Welcome to my personal website! My name is Turquoise Hearte. I am a PhD Candidate in Information Technology (Cyber Security concentration) at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where I also teach IS 3433 Cyber Crime Investigation.
My research examines how organizational risks emerge from the complex interplay between people, technologies, and institutional policies. I focus on non-malicious insider threats, cognitive bottlenecks, and systems-level blind spots that arise not from ill intent, but from well-intentioned behavior, structural silos, and evolving compliance demands. Using frameworks such as Actor–Network Theory (ANT) and the Theory of Issue Evolution (TIE), I explore how organizations can better visualize, anticipate, and mitigate risk. My dissertation centers on non-malicious insider behavior within research security, revealing persistent behavioral patterns as new technologies are adopted.
My research examines how organizational risks emerge from the complex interplay between people, technologies, and institutional policies. I focus on non-malicious insider threats, cognitive bottlenecks, and systems-level blind spots that arise not from ill intent, but from well-intentioned behavior, structural silos, and evolving compliance demands. Using frameworks such as Actor–Network Theory (ANT) and the Theory of Issue Evolution (TIE), I explore how organizations can better visualize, anticipate, and mitigate risk. My dissertation centers on non-malicious insider behavior within research security, revealing persistent behavioral patterns as new technologies are adopted.
My technical background is in digital forensics and Security Operations Center (SOC) analysis. My prior roles include capability abstraction and knowledge modeling for The MITRE Corporation, SOC analyst for UTSA, and Digital Forensics Investigator (intern) for NASA OIG. I currently develop digital forensics curriculum and training as an intern with the Texas Cyber Command. This experience informs my research approach by bridging technical systems understanding with sociotechnical insight, and continues to shape my focus on usable security, human-centered policy design, and resilient organizational infrastructures. Beyond this, I engage in interdisciplinary work across cybersecurity, human–computer interaction, and organizational studies. This includes projects on analyst cognition and workflow design, participatory development of video triage systems, and tools that surface tacit organizational knowledge. Across all of my work, I aim to bridge theory and practice by developing actionable insights and tools to support IT governance, compliance, and institutional resilience.
Outside of academia, I am the founder of Blue Selah LLC, which builds privacy-first software for family caregivers and households, including Our Village Care, a secure care coordination app.
Research Statement
Teaching Philosophy
Outside of academia, I am the founder of Blue Selah LLC, which builds privacy-first software for family caregivers and households, including Our Village Care, a secure care coordination app.
Research Statement
Teaching Philosophy