Rina Rakipi has had her eyes glued to the world map since she was a child.
That early fascination eventually led her to a career protecting national security. Today, the Michigan State University alum serves as an operations coordinator in the Threat Hunting Subdivision of CISA, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Rakipi grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, a first-generation American with parents who immigrated from Yugoslavia — a former Eastern European country that experienced significant political upheaval. It dissolved into seven successor republics during the 1990s and early 2000s: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
Her mother, a Kosovar Albanian immigrant and nurse, sponsored her family to come to the U.S. as refugees. Her father was a U.S. Marine who served in operation Desert Storm and later ran a small diner.
Rakipi’s family history stimulated her curiosity about the world and fueled a unique understanding of the U.S.’s involvement in it.
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.”
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.
Rakipi stacked her schedule with internships spanning state politics, a congressional campaign, a food-security nonprofit in Madrid and a tech company in Ann Arbor. She capped it off with an education abroad experience in Brussels, Belgium, where she visited NATO headquarters and from there the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
All these experiences shaped the multifaceted skillset Rakipi boasts today, turning her into “somebody who’s not afraid to go into any room and talk to anybody,” she says.
“The really big value of my degree is that I can think through really complex ideas and take action, be forward-looking and build relationships with people in an effective way that produces results,” she says. “Do what needs to be done now in order to preemptively mitigate risk in the future.”
She remembers standing in a room filled with state legislators and industry partners of high stature during her lobbying internship as an 18-year-old and “just not being afraid to shake their hand, introduce myself and ask questions, developing professionalism and understanding how to multitask.”
. . . and Spartan support
Rakipi credits all her professors in the James Madison program with inspiring her to think critically, to refine her speaking skills and connect the dots in a world where technology is continuously evolving.
The college’s career counselors made a lasting impact as well.
“They really empowered me and helped me to figure out: ‘How do I find jobs?,’ ‘How do I live on LinkedIn?,’ ‘How do I connect with other alumni that are working at those places?’”
When Rakipi joined a spring break Career Exposure trip to Washington, D.C., it was eye-opening. It was her first time going to the capital city. “Up until that point, working in that city didn’t really seem like a feasible thing for me to achieve,” she says.
Yet, that experience allowed her to visualize a future there. Eight months later, she moved to D.C. for a job in tech and consulting before landing her first role at CISA.
One Spartan who propelled Rakipi forward was Karissa Chabot-Purchase, assistant director of career services for James Madison College. When Rakipi expressed her interest in building a career at the intersection of international affairs and cybersecurity, Chabot-Purchase connected her with MSU James Madison College alumni and helped her find her first of several roles with the agency.
In that time, Rakipi has worked hard at reducing risk on a federal scale and protecting her homeland — but her drive to make an impact doesn’t stop at her place of work.
She’s determined to be of value to other Spartans as well. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without all the people that have helped me on my journey,” Rakipi says.
Working with Chabot-Purchase, Rakipi actively and regularly mentors MSU students, with a focus on guiding those who are interested in cyber careers.
“It brings me joy to give back to people, especially from the university,” she says. “Hopefully I can be one good person who makes their path easier.”
