UW Law School Alum Named Campus Research Security Director

There are some things that those who grew up in Wisconsin sometimes take for granted, such as walking on ice, fishing through ice, and festivities on ice.

Stefani Buster, who did not grow up in Wisconsin, has come to love Wisconsin. One of her funniest stories is attending Law School at UW–Madison and joining a Hoofers Winter Carnival where she, for the first time in her life, walked on ice.

“I remember I had the eye-opening experience of going to a festival on Lake Mendota,” Buster recalls. “Where I grew up, the advice was to never step on a lake that appeared to be frozen. And then my first year at the UW, I found myself walking on a frozen lake. I saw people not only walking on the lake but having fun at a festival on the ice. I wish someone had videotaped me walking on the lake for the first time.”

It’s a story she plans to share with her 4-year-old daughter when she moves her family to Madison later this year.  When it is much warmer.

Buster recently joined the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research as the Director of UW–Madison’s Research Security Program, coming to the UW from Purdue University where she was the Associate Director for Research Security.

At Purdue, Buster helped build the institutional research security compliance program, as well as oversaw research security training and certification, including developing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with federal regulations and sponsoring agency policies, and procedures related to foreign influence and trade controls.

Buster comes to UW–Madison–where she reports to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Policy and Integrity–as a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Association for University Export Control Officers Bylaws Committee, the American Nuclear Society, and the U.S. Women in Nuclear, a nonprofit organization of individuals who work in nuclear energy and technology fields around the United States.

In addition to a law degree from UW–Madison, Buster holds a master’s degree in nonproliferation and terrorism studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies; a master’s degree in French, francophone literature and civilization from Middlebury College in Paris, France; and a diploma in international nuclear law from the University of Montpellier, France.

“I am grateful to John Jay Miller, interim export control manager, for serving as Interim Research Security Director, and the cross-campus research security program planning team, for providing a strong foundation for UW–Madison’s research security program, that Stefani will build on,” says Dorota Brzezinska, vice chancellor for research. “Research security is essential to safeguard the integrity of our research, from preventing the misuse of research data and advanced technology, to protecting the safety of our researchers at home and as they travel abroad. This is especially true as the rapid pace of technological advancement and globalization of data requires us to be proactive about assessing risks and to be meticulous in our protections at all stages of our research.”

Q&A with Buster:

Q: What attracted you to UW–Madison?

A: I was impressed with this institution’s commitment to excellence and innovation, and the collaborative environment. UW–Madison has put a lot of preparation work into creating its research security program. I commend the team for the tremendous amount of foundational work that has been put into developing this program. It is clear that a great deal of time and effort has been dedicated to this work and UW–Madison is committed to taking research security and export control seriously. It is certainly a luxury to come into this role with so much documentation already in place. This is very impressive.

About a year ago I was at a research security conference in Chicago along with two attorney representatives from UW–Madison. Since I had studied at UW–Madison, I was curious about their program and how they were addressing the research security challenges. During one of our breaks, I had a conversation with the group of attorneys and asked them what their Research Security Program looked like. When they mentioned that they had working groups set up, I was really intrigued.

UW–Madison is a large institution and my first day working at UW–Madison I came across an article sent to my email featuring NSF’s announcement that the university jumped up to sixth in the rankings among institutions of higher education in research expenditures. This is fantastic news! What an exciting time to come back to UW–Madison. I went to Law School here – and the institution was very good to me. It’s good to come back!

Q: What knowledge and experiences do you bring to the Research Security Director position?

A:  My approach to research security has been two-fold, both building the program from the ground up and operationalizing it at the same time. This calls for us to assemble a new team of capable and agile professionals, cultivate critical partnerships both internally and externally, dive into the analysis, and effectively communicate about the ongoing changes in landscape in this space.

Prior to Purdue, I worked at Duke University in the office of audit risk and compliance as the Assurance Manager with dotted lines dealing with export controls and other functions on campus. Our group mainly focused on providing audit and assurance services for Duke’s research enterprise. Much like UW–Madison they have a medical school and that experience helped to lay a foundation for me to effectively help drive success and address any challenges that may arise on the research security and export control fronts.

Before Duke, I was at North Carolina State University where I was the Executive Director and Business Officer of the Nuclear Engineering Department. I came to nuclear at NC State because I had a prior interest and career in the nuclear field having worked in an UN-affiliated organization, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, in Vienna, Austria.

Before that, I was an International Visitor Liaison Contractor for the U.S. State Department where I worked on a number of legal and technical-based outreach projects collaborating with federal agencies as well as national and international partners to implement professional exchanges for distinguished global delegates and facilitated meetings between U.S. experts and foreign delegates to examine international and domestic issues.

Q: Tell us about your and your interests outside of work?

A: I am married and have a daughter. I also love to dance and studied classical dance growing up, but I did it all from tap to jazz, African, Brazilian and modern.

And I am a self-proclaimed yogi.

I am happy to come back to the red and white at the UW–Madison. Red is one of my favorite colors.

And when I was in Madison before, I had always wanted to do the Polar Plunge, so maybe now I will be able to do that.

By Natasha Kassulke, Natasha.kassulke@wisc.edu

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