By: Simran Ahuja

Innovation Academy is pleased to welcome Ms. Pelfrey as our new cybersecurity teacher!

Ms. Pelfrey comes to us with a wealth of experience as a teacher and as a defense contractor, working in the field for fifteen years before teaching. Ms. Pelfrey worked on projects involving data analysis, human tracking, change detection with satellite imagery, and route change detection. She even worked on the project that helped track down Osama Bin Laden!

This will be her ninth-year teaching, and Ms. Pelfrey has taught and developed computer science and cybersecurity programs. “I enjoy teaching computer science principles, but I am also excited about cybersecurity. I piloted cyber security for Gwinnett County, so it’s just it’s good to be here to be able to build that program up,” she said. She is looking forward to starting the CyberPatriot program at IA this year, which is an opportunity for students to compete in cybersecurity. “I’m looking forward to getting cybersecurity on track as far as the pathway and getting these students ready to take the Security+ Certification Exam.” she informed.

Ms. Pelfrey is excited to be here at IA! “[IA is] a school that believes in that project-based model and collaborative learning. The thing about cybersecurity is a lot of people think that it’s just working alone. But it’s a lot more than that. That collaboration part and the project-based emphasis that is here is what drew me here,” she explained.