{"id":183,"date":"2026-08-12T19:57:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T19:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/?page_id=183"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:13:22","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1162\" height=\"1320\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41467\/2026\/08\/IMG_3106.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-184\" style=\"width:255px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Welcome to my ePortfolio. My name is Clarrissa Darden, and my journey into cybersecurity has been shaped by professional experience, education, family, and a desire to continue growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My career in government service introduced me to information security and eventually led me into cybersecurity. Over the years, I gained experience working with federal cybersecurity requirements, risk management, NIST standards, security compliance, and protecting government information systems. Those experiences helped me understand that cybersecurity is much more than protecting computers. It is about protecting people, organizations, critical infrastructure, and information that society depends on every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My professional experience also motivated me to return to school and complete my education. Through my studies at Northern Virginia Community College and Old Dominion University, I strengthened my technical cybersecurity knowledge while also developing skills in research, communication, critical thinking, policy analysis, ethics, and interdisciplinary problem-solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This portfolio represents that journey. The artifacts included throughout the site demonstrate what I have learned, how my skills have developed, and how my academic and professional experiences have prepared me for the next stage of my cybersecurity career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">My Journey into Cybersecurity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My cybersecurity journey did not begin in a classroom. It developed through government service, professional opportunities, certifications, family motivation, and eventually my decision to return to college. The following personal narrative explains how those experiences shaped my professional identity and led me to complete my Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity at Old Dominion University.<\/p>\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41467\/2026\/08\/My-Journey-into-Cybersecurity.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\"  data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">My-Journey-into-Cybersecurity<br\/><\/a>\n<p class=\"wp-block-pdfemb-pdf-embedder-viewer\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to my ePortfolio. My name is Clarrissa Darden, and my journey into cybersecurity has been shaped by professional experience, education, family, and a desire to continue growing. My career in government service introduced me to information security and eventually&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/about-me\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30482,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/clarrissadarden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}