2021 Conference: Jim Corns and Barbara S. Burnopp Present “Not a Question of IF, but WHEN – Ransomware Recovery Amid a Pandemic”
A major ransomware attack hit Baltimore County Public Schools on November 24, 2020 – right in the middle of the COVID pandemic. Two professionals from BCPS will share information on their recovery processes including successes, lessons learned, and next steps. The session will discuss the impact of the attack on operations and instruction and key processes every agency should have in place to successfully recover and rebuild after a cyber event.
Barbara Burnopp is the Senior Executive Director of Administrative Services for Baltimore County Public School (BCPS), the twenty-fifth largest school system in the nation and third largest in Maryland. BCPS serves 111,000 students in 175 schools, centers, and programs with a budget of $1.84 billion and a workforce of 16,000 employees, including 9,200 teachers. Barbara assists the Chief Administrative and Operations Officer with implementing the Division of Business Services’ strategic projects and initiatives. The division consists of Administrative Services, Food and Nutrition Services, Transportation, Fiscal Services, Information Technology, Facilities Management, and Strategic Planning. She also served as the Executive Director of Fiscal Services for BCPS for fourteen years. Before moving to Maryland, Barbara spent eighteen years in financial positions of increasing responsibility in state government and higher education in Utah. Barbara has a bachelor’s degree in business services and a masters of business administration in public accountancy from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Barbara is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Jim Corns has worked in public education for twenty-seven years in four counties in the state of Maryland. His career began in Kent County, on the Eastern Shore, as a third-grade teacher. In his six-year teaching career, Jim taught third and fourth grade, technology in grades five through eight, and was a media specialist. Jim was then hired as the Network Administrator and held that position until he advanced to Kent’s Supervisor of Technology position. In 2010, he and his family moved to St. Mary’s County, where Jim was hired as the Director of Information Technology for St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS). After four years in SMCPS, he accepted the position of Chief Operations Officer for Instructional Technology in Washington County Public Schools. In 2016, Jim took a position in Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) as the Director of Innovation and Digital Safely. Under his leadership in this position, BCPS earned the CoSN Trusted Learning Environment seal. In 2018, Jim was promoted to the Executive Director position of Information Technology for BCPS where he oversees the technology ecosystem for the third largest school system in Maryland and twenty-fifth largest in the US. His staff is responsible for the network, endpoint devices, and digital ecosystem that facilitate and promote learning within BCPS. In 2019, Jim earned the CoSN Certified Education Technology Leader Certification.
Education Administrators, Teachers, School Psychologists/Guidance Counselors, School Resource Officers (SROs), Law Enforcement, Local/State Emergency Managers, Fusion Center Analysts, Crisis Intervention Units, Counselors & Mental Health Specialists, School Social Workers, School Safety Professionals, and other school safety stakeholders interested in attending this timely presentation should register for the July 2021 MCSS School Safety Summer Conference at http://conference2021.safeschoolsmd.org/.