| Originally from the beautiful island of Barbados, Dr. Arlene Beckles relocated to Norcross,
Georgia, in 2003 after spending 18 years in New York. Her impressive career spans several
industries, including finance, banking, media entertainment and healthcare. Known for her
humor, she describes her "claim to fame" as "trying to stay out of trouble." Dr. Beckles is a Lead
Cybersecurity/Information Security Project Manager.
Dr. Beckles' educational background is equally diverse, covering Marketing and Sales,
Management and Computer Information Systems and Project Management. The pinnacle of her
academic achievements is her Doctorate in Organizational Leadership, specializing in Emotional
Intelligence and Leader Effectiveness. Her research, "The Relationship Between Emotional
Intelligence, Leadership Style and Leader Effectiveness- A Quantitative Correlation Study" was
published in May 2018 and has since been cited eight times by future doctoral students.
She recently completed a postgraduate program in cybersecurity at the Texas McCombs School
of Business and is the author of Mitigating Data Breaches & Enhancing Cybersecurity, the first
in a series of books focused on information security and privacy. Dr. Beckles completed her
Master of Jurisprudence in Cybersecurity, Privacy and Technology Risk Management at Florida
State University College of Law, with an expected graduation date of May 2025.
Beyond academics and her professional roles, Dr. Beckles is deeply involved in community and
organizational leadership. She is a founding member of the Transformational Emotional
Intelligence Foundation (Corpus Christi, Texas) and serves as a board member for the
CyberMinds Research Institute (Miami, Florida). Additionally, she contributed to the State of
Georgia's Cybersecurity Planning Committee, collaborating on the State and Local Cybersecurity
Grant Program.
Dr. Beckles was the first Barbadian immigrant to serve on the Norcross City Council (2021-
2024). She is now the first Barbadian to go to the Georgia General Assembly. She is also the
proud mother of one daughter, Nyasia, a recent graduate of Tougaloo College in Jackson,
Mississippi. Nyasia is pursuing her MBA with a concentration in Data Analytics at Mercer
University's Stetson-Hatcher School of Business. |