Kent Wada

Kent provides leadership in shaping institutional policy and in participating in the national discourse on IT and privacy issues of strategic concern to the academy. Recognized as an expert in illegal file sharing, data breach incident response and related topics, he has been frequently invited to share his experiences at conferences and in publications. He works in close coordination with the campus IT governance committees and broadly across the institution; and collaborates with colleagues at other institutions, participates in national associations such as EDUCAUSE and sits on various advisory and policy committees.

Kent has held a number of different positions at UCLA since 1990. He was UCLA’s first IT security officer, focusing on the development of a campus security program and of security policies for the University of California. He has been involved with the development of the campus’s strategy for curbing illegal file sharing since its inception. His primary interest continues to be in the application of emergent technologies to people’s lives and in the protection of civil liberties in cyberspace.