Meet the Team

Dr. Tony Coulson is currently a professor and the Executive Director of the Center for Cyber and AI at California State University, San Bernardino. Having a well-earned reputation in industry and academia, he has won numerous awards, grants, and accolades for his innovative approaches in education and leadership in the cybersecurity and technology fields. 

Prior to his career in academia, Dr. Coulson was an entrepreneur, starting three companies before the age of 20 and a computer school when he was 14 years old. He also had a successful career as an executive and CIO. His industry collaborations included long-term consulting with a Fortune 500 semi-conductor company, pioneering work on knowledge management. An expert in workforce technology initiatives, Dr. Coulson led research and redesign of the international training strategy for one of the top five ERP vendors.

Since moving to academia in 2001, he has worked hard to innovate and provide new opportunities for students. In 2008, Dr. Coulson was awarded a national Innovation in Teaching and Learning award for his work in changing learning labs. He firmly believes in an interdisciplinary approach to technology education and has used that passion to make California State University, San Bernardino a recognized leader in cybersecurity.  

As the Executive Director of the California State University, San Bernardino Center for Cyber and AI, Dr. Coulson has worked with industry and government to map out opportunities for students and cybersecurity strategies for the nation. As the lead of the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity Community, he coordinates over 450 NSA CAE designated colleges and universities. He runs multiple grant programs in excess of $80 million that provide specialized skills to the federal government including the DoD and private companies. In 2018, he became a member of a workforce development panel on the National Security Agency advisory board.

Tony has an M.B.A. with a concentration in Information Management from California State University, San Bernardino. He also holds a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Claremont Graduate University.

Vincent Nestler, Ph.D., holds a doctoral degree in instructional design, masters in both network security from Capitol Technology University, and a M.A.T. from Columbia University. He is the author of the Principles of Computer Security, Lab Manual, published by McGraw Hill. Dr. Nestler is a cybersecurity consultant and educator with over 20 years of experience in network administration and security. He served as a Data Communications Maintenance Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. During his service, he designed and implemented the training for Marines assigned to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Computer Emergency Response Team. He also served as the Assistant Operations Officer (training) for the Joint Broadcast System, during its transition to DISA.

Since 2007, Dr. Nestler has been integral to training CyberCorps® students at Idaho State University and at California State University, San Bernardino. He is the principal investigator for the NICE Challenge Project (nice-challenge.com) – serving over 400 schools, nationwide. The NICE Challenge Project develops real-world hands-on scenarios that provide students with cybersecurity workforce experience before joining the workforce. Currently, he is an assistant professor at California State University, San Bernardino. Dr. Nestler has held numerous professional certifications to include the Security+, Network+, and A+, ACE, MPE, MCSE, MCT, RHCE and others. He has over 25 years of experience teaching and has been instrumental in developing a wide range of curriculum, from grade school to secondary education, higher education and graduate school.