When The Chronicle of Higher Education recognized the University of Arizona as the No. 2 institution in the nation for the number of military bachelor’s degrees, one number stood out. Of the 196 military-affiliated degrees awarded in 2025, 147 were in cyber operations.

In only a few years, the U of A has built a training environment recognized as a National Security Agency-designated Center of Academic Excellence, or CAE. It is one of only 10 institutions nationwide to hold all three CAE cyber designations — cyber defense, cyber operations and cyber research.

The degree programs span multiple colleges. The Eller College of Management maintains the master’s degree in cyber defense and cyber research designation. The College of Information Science oversees the bachelor of applied science degree in cyber operations and, according to Programs.com, a college ranking website, is the nation’s No. 1 cybersecurity bachelor’s degree program. The degree programs were recently expanded to include a new Bachelor of Science in Cyber Operations with emphasis areas in security and cyberAI.

These programs equip students with skills in reverse engineering, network analysis, penetration testing and programming, giving them an understanding of how modern networks operate and preparing them for in-demand careers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of information security analysts is projected to grow 33% by 2033. 

“The U of A is recognized as a place where students acquire technical expertise needed to secure systems, gain professional skills needed to connect with technical and non-technical audiences and develop professional networks to connect them with agencies, bases and labs nationally and beyond,” said Paul Wagner, a professor at the College of Information Science and director of the Arizona Cybersecurity Clinic, a university resource that provides free cybersecurity services. “Our students are a testament that the U of A is meeting the cybersecurity needs of the state, nation and military-affiliated agencies.”

What helps make these programs distinctive is a faculty of active practitioners, mainly from the Department of War, national laboratories and private industry. 

“We have a lot of variety of industry professionals within our programs,” Wagner said. “We've heard from our students that being able to take a class from somebody that's currently working in that area provides a whole different conversation.”

That mix is exactly what drew students like Veronika Kyles, Abel Macias and Brandon Saari to the U of A.

Southern Arizona roots, national security impact

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For Veronika Kyles, cybersecurity is rooted in place. She grew up in Sierra Vista, near Fort Huachuca. Both of her parents served in the U.S. Army and she attended school on the base. National security was part of her daily life.

Her first real taste of cybersecurity came in middle school through CyberPatriot, a national cyber defense competition hosted by the Air Force Association. While most students were learning basic computer skills, Kyles was hardening virtual machines and writing programs to automate security tasks. 

“I fell in love with it,” Kyles said. “I started scripting really young, and I was fortunate to find my niche early, so I just kept going.”

At the U of A, she completed her bachelor’s degree in cyber operations with an emphasis in cyber engineering and a minor in computer science and music. As an undergraduate, Kyles was selected for the Department of Homeland Security’s Intelligence and Cybersecurity Diversity fellowship and spent two years interning at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA.

At CISA’s National Risk Management Center in Washington, D.C., she worked on risk analysis for critical infrastructure, including cloud migration for industrial control systems in the water sector. That experience changed how she views today’s digital threats.

“There’s a big difference between keeping a plant operational and keeping it secure,” Kyles said. “A lot of our infrastructure was built decades ago. It works, or we wouldn’t have safe water, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready for a modern cyberattack that could put lives at risk.”

She graduated in May 2025 and moved directly into the master’s program in cyber and information operations at the College of Information Science, supported by a Department of War Cyber Service Academy scholarship. With a planned graduation date of spring 2027, she is exploring how oversight and policy frameworks can move critical systems from functional status to a sustainable state of resilience.

For Kyles, staying at the U of A was an easy choice once she saw how the region looks from the perspective of Washington, D.C. While working there, she realized just how important Fort Huachuca and Tucson-based Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and companies such as Raytheon are to national cyber and intelligence missions. Southern Arizona, she discovered, isn’t on the edge of that world. It is a critical part of it.

Cyber operations with a global view

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Abel Macias’ story stretches across continents. Originally stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, he supported humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions tied to the U.S. Southern Command. That role gave him an early look at how international operations and technology can intersect.

Macias moved to Germany to serve at U.S. European Command, supporting NATO operations. He arrived just before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down. Practically overnight, secure systems originally built for a handful of remote users were now needed to support thousands. Secure virtual private networks and capacity planning became urgent operational problems.

“We were never thinking we’d be in the position to support that many remote workers,” Macias said. “We had to adapt quickly and still keep operations online. It really drove home how much we take the network for granted until it gets overloaded.”

That gave Macias a close-up view of the security challenges of modernizing legacy systems across critical infrastructure while confronting new AI threats that those systems were not originally designed to withstand.

After moving back to the United States, Macias decided to return to Tucson. When he discovered the U of A’s cyber operations program and the federal Cyber Service Academy, everything lined up. He could remain in the Air Force Reserve, pursue an applied cyber degree and plug into a university ecosystem deeply involved in radar, satellite and space-related research. 

“In the Air Force, they always encourage you to get a master’s, but I didn’t want a generic degree,” Macias said. “At the U of A, I was actually building virtual private networks, creating certificates, writing Python data pipelines and learning how to integrate new tools with older systems. That underlying technical knowledge is what lets you write meaningful cyber policy later.”

Through the Cyber Service Academy, he worked with the Department of War on research and development with other scholars in Washington, D.C. He aims to complete his master’s degree in cybersecurity and information operations in December. Looking ahead, he wants to bring his U of A training and NATO experiences together to grow a career that blends policy, international collaboration, space and cyber operations.

Hands-on training builds cybersecurity expertise

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Brandon Saari’s experience shows how the university’s programs serve as a launchpad for people pivoting into the field.

Saari grew up in Oregon and tried college right after high school, studying environmental science and wildlife management. It didn’t quite fit. He joined the U.S. Air Force, studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and eventually found his way to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

His day job in electromagnetic spectrum operations exposed him to aspects of cybersecurity work. The more he saw, the more curious he became.

“The concepts seemed wildly different at first,” Saari said. “But behind the curtain, they’re really similar. And in cyber, the variety is endless; there are always new ways to come at problems.”

Still on active duty, Saari enrolled in the U of A’s cyber operations program with an emphasis on defense and forensics. He admits he did not arrive as a natural programmer.

“I didn’t know a lick of Python before starting the program,” Saari said. “Now I’m building tools for service members to use and helping meet challenges we’re facing in the field.”

One of his most formative experiences was his Arizona Cybersecurity Clinic capstone. His group studied how organizations integrate artificial intelligence into their systems. He earned his bachelor’s degree in cyber operations in December.

Technology, he noted, is evolving at a pace that outstrips most organizations’ ability to keep up. One of the biggest challenges he sees is not technical at all, but human: ensuring that people at all levels understand enough about new AI tools to use them wisely and securely.

For Saari, the hands-on nature of the program sets the U of A apart.

“Being able to apply the concepts in a real way makes a world of difference,” Saari said. “You don’t just talk about security; you practice it.”

Outside of coursework, he credits the Cyber Saguaros student club, where students tackled capture-the-flag challenges and training events in a supportive environment, as a key part of his learning. As he continues his service, he looks to move from the operational side of national security into research and development, helping to identify emerging threats and shape the technologies designed to counter them.