Richard Cerkovnik
USDOL Cybersecurity Pathways Across Maryland
Consortium Director
Dr. Richard Cerkovnik has worked in industry as a Quality Control manager in the carbide sector before assuming teaching and administration duties in the community college system, where he has worked for 26 years. During this time he has facilitated learning in mathematics, physics, chemistry, physical science, Earth and space science, and industrial science classes, and has served 11 years, as chair/head of a physical sciences department. He is currently the Consortium Director of the $15 M USDOL Cybersecurity Pathways Across Maryland project that includes 14 Maryland community colleges and is also the Director of the Interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (iSTEM) network at Montgomery College. Rich has extensive experience in a variety of STEM disciplines, STEM program development and articulation, instructional technology, grant work, workforce development, teacher preparation and development, K12 outreach, on-line instruction, and educational research. He has a B.S degree in Chemical Engineering, a M.S. degree in Physics, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. Cerkovnik led, as Executive Director, the National STEM Consortium in its start-up phase of a $19.7 M USDOL TAACCCT grant which developed 1-year certificates in technician pathways connected to workforce needs and, at the same time, was a community college institutional lead for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant: "t-STEM Partnerships at UMBC: A National Model for STEM Transfer Success." Rich is also currently leading, as one of the PI's, on Montgomery College's $5.6 M USDOL America's Promise grant, titled, the Capital Region Collaborative: Jobs in Technical Careers (CRC) which tops off the professional and advanced content skills emerging professionals need for high skilled occupations in IT-related and cybersecurity industries.