Impactful Teaching and Research Faculty Highlights May 2025

Impactful Teaching Faculty Highlight

Idaho State University recognizes Dr. Lucy Wilkening, clinical associate professor for the Department of Clinical Psychopharmacology as the May recipient of a monthly Impactful Teaching and Research initiative honoring faculty. 

Wilkening teaches a range of pharmacy and graduate-level courses, including disorders of the central nervous system, a comprehensive psychopharmacotherapy series, and clinical rotations for a variety of student learners. She also contributes her expertise to courses in other ISU allied health programs and serves as a faculty lead for the Prescribing Psychology Fellowship, helping prepare the next generation of prescribing psychologists.

In addition to her academic responsibilities, Wilkening operates the ISU Integrated Mental Health Clinic, where she provides direct care to Idahoans—including ISU community members and students—addressing a wide spectrum of mental health conditions. Her clinical work informs her teaching, allowing her to bridge classroom concepts with real-world application and promote a patient-centered, evidence-based approach to care. Wilkening believes that ISU is playing a key role in shaping the future of integrated mental and behavioral health care in Idaho and is passionate about mentorship, experiential learning, and expanding access to quality mental health services throughout Idaho.

"Dr. Wilkening consistently exceeds expectations and brings significant value to the college and university," said L.S. Skaggs College of Pharmacy Dean Tom Wadsworth. "Her contributions this year were both broad and deep, and I appreciate her continued leadership across roles. I hope that Dr. Wilkening recognizes her impact on both the MSCP students, PharmD students, and patients in the IMH Clinic. Dr. Wilkening is a great asset to the ISU community."

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Impactful Research Faculty Highlight

Sean McBride, whose work spans the College of Business and College of Technology, is the director of the Informatics Research Institute and clinical instructor of industrial cybersecurity engineering technology for the Energy Systems Technology and Education Center (ESTEC) at ISU. 

Society and civilization depend on automated/computerized systems to provide clean drinking water, reliable electricity, and affordable manufactured goods, but engineers and technicians who design, build, operate, and maintain these systems have never been prepared to secure them from cyber attacks. McBride's research, sponsored by the trio of government, industry, and academia has helped create a foundation for formally preparing a new class of engineering/cybersecurity professionals capable of seamlessly interacting among previously disparate fields of practice. Highlights and notable achievements include:

• The country's first Industrial cybersecurity degree launched at ISU in 2017 and is now ABET accredited and CAE designated. Research on how to build such a program took four years and involved several research methods: nominal group technique, focus groups, and a 350-question survey of 170 experienced professionals.
  
• McBride's 2024 paper title "What does an OT Security Professional Need to Know" won the best paper award at the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education.
  
• Results of McBride's research led to:
  • A formalized knowledge unit available to other colleges and universities (published by the Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity)
  • An OT Security Engineering Work Role (published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology)
  • The development of an Department of Engery-sponsored community of practice for cyber-informed engineering education and workforce development.
    
• ISU's program can be taken as an AAS degree for students with no previous degree, and an intermediate technical certificate for students with a previous AAS degree, and provides a pathway to a bachelor's degree.
  
• Program graduates now work at INL, Simplot, Accenture, HDR Engineering, Savannah River Nuclear, West Yost, 1898 & Co., and others.

Jack Hall, a graduate of the program and research assistant at ISU said, "Sean McBride has built a program that produces not only highly competent and skilled individuals, but workforce-ready professionals who think critically; prepared to face today's industrial cybersecurity challenges with creative and unique perspectives. Sean's program is producing our nation's next generation of cyber protectors who are equipped to confront today's most pressing and consequential threats facing our critical infrastructure. The impact of his work is lasting and is continuing to fill the demand for an essential skill set in modern-day cyberspace."