SIA announces winners of 2024 RISE Scholarship

SILVER SPRING, Md.—The Security Industry Association (SIA) has named 18 young security professionals as the recipients of the 2024 SIA RISE Scholarship, a program offered through SIA’s RISE community, which supports the education and career development goals of young industry talent and emerging leaders.

Through this scholarship program – open to SIA student members and RISE members who are employees at SIA member companies – each awardee will receive a $3,000 scholarship to use toward continuing education and professional development courses, SIA program offerings and/or other academic or education programs.

Scholarship funds can be used to expand knowledge in the areas of business, human resources (HR), information technology (IT), marketing, sales, project management, security engineering and/or risk management.

“The 2024 class of SIA RISE Scholarship awardees is an inspiring, accomplished and dedicated group of individuals who are making a difference in the security industry and actively pursuing their educational and career development goals,” said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “We are proud to present these 18 honorees with scholarship funds to support them as they grow their knowledge and expertise and foster their leadership in this industry and in the larger community.”

The 18 winners of the 2024 SIA RISE Scholarship are:

• Brian Abraham, area sales manager, Software House
• Kiara Bell, lead information and security compliance analyst, Arcules
• Callie Buzzeo, technical program manager, Meta
• Chasity Cope, HR admin, Down East Protection Systems
• Olivia Doherty, consulting coordinator, Northland Controls
• Devin Gonzalez, product champion, i-PRO Americas
• Amanda Hahn, director of digital marketing, LRG Marketing
• Alisha Hippert, project manager of customer experience, dormakaba
• Alicia Janowicz, HR business partner, Axis Communications
• Justin Lei, senior engineer, i-PRO Americas
• Jennifer Lemoine, program administrator, Convergint
• Pamela Madey, channel sales specialist, BCD
• Dan Metz, intelligence analyst, TAM-C Solutions
• James Robles, technical trainer, HID
• Rachel Salina, product marketing coordinator, Axis Communications
• Maya Sears, mechanical engineer associate, dormakaba
• Mustafa Shahriyar, escalation engineer, i-PRO Americas
• Shaunté Sivas, business development manager, Systems Distributors, Inc.

Learn more about the honorees here.

Lei is the recipient of the 2024 Pierre Trapanese RISE Scholarship, a special RISE Scholarship presented to recognize Pierre Trapanese, CEO of Northland Controls and past SIA Board of Directors chair. In addition to his volunteer leadership on SIA’s board, Trapanese has been dedicated to the success of young professionals in the industry and is likewise dedicated to professional development opportunities within SIA, having been instrumental in the creation of the Certified Security Project Manager (CSPM) certification program.

SIA RISE is a community that fosters the careers of young professionals in the security industry. In addition to awarding the annual SIA RISE Scholarship, SIA RISE offers fun networking events for young professionals, the 25 on the RISE Awards presented in partnership with Brivo and FAST and celebrating the industry’s brightest young talent, the RISE Microlearning Series of mini-webinars on top professional development topics, career growth webinars and trade show education tracks, the Talent Inclusion Mentorship Education (TIME) mentorship program for early and mid-career professionals in the security industry and the annual AcceleRISE conference – an essential experience designed to ignite new thinking, strengthen leadership and sharpen business acumen in young security talent.

RISE is available to all employees at SIA member companies who are young professionals under 40 or have been in the security industry for less than two years; learn more and sign up to join.