Tiffany Cummings – 2026 Annual Conference Student Scholar Reflection
Tiffany Cummings
Public Affairs and Policy major; Portland State University
Going to PRIMA26 allowed me to see how professionals from different sectors approach a common challenge: how to manage uncertainty. Even though the attendees come from a variety of backgrounds and each has a unique focus, I was impressed by how the principles represented were useful across sectors.
Reflecting on my time at the PRIMA Conference, a few things stand out. Some of the experiences inform future directions that my organization or I can take. For example, I attended a session on threat assessments in schools. I learned that schools can reach out to the speaker for no-cost training. As a public high school employee, I am happy to bring this knowledge and resource back to my school to inform our practice better so we can take a proactive rather than reactive approach. Additionally, partnering with outside organizations can expand our capacity rather than stretch it.
As the lead author of the Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence’s Cybersecurity Primer for Oregon Leaders, one of my biggest takeaways is that technology is advancing faster than we are, and we need to prepare for the unknown. I am grateful for the opportunity to share the OCCoE's primer with industry professionals. However, I also realize that there is still much more work to do in this area, particularly as governments move toward using AI solutions to streamline their operations. We must prepare leaders to anticipate risks as they adopt emerging technologies before they become crises. That is what makes governments and organizations resilient.
Lastly, I was able to use what I’d learned immediately. I attended a session on the power of data analytics. While that discussion focused on insurance, I considered how the data was described. I realized that it was inherently applicable to a paper I was writing for a program evaluation course. I was able to use the framing described in the lecture to explain why we collect the types of data that we do and how it is useful to the different phases of program evaluation.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the conference was the value of cross-sectoral learning. Even though the speakers came from a variety of backgrounds, themes and challenges were often very similar. Today’s professionals are concerned about governance, uncertainty, communication, and making well-reasoned, informed decisions. This reinforced for me the idea that innovative solutions can often be sparked by conversations with people from outside our own disciplines.
As both a public school employee and a public affairs and policy PhD student, I came away with practical resources I can use immediately, inspiration I can use in framing my research, and a deeper appreciation for interdisciplinary collaboration. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend as a PRIMA Student Scholar and look forward to continuing these conversations in the future.
Tiffany Cummings
Public Affairs and Policy major; Portland State University
Tiffany Cummings has worked with the Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence as a graduate research assistant, where she led the research and writing of the Cybersecurity Primer for Oregon Leaders. This resource is designed to aid both public and private sector leaders in understanding and responding to cyber risks in an ever-evolving threat landscape. Tiffany is currently pursuing a PhD in public affairs and policy at Portland State University and expects to graduate in June 2028. Her research focuses on collaborative governance and how policy design features influence implementation and outcomes. She brings a background in criminology and trauma-informed systems to her policy work, and she is particularly interested in how entities build resilient, collaborative responses to complex challenges. Her work emphasizes practical policy solutions that bridge research, governance and real-world implementation.
