Meet the Instructor

Thomas Muehleisen

Course Designer for Continuous Cyber Resilience: Leading Transitions & Affiliate Instructor, University of Washington

Tom Muehleisen is the course designer for Continuous Cyber Resilience: Leading Transitions and an affiliate instructor for the University of Washington. A nationally recognized thought leader in regional cyber defense, Muehleisen expanded the Washington National Guard’s cyber capabilities and improved threat awareness and the defensive posture for critical infrastructure and key resource resiliency to any significant cyber threat to the state. He was the principal architect of the state’s Significant Cyber Response Annex to the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, the nation’s first annex of its kind. This document is based on his work co-writing the National Guard Cyber Concept of Operations.

Muehleisen also led the effort to engage with critical infrastructure owners and operators and provide training and operational venues for National Guardsmen to hone their skills while improving community cyber security. This outreach effort led to the nation’s first cyber penetration test of a public utility by the National Guard, directed by Governor Jay Inslee.

Muehleisen’s recent efforts in cybersecurity and cyber emergency management involve designing the UW course “Continuous Cyber Resilience: Leading Transitions” and continuing collaborations with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Washington Military Department to define response resource types for a major cyber incident. This effort firmly places Washington state at the forefront of cyber thought and strategy by creating a response template other states will emulate.