Proactive NIST 800-53 compliance

Meet the author

April Powers graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelors in Computer Programming in 2012 and earned her masters in Info Assurance and Security in 2015. Since then she has been pursuing a doctorate in info assurance and security. Her school is a certified learner of the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD). Currently, she works at the Harvard Medical School as their IT Policy and Compliance Administrator and is attending Harvard Extension School to complete her second master’s certificate in Marketing.

With 13+ years of experience in IT, her focus has been in mitigating security structure after a data breach, access management, data mining, physical security, auditing, compliance, data analysis, developing and performing risk management for large organizations.

She brings a background in cryptology, IT governance, privacy, cyber awareness, cyber training and cyber liaison between legal, business and IT.

Her background includes privacy and security in business, education, non-profit organizations, government agencies and healthcare environments.

She evaluates and oversees the adoption of automated information systems to accommodate special and complex agency needs. She analyzes, summarizes, reviews data, reports findings, interprets results, make recommendations, and develop strategies for modern data sharing that focus on consumers privacy, security and compliance.

She works with vendors to negotiate contracts, develop technical requirements, standards and specifications for use and operation of information systems.

She has also presented in multiple security and hacking conferences, authored several security related articles, published in a local newspaper and speaks multiple languages.