Our Team

Director

Joseph Melvin Williams was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. After high school, he attended Texas A&M University from 1998-2003, where he received a Bachelor's of Science in Bioenvironmental Science. In March of 2004, Williams enlisted in the Navy as an Information System Technician as a way to help pay off student loans and started his journey to learn about computers.

Williams had the opportunity to travel the world in the Navy and work with many great leaders and peers. After over seven years of active duty in the Navy, Williams decided to try his luck in the civilian world. He started taking classes towards his Master's in Education at Old Dominion University in Virginia in the spring of 2009 and transferred to online classes when he moved to Vermont. He started looking for jobs in the Burlington area and applied for the Team Leader position at the Leahy Center. He was offered the position and moved to Burlington full-time. He's been with the Leahy Center ever since.

Manager of IT Managed Support Services

Zoltan immigrated from Hungary to Vermont at age seven. After high school, he spent 7 years in the Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller. When he got out, it was 1980 when computers were still mainframes. He applied his skills managing pilots to managing the computer center at the University of Vermont. A few years later, he landed at SymQuest Group, where he became a partner in this 170 employee IT services company. In his 15 years there, he started an intrapreneurial business that became a significant recurring revenue generator. After SymQuest, he led another recurring revenue generating practice within an e-commerce company. Thereafter, he became the IT Director at a bioscience company. He has returned to his roots in academia as a manager at the Leahy Center. By far, the most rewarding was the people he met, inspired, and worked with along the way. He holds a BS in Business Administration and will finish his MBA in January 2023. In his personal life, he races sailboats, dives on shipwrecks, skis, work on cars, electronics, and house projects. He gives back to his community as board chair of a non-profit, works with the local Community Justice Center, and serves on two additional boards. His relationships with family and close friends are central to his well-being.

Manager of CyberRange

Ryan is a Champlain College and Leahy Center alumnus. Graduating from Champlain College in 2022 with a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Networking & Cybersecurity and two years of working at the Leahy Center under his belt. Ryan joined the Leahy Center Leadership team in 2002 to manage the CyberRange project and assist with the center's various security operations. Working at the Leahy Center while finishing his degree, he held positions as SOC/NOC Technician, Security Analyst, and Security Engineer. With experience in threat investigation, scripting, and infrastructure engineering - Ryan is passionate about leading teams to achieve goals and enhance projects at The Leahy Center.

Academic Director

Forensic Implications of System Resource Usage Monitor (SCRUM) Data in Windows 8 - January 2015 - Journal of Digital Investigation (Elsevier)

Adam Goldstein is an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at Champlain College. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, having worked as an Information Security Officer and Security Operations Director at leading institutions of higher education. He is involved in numerous cybersecurity education outreach efforts and is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Computer Examiner (CCE), and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Research Director

Ali Hadi is a Senior Information and Cyber Security Specialist with 14+ years of industrial experience in the information technology (IT) field. Ali is currently working as a full-time professor and researcher for Champlain College in Vermont, USA, and was previously a professor in the Computer Science Department at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman, Jordan. Ali provides consulting in several areas of security including digital forensics and incident response, cyber threat hunting, cyber threat intelligence, penetration testing, and vulnerability assessments. Ali is also an author, speaker, and freelance instructor where he has delivered technical training to law enforcement agencies, banks, telecoms, private companies, and other institutes.