The Security Industry Association (SIA) has selected Kathleen Carroll as the 2020 recipient of the SIA Committee Chair of the Year Award, which recognizes individuals for excellence in leading SIA committees and advancing member objectives. SIA will present Carroll with the honor at The Advance, SIA’s annual membership meeting, during ISC West.

 

Carroll chairs the SIA Data Privacy Advisory Board and is the founder and managing partner of Seven Seas Strategic Communications, a full-service public relations and government affairs firm offering strategic planning, writing, media relations and event planning. With more than 30 years of experience, she has worked with companies in diverse industries, designing public relations and government affairs programs and strategies that help build business and garner attention and support for clients’ key goals and objectives. She previously served as vice president of corporate communications for HID Global, overseeing the development and implementation of public relations and government affairs programs. She has testified before Congress on a range of topics, including the use of secure identification documents in airports, and has testified in several states on the use of secure credentials for physical and logical access control, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things and privacy.

 

“I am honored to be recognized as Chairperson of the Year. The Data Privacy Advisory Board members have made it easy to chair this committee, and I thank them for their commitment, dedication and active participation,” said Carroll. “I am also grateful to SIA for recognizing early on that privacy and security should be complementary. As important has been the support that the advisory board has received from Ron Hawkins and the rest of the SIA staff.Educating and informing the security industry about data privacy motivates me daily, and chairing the Data Privacy Advisory Board allows me to work with like-minded leaders in the industry to spread the word. Privacy matters.”

 

SIA’s Data Privacy Advisory Board provides information and best practices on how to handle sensitive data in a safe and secure manner. The board leverages the collective expertise of industry professionals, law enforcement, security practitioners and data privacy experts to inform and educate SIA member companies about methods for mitigating the risk of data breaches.

 

As chair of the Data Privacy Advisory Board, Carroll has spearheaded a number of notable efforts, including outreach to key integrators, office visits to members of Congress, the development of the Data Privacy Microlearning Series – a self-paced online course exploring key privacy issues, regulations and risks – and the creation of a data privacy primer for the security industry and several additional data privacy resources, including guidance documents to help firms navigate the business impact of the California Consumer Privacy Act and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. Additionally, Carroll authored an opinion letter on the need for a federal privacy law that was published in the New York Times.

 

“During her time as advisory board chair, Kathleen Carroll has increased awareness of data privacy issues throughout the security industry,” said Don Erickson, SIA CEO. “Kathleen’s leadership has helped position SIA as a thought leader on this critical issue, and we look forward to recognizing her for her outstanding achievements at The Advance this year.”

 

The Advance will take place during ISC West 2020 on Tuesday, March 17, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev.