Junior Amauris Diaz, PPIRA research assistant and cybersecurity analytics and operations major at Penn State Abington. “It’s incredibly rewarding to know our work is helping nonprofits become more secure.”
Roshanaei’s team has made significant strides in community research by partnering with the PA Association of Non-Profit Organizations (PANO), and the involvement of students has helped to boost its success. By participating in this research, students gained a deeper understanding of data analysis, website management, and scientific communication among findings through workshops and conferences, which are essential skills for future academic or professional positions.
“We are partnering with researchers at Penn State to understand the cybersecurity needs of our constituents and members and to provide them with cybersecurity recommendations,” said Christina Spadaro, assistant director of PANO. “We believe that the goals of this research align with our own goals here at PANO of empowering nonprofit organizations and giving them access to the above-mentioned training, best practices, and consultation to do their best work.”
The project is expected to continue evolving, which speaks to how powerful well supported and community-based research can be in shaping the future of both academia and industry.
“The PPIRA program is designed to support community-engaged scholarship that provides experiential learning opportunities for students and deepens the reach of Penn State into our communities, ” said Michael Donovan, associate director of the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative. “The team led by Roshanaei is contributing remarkable public value through their project through the support provided to the non-profit community.”
The Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative (EIC) is a research center and information hub for the science of using social science. The aim of EIC is to improve the data, methods, and processes related to research, the dissemination of evidence, and to understand the impacts of the use of research evidence on societal well-being. Part of the Social Science Research Institute, the EIC works to leverage expertise in administrative data, program evaluation, and researcher-policymaker relationships for social investment optimization.
The PPIRA program is an initiative of the Public Impact Research Strategic Initiative.