Security Industry Association Announces 2025 SIA RISE Scholarship Awardees

  • Nov 05, 2025

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has named 23 recipients for this year’s SIA RISE Scholarship, a program offered through SIA’s RISE community, which supports the education and career development goals of young professionals and emerging leaders in the security industry.

Through this scholarship—open to SIA student members and RISE members who are employees of SIA member companies—each awardee will receive a $3,000 scholarship to use toward continuing education and professional development courses, SIA program offerings, student loan repayment and/or other academic or education programs. Scholarship funds can be used to expand knowledge in the areas of business, human resources, information technology, marketing, sales, project management, security engineering and/or risk management.

The winners for the 2025 SIA RISE Scholarship are:

  • Ghaida Alkhateeb, risk manager, regulatory intelligence, safety and compliance, Amazon
  • Shannon Berry, manager, legal affairs, i-PRO Americas
  • Brittany Board, director of technology partners, PSA
  • Penn Boatwright, financial analyst, internal controls, Securitas Security Services USA
  • Joshua Bonilla, application engineer, Northland Controls
  • Jeff Buzan, director of product, Wallet and LEAF, Wavelynx
  • Mykaela Cederberg, program coordinator, solutions acceleration, Axis Communications
  • Justin Detweiler, IT support specialist, SAGE Integration
  • Ivan Esquivel, Northeast sales engineer and technology strategist, Genetec
  • Josiah Everson, technical architect and delivery coordinator, dormakaba Americas
  • Caleb Fischl, distribution manager, i-PRO Americas
  • Madeline Gaddini, partner marketing specialist, YourSix
  • Carly Griffin, brand and solutions marketing manager, Allegion
  • Sahin Hoque, solutions consultant, ECC
  • Syamly Jacob, technical infrastructure program manager, Amazon Web Services
  • Jheena Johnson, physical security project coordinator, Northland Controls
  • Ella Ortenberg, revenue strategist, HiveWatch
  • Yogi Patel, regional sales manager, Axis Communications
  • Hannah Sengvilay, door hardware specification consultant, Allegion
  • Audrey Singer, project operations manager, Brivo
  • Divya Uppal, digital marketing specialist, Genetec
  • Marissa Vacek, managing director, Swell Marketing Agency, PSA
  • Ronald Zuniga, product marketing manager, Hanwha Vision LATAM

Sahin Hoque is the recipient of the 2025 Pierre Trapanese RISE Scholarship, a special RISE Scholarship presented in honor of Pierre Trapanese, CEO of Northland Controls and past SIA Board of Directors chair. In addition to his volunteer leadership on SIA’s board, Trapanese has been dedicated to the success of young professionals in the industry and is likewise dedicated to professional development opportunities within SIA, having been instrumental in the creation of the Certified Security Project Manager certification program.

“SIA is proud to offer the RISE Scholarship as a way to help young professionals grow, gain valuable skills and expertise and foster their leadership potential in our industry,” said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “We congratulate this year’s awardees—23 rising stars who are making an impact in security—and look forward to supporting them in pursuing their educational and career goals and celebrating their future successes.”

SIA thanks the 2025 donors who generously contributed to this year’s RISE Scholarship fund: Allegion, Axis Communications, Brivo, Convergint, Genetec, HID, i-PRO and Securitas Technology. Tax-deductible donations were made through the Foundation for Advancing Security Talent (FAST), a nonprofit organization co-founded by SIA and the Electronic Security Association and dedicated to connecting passionate, innovative professionals with new opportunities in the security industry.

SIA RISE is a community that fosters the careers of emerging leaders in the security industry. In addition to the SIA RISE Scholarship, SIA RISE offers fun in-person and virtual networking events for young professionals, the Talent Inclusion Mentorship Education (TIME) program for early and mid-career professionals, the 25 on the RISE Awards, career growth webinars and trade show education tracks and the annual AcceleRISE conference—a unique event designed to ignite new thinking, strengthen leadership and sharpen business acumen in 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.

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