I am a cybersecurity graduate student at Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from DePaul University and prior service in both the United States Marine Corps and United States Army infantry.
My portfolio focuses on practical problem-solving: recovering failed systems, building and securing lab infrastructure, administering Linux and Windows environments, analyzing risk, validating controls, and documenting the entire process—including the mistakes and unresolved findings.
I do not present home labs or academic exercises as professional production experience. Each repository clearly identifies its scope, evidence, limitations, and current status.
R36S Lite-Cyberdeck · Working Prototype
Recovered a non-booting R36S handheld and transformed it into a dual-purpose ARM Linux terminal and lightweight cybersecurity lab while preserving its gaming functionality.
Demonstrates: removable-media recovery, Linux filesystem analysis, ARM64 administration, Bash, Secure Shell (SSH), USB Wi-Fi investigation, Nmap, privilege review, service troubleshooting, evidence handling, and technical documentation.
Active Directory Home Lab · Complete
Built a Windows Server 2025 domain in Oracle VirtualBox with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Routing and Remote Access Service (RAS)/Network Address Translation (NAT), a domain-joined Windows 10 client, Group Policy, and PowerShell user provisioning.
Demonstrates: identity and access management, Windows administration, network services, virtualization, Group Policy, PowerShell automation, secure credential handling, troubleshooting, and screenshot-backed documentation.
Secure Home Network Hardening Lab · Complete for This Phase
Hardened and validated a personally owned NETGEAR Nighthawk XR1000 v1 running DumaOS, staged behind an existing Internet Service Provider (ISP) gateway and tested with a Windows management workstation plus a bridged Kali Linux virtual machine in VMware Workstation.
The work included vendor-site firmware verification and manual remediation, guest-network isolation testing, disabling Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), port triggering, Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), and ReadySHARE services, authorized Nmap validation, Windows Firewall drop-log correlation, endpoint service reduction, and honest documentation of remaining DumaOS limitations.
Demonstrates: consumer-router hardening, change management, control validation, VMware Network Address Translation (NAT)-to-bridged migration, Nmap, Windows Firewall analysis, endpoint service review, and residual-risk documentation.
Simulated Security Assessment · Complete Academic Portfolio
Created a four-phase assessment and reporting portfolio for a fictional organization, covering reconnaissance methodology, scan planning, vulnerability assessment, defensive risk analysis, and separate executive and technical reports.
Demonstrates: assessment scoping, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) methodology, vulnerability triage, risk reasoning, defensive detection thinking, ethical judgment, sanitization, and audience-specific reporting.
Secure Containerized 5G Network Slices · Complete Design Capstone
Designed a multi-slice 5G security architecture for video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Internet of Things (IoT) services using a containerized 5G core, Kubernetes isolation, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and a six-threat defense model.
Demonstrates: 5G architecture, network slicing, Kubernetes security concepts, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), network policies, threat modeling, Quality of Service (QoS) security analysis, and architecture documentation.
Cybersecurity Concepts & Case Study Notes · Curated Knowledge Base
A defensive study repository covering frameworks, breach case studies, ethics, legal scope, governance, and security fundamentals.
Demonstrates: Cyber Kill Chain, Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls, Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10, Zero Trust, breach root-cause analysis, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) thinking, sourcing, and technical writing.
| Project | Environment | Primary focus | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| R36S Lite-Cyberdeck | ARM64 Linux / embedded hardware | Recovery, administration, scripting, networking | 30 sanitized screenshots, evidence catalog, troubleshooting log |
| Active Directory Home Lab | Windows Server 2025 / Windows 10 / VirtualBox | Identity, DNS, DHCP, NAT, Group Policy, PowerShell | Reproducible seven-section guide and live-lab screenshots |
| Secure Home Network | NETGEAR XR1000/DumaOS · Windows · Kali · VMware | Consumer-router hardening and control validation | Firmware change record, guest-isolation tests, scans, firewall correlation, residual-risk log |
| Simulated Security Assessment | Fictional academic environment | Assessment lifecycle and reporting | Risk register, executive report, technical report, methodology |
| 5G Security Capstone | Design-focused 5G / Kubernetes / SDN | Architecture and threat modeling | Original diagram, threat-defense mapping, reference manifests |
| Cybersecurity Notes | Research and coursework synthesis | Frameworks, incidents, ethics, and GRC | Cited analyses and clearly labeled personal interpretations |
| Domain | Technologies and capabilities |
|---|---|
| Operating systems | Windows Server 2025, Windows 10/11, Kali Linux, Debian-based Linux, ARM64 Linux |
| Identity and Windows infrastructure | Active Directory Domain Services, Organizational Units, security groups, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, RAS/NAT, PowerShell |
| Networking | TCP/IP, subnetting, routing, NAT, wireless isolation, Nmap, NetworkManager, firewall validation, SDN/NFV concepts |
| Linux and embedded systems | Bash, SSH/SFTP, services, permissions, storage recovery, EXT4/FAT analysis, package and kernel-module investigation |
| Security analysis | Vulnerability assessment methodology, threat modeling, risk registers, security frameworks, control mapping, residual-risk documentation |
| Cloud-native and emerging networks | Kubernetes namespaces, RBAC, network policies, resource quotas, containerized 5G core and network slicing concepts |
| Virtualization and recovery | Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, virtual networking, USB passthrough troubleshooting, disk imaging, TestDisk, bootable media |
| Professional documentation | Executive summaries, technical reports, reproducible lab guides, evidence catalogs, troubleshooting logs, architecture diagrams |
- Verify controls instead of trusting configuration screens. I test whether isolation, addressing, authentication, and firewall behavior work end to end.
- Document failures as well as successes. Permission errors, broken sessions, tool limitations, and incorrect assumptions are part of the engineering record.
- Separate facts from hypotheses. My repositories identify what the evidence proves, what remains an interpretation, and what was not tested.
- Treat security and ethics as design requirements. Scope statements, sanitization, authorization boundaries, and credential handling are documented explicitly.
- Communicate for the audience. I write both technical implementation detail and recruiter/leadership-level summaries.
- Master's Degree in Cybersecurity — In Progress, Northern Illinois University
- Cybersecurity Bootcamp, Springboard & Northern Illinois University, June 2025
- Bachelor of Science in Criminology, DePaul University, June 2025
- Associate Degree in Applied Social Science, Criminal Justice, College of DuPage, May 2024
- United States Marine Corps veteran
- United States Army infantry veteran
- Assistant Regional Director of Expansion, Sigma Lambda Beta Intl. Fraternity Inc.
- Dean's Award for Scholastic Excellence
- Former Vice President, Alpha Phi Sigma Criminology Honor Society
I am continuing to build practical depth in security operations, network defense, identity and access management, incident response, Linux/Windows administration, vulnerability management, automation, and enterprise infrastructure security.
I am interested in entry-level and early-career opportunities involving cybersecurity analysis, Security Operations Center (SOC) work, network security, systems administration, infrastructure security, and Information Technology support.
gophish— a copy of the external open-source Gophish project; not presented as my original work.mcp-for-beginners— an external Model Context Protocol learning curriculum; not presented as my original authorship.
LinkedIn · Chicago, Illinois
When there's a will, there's a way.