Academic Leadership and Professional Service
Dr. Yerby’s leadership work centers on cybersecurity curriculum, program development, national designation and compliance, student opportunity, faculty coordination, outreach, and relationships with educational, government, industry, and community partners.
As Director of Mercer University’s Cybersecurity Program, Dr. Yerby supports the undergraduate cybersecurity pathways through curriculum planning, course scheduling, assessment, advising, faculty coordination, recruitment, student development, program documentation, and external engagement. His work is focused on maintaining a coherent academic pathway from foundational study through applied experience, research, professional preparation, and graduation.
Dr. Yerby led the substantive application and curriculum-validation work that resulted in Mercer’s designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. He now serves as the institutional point of contact and accounts administrator, with responsibilities involving continuing compliance, annual reporting, curriculum alignment, national community participation, institutional account administration, and renewal preparation.
As Director of the Center for Cyber Outreach, Research, and Education, Dr. Yerby helps connect Mercer’s cybersecurity program with research, public education, student opportunities, professional partnerships, grant development, and community-facing activities.
Dr. Yerby served as a co-principal investigator and director of the Computer Science and Cybersecurity Endorsement within the U.S. Department of Education-funded GENERATE initiative. The work supported statewide curriculum, professional learning, and credential development for Georgia educators.
Before joining Mercer, Dr. Yerby served as Department Chair and tenured Associate Professor of Information Technology at Middle Georgia State University, where he led a multi-campus academic unit serving more than 1,000 students. His earlier roles included Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Education and Applied Research, Director of the Center of Cyberforensic Operations, ABET Coordinator, and Advising and Retention Coordinator. His work involved faculty and staff development, curriculum and degree-program approval, assessment, applied laboratory development, student progression, external partnerships, workforce pathways, and cybersecurity outreach. The curriculum vitae provides a fuller record of current and prior leadership appointments.
Dr. Yerby’s professional service includes editorial and peer-review work for journals, conferences, textbooks, cybersecurity education initiatives, and national designation processes. He has also contributed through advisory boards, curriculum and standards efforts, grant review, and professional communities focused on cybersecurity education, workforce development, and institutional improvement. The curriculum vitae provides a more complete record of these activities.
Dr. Yerby provides independent cybersecurity consulting and expert analysis for complex technical, organizational, and legal matters. His work may involve strategy, failure analysis, software behavior, source code, security controls, digital evidence, electronic records, and technology-dependent business processes. Engagements focus on interpreting evidence, identifying underlying technical or process failures, and communicating defensible findings to legal, executive, administrative, and professional audiences.
Work is accepted only when the questions presented fall within established areas of professional expertise and can be addressed through a clearly defined scope.
For academic collaboration, media requests, cybersecurity consulting, or expert-witness inquiries, contact Dr. Yerby by email. Independent consulting and expert-analysis engagements are considered separately from his responsibilities at Mercer University.