Cyber Policy Architects, LLC 

Cyber Policy Architects, LLC is a cyber policy consultancy offering clients deep expertise in cybersecurity, data protection, and electronic surveillance policy issues.  Melanie Teplinsky, founder and principal at Cyber Policy Architects, LLC, is a Harvard Law graduate with over 25 years of experience working on cyber law and policy issues across the private sector, government, and academia.

Ms. Teplinsky began her legal career at Steptoe and Johnson LLP, where she counseled multinational clients on a wide array of cyberlaw issues, and is proud to have served on the (pre-IPO) advisory board of CrowdStrike, Inc., a next-generation cybersecurity technology company.  Ms. Teplinsky is also an adjunct professor at American University (AU) Washington College of Law (WCL), a faculty fellow at WCL's Tech, Law, and Security Program, a faculty fellow at AU's Internet Governance Laboratory, and a former WCL National Security Law Brief Advisory Board member.

Ms. Teplinsky is a frequent writer and speaker on cyber policy issues and has been tapped by the Washington Post to serve as a member of "The Network," a group of high-level digital security experts whose insights are highlighted in Post reporting.  Her publications include law review articles, book chapters, op-eds, and numerous articles, including a series of opinion pieces penned in her capacity as a founding columnist for "Passcode," the Christian Science Monitor’s privacy and cybersecurity section.  Ms. Teplinsky regularly fields interview requests from a variety of global media outlets (e.g., Reuters, Canadian Broadcasting Company, Politico, Voice of America), and has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and as a featured guest on “Midday.”

Pursuing her childhood passion for cryptography, Ms. Teplinsky began her professional career at DoD at age sixteen and went on to earn a B.A. in science policy from Princeton University.  During her college years, she served in a technical capacity at the Institute for Defense Analyses' Center for Communications Research in Princeton, New Jersey; analyzed U.S. encryption policy at NIST’s Computer Security Lab; and studied networked technologies at SAIC’s Center for Information Strategy and Policy.  During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Teplinsky served in the Executive Office of the President, tackling a wide variety of information technology policy issues as an intern in OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Information Technology Branch and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.