The Information Professionals Associations (IPA) is dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. IPA is an independent, non-profit, organization that seeks to examine how the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems are influenced and behave in the global information environment. IPA serves as a partnership of information professionals focused on the study, advancement, and application of information-related activities and technologies to achieve specific, predictable effects . We engage in public, charitable work to promote understanding and innovation and also to address how industry, governments and non-governmental organizations protect their reputations, interests and intent in a dynamic and competitive information environment. IPA is founded on four main goals: • Serve as an incubator for objective discussions leading to substantive solution development through events, consultation, and professional publications • Advocate for the development of innovative capabilities which enable effective engagement in the information environment • Nurture private / public partnerships to develop a broad-based professional organization dedicated to successful competition in the information environment • Recruit and mentor the next generation of information professionals, leveraging their perspectives as “net natives” to develop innovative solutions to current challenges and prevent future problems