Looking at the world with curiosity

“I was always fascinated by how the world worked, by culture, history and the U.S.’s overall involvement in global affairs, specifically in Kosovo, where my family’s from,” says Rakipi.

As she was exploring college options, she initially considered law but then discovered the field of international relations. A good friend of hers spoke highly of MSU’s James Madison College and its International Relations program. “I didn’t even apply anywhere else,” she says. “I knew that program was excellent, bar none.”

Rina Rakipi and Tom Millar stand smiling in front of a FIRST Conference screen in Denver. — Rakipi, right, was one of the public speakers at the 38th Annual FIRST Conference in Denver last month, seen here with her CISA colleague Tom Millar. Photo courtesy of Rina Rakipi

Within the college’s international relations major, Rakipi pursued a specialization in international security and graduated in 2019. Her interest in combining these two disciplines reflects her unique focus on the ways countries conduct warfare.

“How nation states think and operate fascinates me the most,” she says. “And I saw the shift of warfare being conducted on the ground to now also being conducted in a new domain, namely cyberspace.”

After three years at CISA, Rakipi’s current role as operations coordinator within Threat Hunting feels like a perfect encapsulation of what she initially set out to do.

“I lead campaigns to identify, respond to and mitigate attempts of nation states to impact the U.S. negatively,” she says, “quite literally safeguarding Americans from the impacts of cyberattacks.”

Every day, Rakipi focuses on ways to reduce risk to critical infrastructure and operators in sectors across the nation such as energy, water and wastewater, transportation and communication. This can mean everything from directly responding to a cybersecurity incident to encouraging software vendors to produce more secure technology, she explains.

A path paved with Spartan experiences

Rakipi’s trajectory is an apt reflection of “Spartans Will.”

“That line is a through point in my life and career. I just will do what it takes to make things happen, no matter what,” Rakipi says. “I’m probably best known as someone who persists.”

Rakipi adopted this work ethic from her parents and put it into practice as a full-time student at James Madison College. “I had at least four to five different internships and joined a handful of clubs while waiting tables the entire time,” she says.

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