Elis Vllasi is the Senior Director of Academic Operations and Teaching Associate Professor at the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He oversees academic program coordination and faculty affairs, and teaches Introduction to Cybersecurity Concepts and Grey Zone Warfare and Cybersecurity in the Applied Cybersecurity program. He founded the Hybrid Warfare Student Competition, created the U.S.-Japan Diplomacy Academy in Northern Japan, and served as Assistant Field School Director at Simon Fraser University’s NATO Field School. His research examines Russian and Chinese hostile influence operations, including WMD disinformation and open-science weaponization.
Senior Director of Academic Operations | PhD, International Relations