SIA Welcomes New Leadership of RISE Community for Young Professionals

  • Feb 20, 2025

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has named new members and leadership of the steering committee for SIA RISE, a community that fosters the careers of young professionals and emerging leaders in the security industry. Dakota Mackie of Northland Controls serves as chair, with Kelly Ann Christensen of BCD now serving as vice chair.

In these roles, Mackie and Christensen ensure that RISE delivers educational content and networking opportunities to young professional employees and rising stars at SIA member companies, college students and recent graduates interested in the global security industry.

Chair: Dakota Mackie, business development manager, Northland Controls (Term ends 2025)

Dakota Mackie is the business development manager at Northland Controls. Prior to joining the security industry, she worked as a client services coordinator at the Washington Commanders (then the Washington Redskins) before beginning a role with a military nonprofit, Luke’s Wings, where she ultimately ended her tenure as the executive director. Mackie joined Northland Controls in 2020 as the content marketing specialist, and in her current role, she is responsible for supporting the entire sales cycle with a focus on the growth of Northland’s managed services offering. Mackie has been honored as a SIA Women in Security Forum Power 100 honoree and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. Outside of work, she has a passion for traveling the world and learning about new cultures.

Vice Chair: Kelly Ann Christensen, marketing manager, BCD (Term ends 2027)

Kelly Ann Christensen is a digital marketing specialist at BCD, an IP video data infrastructure manufacturer, and has spent nearly five years specializing in the security industry. With a focus on digital advertising and marketing analytics, she has certifications in ROI marketing, marketing management, SEO and PPC marketing. Prior to becoming RISE vice chair, she served as head of the RISE Scholarship subcommittee, which provides scholarships to young professionals in the security industry to assist with furthering education, attending industry events, obtaining new certifications and furthering their professional development, and was awarded the SIA RISE Scholarship in 2022 and one of SIA’s 2024 Sandy Jones Volunteers of the Year. Christensen has also participated in SIA’s Talent Inclusion Mentorship Education (TIME) program, which is designed to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and empowerment of underrepresented identities in the security industry by creating a well-defined pathway for learning and development.

The SIA RISE Steering Committee now includes the following members:

  • Chair: Dakota Mackie, business development manager, Northland Controls (Term ends 2025)
  • Vice Chair: Kelly Ann Christensen, marketing manager, BCD (Term ends 2027)
  • AcceleRISE Subcommittee Chair: Erin Grippo, senior manager, product operations, Brivo (Term ends 2025)
  • Content Subcommittee Chair: Tanner LaRocque, marketing director, Evolon (Term ends 2026)
  • Scholarship Subcommittee Chair: Kristin Shockley, manager, segment marketing, Genetec (Term ends 2026)
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Subcommittee Chair: Tristin Vaccaro, owner, Vaccaro Copywriting & Marketing Solutions (Term ends 2025)
  • Jonah Azarcon, deputy project leader, M.C. Dean (Term ends 2027)
  • Krystina Beach, marketing communications manager, ASSA ABLOY (Term ends 2027)
  • Andres Capous, regional sales manager, Velasea (Term ends 2027)
  • Joey Joy, distribution channel account manager, March Networks (Term ends 2027)
  • Ryan Knoll, business relations manager, Pro-Tec Design (Term ends 2027)
  • Tim Loth, sales engineer team lead, i-PRO (Term ends 2026)
  • Jackie Paryz, director, sales, technology solutions, Securitas (Term ends 2027)
  • Itzel Portillo, marketing specialist, Allegion (Term ends 2027)
  • Amanda Powell, marketing manager, Boon Edam (Term ends 2025)
  • Nicole Rigby, team lead, distribution operations, Axis Communications (Term ends 2026)
  • Keyser Santana, global security strategist and business execution senior manager, Pratt & Whitney (Term ends 2025)
  • Constantine Tremouliaris, integrated solutions specialist, ASSA ABLOY (Term ends 2025)
  • KeShia Thomas, brand and solutions manager, Allegion (Term ends 2027)
  • Mfon Ubaha, business development manager, i-PRO (Term ends 2027)
  • Sarah Webel, human resources generalist, SAGE Integration (Term ends 2027)
  • Lauren Yonis, global events manager, acre (Term ends 2027)

“SIA RISE is a vibrant community of accomplished young security leaders and driven industry newcomers that offers a robust array of opportunities for learning, professional development, engagement and relationship building in our industry. This community and its meaningful initiatives would not be possible without our dedicated, talented volunteers, like RISE chair Dakota Mackie, new vice chair Kelly Ann Christensen and our subcommittee chairs, Erin Grippo, Tanner LaRocque, Kristin Shockley and Tristin Vaccaro,” said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “We welcome our new RISE committee members, and we thank outgoing committee members and past RISE chairs Jake Brown and Matt Feenan for their leadership and support over the years. We look forward to working together with the 2025 RISE committee to further advance the reach and impact of RISE and its programs and propel the security workforce of the future.”

SIA RISE is a community that fosters the careers of young professionals in the security industry. SIA RISE’s offerings include an annual scholarship to further young talent’s education and career goals, fun in-person and virtual networking events for young professionals, the TIME program for early and mid-career professionals, recognition of new and emerging industry leaders through the 25 on the RISE Awards and the annual AcceleRISE conference – an essential experience for young security talent. The SIA RISE community is open to all employees at SIA member companies who are young professionals under 40 or have been in the security industry for less than two years; learn more and sign up to join.

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