What's Your StORy? Natalie Scala

Name: Natalie Scala

Employer: Towson University, College of Business and Economics

Job Title: Associate professor and Graduate Program Director

INFORMS member for 10 years

I am currently the president of the Military and Security Society (MAS), and I’ve previously served on the boards for SpORts and the Maryland Chapter. I started my INFORMS membership in graduate school and really became involved once I began my professional career. I had just moved to Maryland, knew very few people, and wanted to build my network. I started attending Maryland Chapter and WINFORMS events, and as my network grew, I wanted to give back and become more involved.

My experience with MAS has been very beneficial. I have met so many academics, service members, and professionals working in that problem space, and my network has exponentially grown. I also very much appreciate how the society’s members welcomed me at my first INFORMS conference and how they have been so supportive of all of their colleagues.  I’m very excited to be working with Brian Lunday, Walt DeGrange, and the rest of the council, and our intent is to bring MAS back into the forefront as one of INFORMS’ leading societies. Also, to our knowledge, I am the first female president of MAS, which is very cool. 

I started my professional career as a U.S. Department of Defense civilian employee, after interning on Project Air Force at the RAND Corporation during graduate school. I learned very quickly in these experiences that the defense problem space is a little different than traditional operations research problems. At the time it would have been helpful to have a reference volume to explain these differences and bridge the gap from traditional academic problems to the defense space. So, that is exactly what I hope this new book does. It’s called “Handbook of Military and Defense Operations Research.” The book is intended for those entering the defense space from a traditional academic background and those transitioning from military careers into operations research roles.

We are working to ensure the integrity of votes is maintained at polling places. Most academic research in elections security focuses on cyber threats at the state level. We take a more holistic approach and consider potential cyber, physical, and insider threats, and shift that focus to polling places, where the public interacts with the voting process. The research builds a Markov chain risk model to understand how threat evolves over time and also develops training modules so pollworkers can identify and mitigate threats that may occur. Pollworkers are the first line of defense in elections. We want them to be able to identify when a threat may emerge and then fix it themselves or call for assistance. Our research shows, with statistical significance, that pollworker knowledge about cyber, physical, and insider threat increases when interacting with our training.

The network! I have met so many people and have grown so much professionally through my experiences at INFORMS and participation at conferences.

When I was young, I wanted to be a weather or sports reporter on TV. I like telling stories and I’m rather extroverted, which is probably why I enjoy my current career and teaching so much. 
 

I firmly believe the more good you do and the more love you share, the better the world is. There is no point in bringing others down, and no one benefits from negativity. We are all on life’s journey together, so let’s just share in it.

Seinfeld! The ability to find humor is life’s minutia is perfection.

In my job, I personally get to work on interesting problems, teach and mentor students, and share with others what I’ve worked so hard to learn and achieve. These are all strong positives, and I am grateful that they are not tied to my gender. Personally, I have not had many negative experiences tied to gender identification, and I am very grateful to the women who came before me to pave the way.  

STEELERS! Absolutely no question where my loyalty lies! Pittsburgh is the City of Champions. :)