Giving to Cyber Florida

Cyber Florida, part of the University of South Florida, is a nonprofit organization that works with various stakeholders to achieve our mission goals. While the majority of our funding comes from the State of Florida, a portion of our programs, projects, and events relies on the generosity of donors and sponsors, which helps ensure our programs remain affordable and accessible to as many of Florida’s citizens, businesses, and organizations as possible.

Gifts to support Cyber Florida at USF’s programs may be made through the University of South Florida Foundation, Inc. If you would like to make a gift to support Cyber Florida at USF, please visit https://giving.usf.edu/online/ and select “Florida Center for Cybersecurity Operations (#180009).”

Gifts made to Cyber Florida help support these and other programs:

The McConnell Scholarship

Vice Admiral J. Michael “Mike” McConnell, USN, Retired, is Chair Emeritus of the Florida Center for Cybersecurity Board of Advisors, having served as the center’s founding board chair from 2013 to 2019 and first Executive Director from 2019 to 2022. Vice Admiral McConnell’s lifetime commitment to national security lies at the heart of the center’s identity, mission, and vision. To honor his legacy of service, we have created the McConnell Scholarship at the University of South Florida.

The McConnell Scholarship provides two semesters of tuition support to deserving students pursuing cybersecurity-related degrees who plan to pursue a career in cybersecurity or a related field. Preferred candidates will have a minimum GPA of 3.5 and financial need.

Currently, this scholarship is funded through the center’s operating budget, so its availability is contingent on the center’s budget constraints. To ensure this scholarship remains permanently available, we need to raise $25,000 to convert it into an endowed scholarship. We hope you will help us honor the wonderful legacy of Vice Admiral Mike McConnell by making a contribution toward endowing the McConnell Scholarship. The scholarship will be formally announced and dedicated on February 25, 2025, and we sincerely hope to designate it as an endowed scholarship. We are grateful for your support!

With a 50-year career focused on international and foreign intelligence, Vice Adm. McConnell brings a depth of knowledge and experience acquired from service in both the public and private sectors. His 29-year career as a US Navy intelligence officer included significant assignments that impacted national security. During Operation Desert Storm and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Vice Adm. McConnell served as the Intelligence Officer for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, and the Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney.

From 1992 to 1996, he served as the Director of the National Security Agency (DIRNSA) under Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton. As DIRNSA, he led the agency during a critical period as it adapted to the multipolar threats arising from the end of the Cold War, providing global intelligence and information security services to the White House, Cabinet officials, Congress, and a broad array of military and civilian intelligence agencies.

After retiring from the US Navy in 1996, Vice Adm. McConnell joined Booz Allen Hamilton to lead development of the firm’s Information Assurance and Intelligence business, focused on policy, operations, transformation, homeland security, intelligence analytics, and counterterrorism.

Upon being asked by President George W. Bush in 2007 to become the second US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), he left Booz Allen to serve as the DNI, a position of Cabinet rank, and as a member of the White House National Security Council for two years under Presidents Bush and Obama. During this time, he successfully advocated for a multi-billion-dollar investment to substantially improve cybersecurity standards for the US—securing support from two US presidents and Congress.

As DNI, he managed the expansive national Intelligence Community—an organization with more than 100,000 people and an annual budget of over $50 billion—and had extensive interactions with the White House, the Cabinet, Congress, international leaders, and the US business community.

In 2009, Vice Adm. McConnell returned to Booz Allen as Executive Vice President to lead the firm’s Intelligence business, and in 2011, he was elevated to Vice Chairman, serving in that capacity until his retirement in 2014. He continues to serve as a Senior Executive Advisor for Booz Allen.

Vice Adm. McConnell’s interest, since his service as Director of NSA in 1992–96, has been to improve the cybersecurity posture of businesses and government agencies around the world to better protect them from hackers, criminals, terrorists, and nation-states focused on economic espionage or the destruction of vital data.

He serves on the US-based Board of Directors of Nokia for US-based business operations as well as the boards of numerous start-up companies that are developing technologies and capabilities for improved cybersecurity posture.

Vice Adm. McConnell served as the Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Cyber Florida from its founding in 2014 until 2020, when he was appointed executive director of the center by University of South Florida President Dr. Steven C. Currall. In 2024, Vice Adm. McConnell became Chair Emeritus for Cyber Florida at USF Board of Advisors.

In addition to having received many of the nation’s highest military awards for meritorious service, Vice Adm. McConnell has twice received the nation’s highest award for service in the US Intelligence Community—once from President Clinton and once from President George W. Bush. Vice Adm. McConnell has also served as the Chairman and CEO of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), and he is the 2011 recipient of INSA’s William Oliver Baker Award, which is awarded annually for sustained and excellent service in intelligence and national security.

Vice Adm. McConnell holds an MPA degree from George Washington University, is a graduate of the National Defense University (Global Telecom) and the National Defense Intelligence College (Strategic Intelligence), and holds a BA in Economics from Furman University. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Vice Adm. McConnell has been awarded several honorary doctorates, the most recent from the University of South Florida in 2016.

After more than five decades of distinguished public service, Vice Adm. McConnell has formally retired from public life. We at Cyber Florida at USF are eternally grateful for the critical role he played in establishing the organization and guiding its success.