Nita Awatramani

Following a national search, Kansas State University appointed Nita Awatramani as assistant vice president and chief information security officer, effective June 22. She joins from the University of Southern California, where she led its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 compliance program.

K-State Today reported that in the role Awatramani would work closely with Thomas Bunton, who at the time of the announcement served as chief information officer and associate vice president for the Division of Information Technology. According to K-State Today, she will lead the university's work to formalize and mature its information security management program and to strengthen its overall cybersecurity health and readiness. K-State Today reports that Awatramani will manage the university's cybersecurity strategy and will lead a dedicated team of IT professionals. She will also make key decisions on responses to emerging threats, on security measures and on risk assessments, according to K-State Today.

Before joining Kansas State University, Awatramani served at the University of Southern California as the executive program director for security strategy and execution, K-State Today reports. According to K-State Today, the compliance program she led there was meant to protect that university's research funding, intellectual property and reputation as an R1 research institution. Before her time at USC, Awatramani worked as senior information risk management and audit management manager in Verizon, Corporate Information Security, K-State Today reports. In that job she assessed the impact and associated risks of emerging technologies and regulatory changes and provided strategic insights on them, according to K-State Today. According to K-State Today, Awatramani holds a Bachelor of Science with mathematics honors from Calcutta University and a Master of Science in cybersecurity from Purdue Global. She also holds a Master of Computer Applications in Computer Science, awarded by the Institute of Management Technology, K-State Today reports. According to K-State Today, Awatramani also holds various cybersecurity certifications.