Advocates

Dara Gibson of Optiv had a rough time of it when she started off in cybersecurity – now she mentors other young women so they can start off on the right foot.

Dara Gibson, senior cyber insurance manager at Optiv, describes how she began her career in cybersecurity and how she became a mentor to other women looking to enter the field. "That forced me to look at where I was going and where I came from."

Says Rosso of her early days as a sports reporter: “I was treated extraordinarily unprofessionally by many of the coaches who didn’t think a young woman who was a graduate from college should be doing this work. Little did they know that I’m very tenacious.”

Risk-management specialist and security evangelist Chasserae Coyne, a 2023 Women in IT Security honoree, knows the value of communicating difficult topics with clarity and of speaking out when it's necessary.

Said the children's book author and Best Buy's cloud security engineer: "I also felt it was important to take on the Hollywood myth that cybersecurity people are people in hoodies working in a dark basement.”

Said USC recruiter Rachel Harpley: "While I cannot fix the entire industry and often feel like an umbrella in a hurricane, it is interactions with driven and curious job seekers that remind me of how meaningful it can be to share shelter in a storm."

Said the head of the global compliance and regulatory practice at Octillo: “I think to myself when I’m saying to a little girl, ‘This is what an IT professional looks like, this is what a cyber lawyer looks like’ – that alone can really change perspectives."