Portrait of Brandon Russell

Brandon Russell, Ed.D.

Cybersecurity educator and U.S. Air Force cyber officer. I write on Medium, build on GitHub, and index it all here.

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I am a U.S. Air Force cyber officer and instructor supervisor at one of the Air Force’s primary technical schoolhouses for cyber and communications officers. I hold a doctorate in educational leadership and am preparing for the next chapter: teaching cybersecurity and aviation systems at the university level.

My background spans two technical worlds. I came up through aircraft electrical and avionics maintenance, then moved into cyber. That combination of hands-on systems work, modern offensive and defensive cyber, and a doctoral-level study of how adults actually learn is what I bring into a classroom and into client engagements.

I hold CISSP, OSCP, OSWP, Security+, PMP, TS/SCI, and CCAF Master Instructor credentials, and I am pursuing FAA Airframe and Powerplant certification through the military experience pathway.

If you are a department chair, hiring manager, or program lead in cybersecurity, computer science, aviation, or aerospace, or you want to bring me in for a guest lecture, I would be glad to talk: brandon.r.russell.1@gmail.com.

Full CV   Resume (PDF)   Email

By the numbers

3,000+ hours of classroom instruction

1,398 students graduated

153 courses reviewed

21 instructors supervised

Selected work

  • The United States Air Force pilot diversity dilemma. Peer-reviewed, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal (2023).
  • Beyond access: Reimagining air mobility, basing, and endurance in the Indo-Pacific theater. Peer-reviewed, Joint Force Quarterly (forthcoming).
  • Building a password cracker using OpenAI and Rust. 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (Spring 2025), with companion code on GitHub.
  • Cleartext. A series that walks the network stack one layer at a time and maps the attacks that live at each one.

The full list is on Publications, with code on Projects.

Currently

  • Teaching across cybersecurity, computer science, aviation, and aerospace topics, see Teaching.
  • Writing on cybersecurity training, offensive security, and instructional design, on Medium and here.
  • Open to professor of practice, senior lecturer, and adjunct conversations with cybersecurity, computer science, aviation, and aerospace programs.
  • Available for selective consulting in cybersecurity training program design and offensive security assessment scoping.
  • Available for guest lectures and seminars, see Speaking.