Leadership

Rod McSherry is the Associate Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development at UTSA. McSherry oversees the Institute for Economic Development and the Office of Commercialization and Innovation and manages a staff of over 140. McSherry has over 35 years of experience in the field of global economic, community, and business development. He has held a variety of positions, most recently as the Associate Provost, International and Border Programs, at New Mexico State University. He has over 30 years of service in the United States Department of Agriculture culminating in his service as a Senior Foreign Service Officer. Additionally, he held postings in Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Thailand, Venezuela, Mexico, and Russia. He is fluent in both English and Spanish and is proficient in Russian, Thai, and French.

Melinda Cotten serves as the Interim Associate Vice President for Research Integrity and Infrastructure. She leads the Laboratory Safety, Research Integrity, Laboratory Animals Research Center, and Core Facilities programs at UTSA. She is an accomplished and passionate research administration professional having most recently served as Associate Vice President for Research Business Operations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Assistant Vice Provost at Rice University. She has over 28 years of wide-ranging experience in research administration; university leadership; regulatory compliance including federal regulations.

Nicole Lang Beebe, Ph.D. is a Professor of Cyber Security, at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She is currently dual-hatted, serving as the Interim Associate Vice President, Strategic Research Development and Assistant Vice President for Faculty Research Development in the Office for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise. She previously served for five years as the Director of The Cyber Center for Security and Analytics at UTSA. Dr. Beebe’s research interests relate to cybersecurity, cyber analytics, digital forensics, and data analytics with applications to insider threat detection and analysis, IoT security and forensics, and cyber threat hunting. She has published approximately 50 peer-reviewed articles in top journals and conferences that have been cited over 1,700 times. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security, various Department of Defense agencies, several industry partners, and has resulted in a patent-pending cyber search algorithm and multiple software platforms.

Dr. Beebe received her Ph.D. in Information Technology from UTSA, an M.S. degree in Criminal Justice from Georgia State University, and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. She has over twenty years of experience in cybersecurity and digital forensics, in both the commercial and government sectors. She was a computer crime investigator for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations from 1998-2007. She worked in industry as a senior network security engineer for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). She obtained her Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification in 2001. She has served as a board member on several national level professional associations and consortiums. She serves as an Associate Editor (AE) for Computers & Security and previously served as AE for Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, in addition to serving on the board of referees, reviewers, and/or technical program committees for approximately ten peer-reviewed journals and conferences dedicated to advancing the state of the art and knowledge in digital forensics and cybersecurity.

Dr. Sandra D. Garcia currently serves as the Assistant Vice President of the Office of Sponsored Project Administration at The University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA). With more than 27 years in higher education research administration, she oversees the Pre-Award and Contracts and Industry Agreements offices. She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi , a M.S. in Counseling and Guidance and a B.S. in Elementary Education and has a lifetime Teaching Certification

Dr. Howard Grimes serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), led by The University of Texas at San Antonio. As a noted research scientist and author with 25 years of success in directing complex university and national laboratory research programs and entrepreneurial start-up initiatives, Dr. Grimes also serves as the Associate Vice Provost and Vice President for Institutional Initiatives at UTSA and was formally the director for Innovation and Industry Partnerships (3 years) at INL’s Idaho CAES.

Veronica Stoller serves as the Assistant Vice President of the Office for Research Finance and Operations. She leads the Post Award Administration, Grants, Contracts and Financial Services, REDKE Fiscal Administration and Business Service Center units. She has over 20 years of administration, financial management and operations experience in the public and private business sectors. Veronica has an extensive background in the areas of research administration, service delivery, personnel management, organizational design, and change management. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.