Marissa Morales-Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Dr. Marissa Morales-Rodriguez is a scientist and technology security strategist working at the intersection of energy systems, cybersecurity, and emerging digital technologies. She is the Founder and Technology Security Strategist at STEMPRISE, where she focuses on helping organizations understand and manage the risks introduced when technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), agentic systems, and distributed energy resources (DERs) are deployed in operational technology (OT) and critical infrastructure environments.

Her work centers on how digital technologies change trust boundaries, accountability, and decision authority inside real engineering and operational workflows. She has extensive experience supporting resilience, cybersecurity, and secure digital integration for power systems, including inverter-based and distributed energy resources. Her recent work includes leading the deployment and governance of AI systems embedded in engineering workflows supporting power system design and QA/QC, where cybersecurity controls were required only after AI altered existing assurance processes.

Dr. Morales-Rodriguez has contributed to applied research and technology development in power systems, sensing technologies, and infrastructure resilience, and is a named inventor on multiple patents related to energy and cybersecurity technologies. Her work is grounded in operational reality, focusing not on theoretical frameworks, but on how governance, security controls, and engineering assurance mechanisms must adapt when software and AI begin influencing real-world decisions.

She is a frequent speaker and moderator at industry forums and is known for translating complex technical and cyber-physical challenges, such as automation, autonomy, and AI-enabled decision-making, into practical, implementable approaches for engineers, security practitioners, executives, and policymakers. Her current focus is on AI governance in critical infrastructure, particularly where AI is embedded into engineering processes and operational workflows that were not originally designed with cybersecurity in mind.