Phil Susmann / NUARI Spotlight

Northfield, Vermont’s Norwich University has long been a crossroads of military service, higher education, and innovation. Few people embody that intersection more fully than Phil Susmann, longtime Norwich leader and President of Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI). As Susmann prepares to retire this December, his impact stretches from education and innovation to cyber readiness and national security. In this Q&A, Blaise spoke with Susmann about his decades of service, the evolution of NUARI, and what lies ahead for both him and the institution he helped shape.

Blaise: Phil! Thanks for being here. I want to start by asking about your time as a student at Norwich University. How did you find your way there?

Phil: Jack Daley, who was the Lieutenant Governor of Vermont and the mayor of Rutland, was my high school civics teacher. He was a World War II veteran who went to Norwich. I visited Norwich with Jack and fell in love with the concept of the school. Also, my English teacher in high school, Mr. Joe Teta, suggested that I would thrive in a more structured environment — and that’s exactly what Norwich was, even more so now than it was then. I started in 1977 and graduated in 1981 with a business degree.

Blaise: After graduating from Norwich, you got an MBA at Clarkson, taught at St. Joseph the Provider in Rutland, and worked as a process engineer in Colorado. But what drew you back to Norwich University?

Phil: To prove that I tend to run toward trouble instead of away from it: Julie, my wife, and I eloped with no job, and I came back to Vermont. I was looking for work in the process control engineering space and went to see an old friend and former Norwich mentor, William (“Bill”) Beatty. He ended up hiring me as a professor because of my experience at St. Joseph’s in Rutland.. That’s how I returned to Norwich on January 1, 1987. For the next seven years, I served as a faculty member.

Blaise: What did you teach at Norwich? What were you like as a professor?

Phil: I taught operations management, statistics, forecasting, and all of the IT courses. During my time from 1987 to 1994, I was very engaged with students. If you missed two of my classes and weren’t doing well, there was a good chance I’d show up at your dorm room door and ask, “What is going on, and how are we going to fix it?” You might find me chasing you across campus to have a conversation or sitting at your table in the dining hall. You couldn’t afford to disappear. That was my first “career” at Norwich, which ended in 1994.

Blaise: Before your work with NUARI began, you served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and VP of Strategic Partnerships for Norwich. How did those opportunities come about?

Phil: When Dr. Richard Schneider arrived as president in 1993, Norwich was under significant financial duress. Norwich had two campuses, declining enrollment on both, and faculty discontent after three years without raises. It was a tough moment. In 1994, I agreed to take the CIO position for one year. The next several years was focused on implementing the administrative systems and providing support to faculty.  One of my initiatives in the mid-1990’s was getting faculty to build online courses and leading online education for Norwich. This enabled Norwich to launch its online MBA program around 2000, which shaped much of our later work. The president recognized that I could take three hands of nothing and create something, and I eventually became Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. That was also when we became involved in cybersecurity.

Blaise: Why did cybersecurity become a big focus for you? Why was it important for Norwich to develop a strong cybersecurity program?

Phil: We knew we needed to grow revenue. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, 75–80% of our students came from six states: Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine. So how do you build a national brand? My view was that we needed recognized academic strengths, and cybersecurity was an emerging, uncrowded field. I worked alongside Professor Frank Vanecek and Trustee Carl Guerreri to create Norwich’s first cyber program. We earned recognition as an NSA Center of Academic Excellence, joined the National Science Foundation’s CyberCorps program, and built relationships with the Department of Defense. In April 2005, Fred Kreitzberg, former chairman of the Norwich Board of Trustees, asked me to become president of NUARI. For the next ten years, I served as both president of NUARI and Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Norwich.

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For those unfamiliar with the Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI): It is a non-profit research organization at Norwich that develops solutions for government and enterprise clients. NUARI focuses on cybersecurity and defense technologies, conducting research, evaluating organizational readiness, and identifying gaps in cyber and crisis-response plans. The institute also provides education and training through online and in-person courses, internships, apprenticeships, and workforce-readiness programs. For more on NUARI, click here. You can also read a blog post here.

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Blaise: What’s an example of a project you worked on with NUARI?

Phil: We were lucky enough to work with the National Security Council, whose biggest fear was an attack on the financial markets. Our team proposed building a platform to test and build resilience across the financial sector. The head of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council wrote to Congress saying funding was needed to continue the research, and Senator Leahy was able to get an earmark so NUARI could build a real platform, which became DECIDE®. At the same time, we were building cybersecurity capabilities, a cyber lab for the Vermont Guard, virtual labs, forensic discovery tools and engaged student interns to develop cyber capabilities.

Blaise: What are the advantages and challenges of building a program like NUARI at a small university in Vermont?

Phil: Norwich has 2,500 students and is entirely undergraduate-focused. One challenge is that our students rarely stay in Vermont. About a third commission into the military. Some stay with the Vermont National Guard, but most serve elsewhere. Another 10–15% go into the intelligence community. Only a small number stay in Vermont after graduation. Some return 15–20 years later, but access to bright young people remains Vermont’s biggest challenge.

Blaise: Where do you see NUARI headed?

Phil: The next phase is broadening our work beyond cybersecurity and cyber resilience. We’re working on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Brian Bradke (incoming President of NUARI) brings deep life sciences and biomedical experience, and I think he’ll move comfortably into those areas, too. I also think he’ll sharpen our focus: how do you become more of an incubator? On that note, I hope we continue to have a strong relationship with VCET.

Blaise: How has NUARI helped change Norwich’s perception and general awareness?

Phil: About three years ago, I attended a meeting at TRANSCOM. They brought in academics from across the country. As everyone introduced themselves — the CIO of the University of California system, faculty from MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Auburn — it came to be my turn. “I’m Phil Susmann from Norwich University,” I said. People immediately responded, “Oh, you have a fabulous cybersecurity program.” Everyone wanted to exchange cards and explore collaborations. I’ve since worked on multiple NSA projects. That’s the difference. In the 1990s, nobody knew who we were. Today, we’re nationally recognized for information warfare and cybersecurity.

Blaise: What has been the most rewarding part of your time at NUARI?

Phil: It’s always about the people. We’ve talked about projects and accomplishments, but it’s the people who matter. I was gifted with many mentors including General Alfred (“Al) Gray, a former commandant of the Marine Corps, General Gordon Sullivan, former Chief of Staff of the Army during Desert Storm and longtime head of the Association of the U.S. Army, and Robert (“Bob”) Mack, a pioneer in the HMO field; while I served as CIO and president of NUARI. There focus was on supporting and growing your team, and the NUARI team is extraordinary. Our longest-serving employee, Andrew (“Andy”) Zybas, a retired master sergeant and Green Beret, brings an incredible presence to the organization. Working with students has also been deeply rewarding, too. In the end, your legacy is not information — it’s transformation.

Blaise: As you prepare for retirement, what’s on the horizon for you, Phil?

Phil: There have been many canceled hunting and fishing trips and missed time with family — nieces, nephews, grandchildren, daughters, and my wife, who is my rock. She was often a single parent while I traveled all over the country trying to build something. It’s her time too. After 39 years of marriage, we still enjoy being together. I also have many hobbies, from auto mechanics to carpentry — I ordered three microcontrollers last night. And there’s still some mentoring left in me. I might have something of value for a startup, a new organization, or a higher-ed institution trying to do something new. I’ve agreed to a few opportunities in my community here in Northfield, Vermont. I’ll continue to serve on the governor’s AI Council as long as he’ll have me, and I hold a few board and advisory roles in new technology. I’ve found that everyone who retires seems to end up busier than they were while working — but as a friend told me, “The difference is, Phil, now you only have to do what you want to do, not what you have to do.”

For more on NUARI, click here. You can find Phil on LinkedIn here.