Robert (Rob) Peacock, Ph.D. GRCP

Growing up one of six kids to the volunteer coordinator for a rural Michigan office of the Catholic Refugee Services, Dr. Peacock was the first in his family to graduate college in the hopes of pursuing a career in global engagement. After several civil service roles at the US Department of State, Rob would eventually spend half his adult life overseas managing a range of good governance, rule-of-law, and technology programs spanning the globe from Kyiv to the Cook Islands. In addition to serving as lead author on two dozen proposals, Rob drew on the six years he spent as an export control and sanctions analyst at State in supervising export and information security compliance across his team’s grant-funded projects.

In 2018, the completion of a dissertation on measuring police legitimacy in the Global South earned Routledge’s Outstanding Dissertation in Criminal Justice Award and allowed Rob to return to the US begin teaching at the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. Rob helped FIU gain Hewlett Foundation funding for a new cybersecurity program and also served as Principal Investigator for more than $2.5 million in cybersecurity education grants. A thought leader on cybersecurity across the Global South, Rob has served as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative and was co-creator of four U.S., U.K. and Australian funded cybersecurity programs including USAID’s Cyber Pathways for Women program across three countries. Prior to gaining his doctorate at Michigan State University, Rob gained an MBA in international business at Ohio University and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.