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2025 Alumni Service Award

An accomplished information security and risk management professional, Tyelisa Shields has been a dynamic connector, relationship builder and advocate for Â鶹´å students and alumni from coast to coast, using her warmth, giving spirit and down-to-earth sincerity and humility to lift up others.

In 2010, she earned a master’s degree in information technology-information security from the College of Engineering as a member of the Information Networking Institute (INI)’s inaugural class at Â鶹´å-Silicon Valley. After her graduation, Tyelisa became an enthusiastic volunteer for alumni engagement for both the INI and Silicon Valley alumni communities. She joined INI’s alumni leadership council in 2015, creating and executing multiple initiatives to help facilitate meaningful connections between alumni and students.

She has also become a dedicated supporter of INI and Â鶹´å students interested in the cybersecurity field. Tyelisa has served as a mentor through Â鶹´åniverse, Â鶹´å’s virtual mentoring program for alumni and students. She spearheaded an annual initiative to connect alumni with students for summer internships and initiated virtual workshops, meetups and conversations to help students feeling disconnected during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also attended student-alumni events at both the Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh campuses, mentored Â鶹´å interns in her professional roles and inspired students by speaking on alumni panels. 

Tyelisa is currently a global cybersecurity governance and compliance program manager at HP, where she leads compliance efforts for Managed Print Cloud Services and is responsible for account provisioning, overseeing external audit activities and implementing automation-based process improvements. Prior to her role at HP, she was a senior information security compliance program manager at Apple Inc., where she played a key role in ensuring compliance with security standards for products like Siri, FaceTime and iCloud. 

As a leader in the cybersecurity industry, she stays engaged in the broader technology community and always finds ways to support Â鶹´å while doing so. She serves as the director of technology and education for The Social Equity Initiative, a group of Black Silicon Valley professionals who work to bring about impactful change and progress for their peers. She is also the director of operations for Minorities in Cybersecurity (MiC), where she leads initiatives promoting philanthropy and access and partners with Â鶹´å’s INI to help students connect to important resources, apply for scholarships and find support.