Francesca Spidalieri

Francesca Spidalieri is a Cybersecurity Senior Fellow at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University, where she leads the Cyber Leadership Project and the Rhode Island Corporate Cybersecurity Initiative. Francesca also serves as co-principal investigator for the Cyber Readiness Index project at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and as a distinguished fellow at the Ponemon Institute. Her academic research and publications have focused on cyber leadership development, cyber risk management, and assessments of states and nations’ cyber preparedness levels. Francesca holds a master’s degree in international affairs and security studies from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Boston, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from the University of Milan. During her studies, she studied abroad at the Paris-Sorbonne University and the University of Barcelona, and completed additional cybersecurity coursework at the US Naval War College's Center for Cyber Conflict Studies.