About Us
Start Engineering, LLC is a leading publisher of cybersecurity outreach and education materials. Our award-winning books and educational resources help primarily K-12 audiences learn about online safety, discover aptitudes and interests related to cybersecurity careers, and gain confidence to pursue career opportunities in one of the most important and in-demand fields around.
Cyber Safe & Savvy was developed to help seniors, one of the online user populations most frequently targeted by cyber criminals. It teaches readers about “data care,” a holistic approach to online safety based on two simple learning topics:
How to safeguard personal data when shared online.
How to identify and avoid threats to privacy and well-being when using the internet.
Start Engineering developed Cyber Safe & Savvy in grateful partnership with the National Cryptologic Foundation, one of the nation’s leading cybersecurity education organizations, supported by a generous grant from the Gula Tech Foundation.
We began our publishing work with engineering outreach and education books meant to engage and inspire kids about how careers in engineering can help them make the world a better, safer, and even more fun place for all of us. Expanding our list of publications to include cybersecurity and other STEM fields has helped us build a diverse, extensive list of high-profile customers. Our books and learning materials are shared in classrooms, after school, summer camps, career fairs, workshops, and anywhere else STEM learning takes place. Companies such as IBM, Lockheed Martin, Huntington Bank, and Palo Alto Networks all use our materials. Through its STEM program, the U.S. Department of Defense has circulated our books across the country to JROTC and other programs supporting DOD education activities. State governments, the Girl Scouts, and numerous education nonprofits have distributed our books, as well. Finally, universities, colleges, and schools from Maine to Hawaii educate students about cybersecurity, engineering, and other STEM fields through classroom use of our products.
Robert F. Black, CEO and Co-Founder
Mr. Black co-founded Start Engineering in 2013 to help make learning and careers in high-need, fast-growing STEM fields accessible, relevant, and exciting to students at all stages of K-12 education. Mr. Black and his colleagues have built the company into one of the leading publishers of STEM career awareness and education materials, with a current focus on cybersecurity and engineering. Print and digital products have reached 100,000’s of elementary, middle, and high school students through sales and partnerships involving schools, colleges and universities, companies and non-profits, and government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.
For over a decade, Mr. Black served as the Deputy Executive Director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). In his capacity as Deputy Executive Director, Mr. Black supervised all of ASEE’s domestic and international activities. In addition, he directly managed all of ASEE’S publications, marketing, and advertising endeavors. Under Black’s leadership as the long-term editor-in-chief of PRISM magazine, a leading publication on science, technology, and engineering education issues, the magazine received over 150 awards. He was also the creator and founder of Engineering, Go For It!, a magazine aimed at exciting middle and high school students about engineering. The publication currently has over 2 million copies in circulation.
For many years, he was Deputy Business Editor at US News & World Report magazine, and has published and edited numerous articles in the national media on business, economics, finance, and technology. Prior to joining US News, Mr. Black was one of the original members of the Congressional Budget Office, and a senior economist at the Urban Institute.
Mr. Black received an honors degree from the University of Wisconsin, has done postgraduate work in political science at Columbia University, and received a Master’s of Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley.
Stacie Harrison, Creative Director and Co-Founder
Ms. Harrison co-founded Start Engineering with Mr. Black in 2013. She is responsible for the design of all of Start Engineering’s various educational products as well as marketing materials. She was also the art director of Kiplinger’s magazine for 9 years while founding Start Engineering.
For many years, Ms. Harrison was the Art Director/Creative Director at the American Society for Engineering Education, and co-director of ASEE’s K-12 outreach program, eGFI, Engineering, Go For It. She was instrumental in art-directing the Engineering, Go For It! magazine, website, flashcards, and kids’ book. She has spoken to K-12 teachers across the country about introducing students to engineering. Before joining ASEE, she worked for the Washington Post as Art Director of the Washington Post Magazine and the Health section; and for Saveur and Garden Design magazines, Time and Entertainment Weekly. Ms. Harrison has won over 50 awards from such organizations as the Society of Publication Designers, the Society of Newspaper Designers, the Association of Educational Publishers, APEX and Communicator. She has communications and economics degrees from the University of Virginia.
Eric Iversen, Ph.D., Vice President, Learning and Communications
Eric Iversen has worked in learning for over 30 years. At Start Engineering, he leads content development operations for print and digital products, including guidebooks, teaching materials, blog and website content, and social media. He also speaks publicly about STEM education topics at live events and on broadcast media, and he conducts independent and collaborative projects on STEM learning and career activities in formal and informal K-12 learning environments.
At the American Society for Engineering Education, he started the ASEE Engineering K-12 Center, which became a hub of print, digital, and in-person efforts to catalyze engineering learning in K-12 classrooms. He also worked with engineering and education deans to launch K-16 engineering education initiatives, and for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, Mr. Iversen helped lead program operations and ran training and outreach activities.
Mr. Iversen was also Director of External Relations and member of the senior leadership team at the Universal Service Administrative Company. He launched and led varied learning enterprises, both online and in-person, increasing annual individual learning contacts by 400%. He also managed corporate communications for the $9 billion-a-year organization, serving as liaison to media, government, and stakeholder organizations.
Mr. Iversen received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina and a B.A. in English with high honors from the University of Virginia. After receiving his Ph.D., he taught English at the University of Texas, El Paso.