This session will discuss a large-scale, multi-million-dollar project that is funded by the DoD-NDEP, one of only five national cooperative agreements funded in September 2022. This project focuses on the establishment of a vibrant, collaborative consortium of six community colleges (CCs), led by a four-year institution, all working together to enhance STEM education across Pennsylvania with special emphasis on cybersecurity. The main objectives of the consortium are: increase certificate completion rates, increase transfer rates to 4-year institutions, and increase student interest in employment in the DoD and DIB workforce. The major factor that contributes to our ability to successfully establish a truly collaborative consortium is the experience gained by the Lead Organization (LO) over many years working with various community colleges, technical institutes, and K-12 schools across PA to enhance cybersecurity education. The project started with the identification of specific challenges that participating CCs face, particularly those that obstruct their abilities to achieve the projects’ three main objectives. Identified challenges include effective marketing/recruitment, retention, cost of obtaining certifications, community awareness of existing opportunities and career paths, among others. To address these challenges, our group proposed a set of innovative initiatives and is currently implementing them. Some of the proposed initiatives are managed centrally at the LO to maximize efficiency, minimize needed resources, and promote collaboration, while others are being implemented locally at each of the participating CCs to address local challenges and target specific audiences at each institution. Examples of central services include soft-skill tutoring, assessment, and faculty professional development programs. Examples of local services include mentorship, certificate training, tutoring, K-12 outreach, summer activities, and course alignments to support seamless transition from 2YIs to 4YIs. The session will acquaint the audience with the project and share lessons learnt and will be delivered using multi-modal learning approaches to promote audience engagement.