This online course seeks to maximize awareness and minimize risk for the typical technology user.

You are so excited about your brand-new phone, tablet or laptop. You quickly load it with all kinds of handy apps — downloading them is a cinch. But have you given thought to your electronic safety? Do you read the fine print on the apps you install? Most people do not.

Few of us who use technological devices regularly are aware of the huge risks they carry with them. Strangers can track a person’s habits and movements when a pet lover simply posts a single picture of her cat on Instagram. Students risk their privacy when they bring their own devices to campus rather than using university labs. Companies can lose control of sensitive information when they allow employees to use their own rather than company devices at work. 

How can a small-business owner avoid security breaches that plague even giants like Target and Home Depot? Or how can the average technology consumer protect against breaches to which even Hollywood stars are vulnerable?

There are solutions to these and other risks, but few technology users have ready access to even the most basic security training. Technology Privacy and Security is a new online course that Dr. Anna C. McFadden of the Institute for Interactive Technology developed to maximize awareness and minimize risk for the typical technology user in any field. 

 “Whether you’re a tech-savvy teenager or an experienced adult who uses technology to manage work and personal affairs, it’s important to realize that just because you’re adept at using mobile tools does not mean you have the privacy and security skills you need to protect yourself,” McFadden says. 

The course teaches safety basics such as creating and managing passwords and access codes, avoiding phishing and fake websites, and managing malware. It also teaches more sophisticated security strategies regarding tools such as apps, online banking and social media. The course focuses on solutions that include effective policy development, user education and technical applications that can solve and prevent security failures.

“The course is not specific to any one major but is designed for anyone who uses technology,” McFadden says. “Awareness is key. Making sure all users in a family or an organization are trained is the strongest deterrent to a security breach.”

Elahe Saeidi has always had a passion for sewing and design, but only after she came to the U.S. did she discover her exceptional talent and all the places it could take her. 

Currently a clothing, textiles and interior design master’s candidate, Elahe began making her own clothes at a young age. She took private sewing and design classes while studying for her bachelor’s degree in computer science at Shiraz Azad University in Iran.

She and her husband, Behrouz, married in their hometown of Shiraz in July 2010. Just 10 days later, they were on their way to the U.S., where Behrouz would enter the doctoral program in physics at The University of Alabama.

“It was very hard,” says Elahe. “I was a young newlywed in a new country and spoke very little English. The day we walked into our new apartment, the only thing in it was our four suitcases.”

Behrouz began his studies, and to fill her time, Elahe decided to continue her education, too. When she discovered that CHES offered a master’s in textiles, she decided to abandon computer science and applied to the program. She found a warm welcome and strong support from the CTD faculty.

Since then, she has soared. In February 2014 she won first place in the Alpaca Owners Association Student Competition, and her designs earned praise as the best ever submitted in the 10-year history of the competition. In addition, she was a finalist in the 2014 University of Alabama Three Minute Thesis competition, where she presented a distilled version of her thesis on “zero-waste” garment design. Alabama Public Television filmed the presentations and selected Elahe as one of the presenters to be followed by APT cameras in order to tell her story. She was also a finalist in the 2014 Birmingham Fashion Week design competition and was named an Emerging Fashion Designer for 2014. 

Interior Design Department Chair Shirley Foster foresees a bright future for Elahe in the fashion world. “Her work is well-conceived, which is the most essential thing in design,” she says. “She designs hats that somehow combine the artistic surprise of Philip Treacy fascinators worn by British royalty with the sedate sophistication of something Audrey Hepburn would have worn. She synthesizes all the richness of her background with strong conceptual work, and that’s what makes her designs so fresh and appealing.”

Elahe will complete her degree in May, and she gives much credit to the CHES community and the CTD faculty for their support: “Without their help I would not be where I am now.”

Beverly Kissinger is a CHES treasure. Artist, designer and teacher, she has enriched the lives of students and faculty for nearly 25 years. 

Last September, a retrospective exhibit titled “Beverly Kissinger: A Creative Life” in Doster Hall’s second-floor gallery featured a variety of art and design that Kissinger has created throughout her career.

The exhibit included landscapes, flowers, animals, several series of holiday card designs and a sampling of works that honored the retirement of colleagues. Among her credits, for many years Kissinger has designed the CHES annual holiday cards, creating an impressive collection of art for the College.

Her designs are often whimsical, with caricatures of cats, dogs and iconic elephants, reflecting a sense of humor that she says came from her parents. “My dad was very funny,” she remembers, adding that her mother had an “inadvertent” sense of humor.“ She was very funny, but she didn’t intend to be.”

It was her mother who recognized her daughter’s talent long before Kissinger did. “She always thought I should be an artist,” says Kissinger, who eventually began to see it as well. 

While Kissinger’s mother and aunt were her cheerleaders, her dad enabled her to see the world and receive a good education. They were a military family, and Kissinger credits her opportunities to live all over the world with informing her art.

She reacts strongly to color and sees it in depth. She works in a broad spectrum of mediums, including pen and ink, watercolor, and design graphics. 

Flowers and animals figure prominently in her work.“Flowers speak to me,” she says.“I’m a curve person, rather than straight lines, so flowers inspire me.”

Like many creative people, Kissinger has a number of interests, including musical theater. Interior design department Chair Shirley Foster remembers one morning when Kissinger was trying to get her students’ attention to begin class in her large applied design lecture. “She stood quietly at the podium for a moment and then began to sing,” says Dr. Foster. Not surprisingly, a hush fell over the classroom, and class soon began. 

 Kissinger says she lives and breathes creativity. “It’s hard for me to turn it off. It’s in my DNA. The older I get, somehow my brain works on something without my even thinking about it — it sort of works on it in the background, all by itself. And then I sketch it. But it didn’t work that way as a student. 

“I’m creative as a teacher, too,” says Kissinger, who plans to retire in December 2015. “Students help me in that way. The creative challenge is orienting a project so that the learning process the student needs, happens.” 

Her success as a teacher has not gone unrecognized, even beyond the University. In 2014 she received the Dr. Mary Ann Potter Award for Outstanding Educator in interior design from the Alabama Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. 

As an artist, Kissinger brings valuable diversity to the interior design program, Foster says.“She connects with many of her students through her understanding of the artistic mind. Design thinking is different from fine art or graphic art thinking, and she helps students see that difference and use it in their works.”

As mayor of Gulf Shores, Robert Craft has his finger on the pulse of the hospitality and tourism industry in Alabama. He knows that families are the secret ingredient to the popularity and growth of Alabama’s Gulf Coast as a summer vacation destination. 

“What distinguishes us from a lot of the rest of the tourism industry along the Gulf Coast is that we are local people who have a local connection that is generational,” he says. “We are a multigenerational family of communities, and when we invite people to our coastal communities, we are inviting them into our home.” 

Craft was at CHES on March 12, 2014 to deliver the Shila Bowron Leadership Lecture in the restaurant, hotel and meetings management program. While on campus, he was inducted into the Alabama Hospitality Hall of Fame, which was established in 2010 by the University’s Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management. Craft told future hospitality-industry leaders that their life experiences would likely parallel those of Alabama’s Gulf Coast communities. “There is no straight, smooth slope — it’s always a bumpy ride — but the key is to deal with the obstacles and be prepared to recognize the opportunities and have the courage to embrace them.”

The Gulf Coast tourism industry has faced natural and man-made disasters in the form of catastrophic hurricanes, economic downturn and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. But Craft points out that after each crisis came a period of positive, sometimes phenomenal growth, as families and community leaders recognized opportunities in the midst of challenges.

In the 1970s there were fewer than 2,000 rental units on the 32 miles of beach from Fort Morgan to Orange Beach, most of them wood-frame beach homes. Few people were even aware that Alabama had a beach, with most visitors coming from close-by Mobile or other parts of Baldwin County.

All that changed in September 1979. Hurricane Frederic made a devastating hit to the tiny town of Gulf Shores and wiped almost every wood-frame home from the beach, leaving only a vast expanse of pristine white sand.

Lessons were learned about hardened construction, and the first concrete, multistory, multifamily structure was built in 1980. By 1993, there were 8,000 units for rent, and the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau was formed to consolidate Gulf Shores and Orange Beach marketing efforts.

Then in 2004, Hurricane Ivan struck, wreaking $18 billion in damage. But thanks to the fortified construction based on what had been learned from Frederic, the area was restored and open for business by summer of 2005. Construction again boomed, with 3,000 units added, for a total of 11,000 available for rent.

Just as the coastal tourism industry began to recover from the 2008 financial crisis with a record first quarter in 2010, disaster of a very different sort struck. In April 2010, the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill began to dump millions of barrels of oil into the pristine waters that wash the sandy shores of the Gulf Coast, threatening the survival of family owned, multigenerational small businesses.

“This time there was anger,” Craft says. “Mother Nature gave us this place, and economies are cyclical. But this was a case of pure greed, and it hurt.”

But the high-profile disaster brought quick action from the local community and high-profile help from others. President Barack Obama toured the devastation, and local leaders called for BP to take action to restore the area both environmentally and financially. 

Amid the cleanup efforts, native son Jimmy Buffet performed a free concert on the beach in July, drawing 35,000 visitors back to the area. Country Music Television broadcast the event live, giving the world a firsthand view of the beautiful Alabama coast. The Concerts for the Coast series was created to bring attention and tourists back to the area, and Brad Paisley and Bon Jovi concerts in October continued the momentum. The can-do attitude of the local community and its leaders had turned the worst man-made disaster in Gulf Coast history into an opportunity to introduce the world to Alabama’s beautiful sugar-white beaches. 

“The local leaders made a decision in those early days of the oil spill. We would not allow ourselves to be defined by disaster. We would be defined by our recovery,” Craft says. “The silver lining is that the world now knows that Alabama has beautiful beaches.”

Today, the Gulf Coast is home to more than 16,000 rental units, 45,000 travel-related jobs and $1 billion in wages and salaries. In 2013, 5.5 million guests spent $3 billion there. 

Through it all, the leaders have strived to maintain what makes their communities special — a clean, safe, usable environment with a family focus. They have studied the environmental damage concerns that come with growth and are practicing principles of good stewardship.

“We’re now ready to create some opportunities,” says Craft, “and the future looks bright.” Plans include a new education complex, expanding the beach expressway for greater transportation access, and growing quality medical services in order to attract retirees to the area. A major priority is to use BP recovery funds to rebuild the state park lodging and convention center that was lost in Hurricane Ivan. 

“What we’ve learned is that when we work together we can do anything. That’s a wonderful feeling as a community. There’s nothing you can throw at us that we can’t handle.”