By Tina Olson, Chief Foundation Officer
CalCISO has been one of CTC's fastest growing programs for several years. We regularly find ourselves in the company of incredible people doing remarkable things.
As one way to harness some of that momentum, we embarked on an experimental program last year to bring women from the cybersecurity profession into headlining roles at CalCISO meetings. The results were uplifting.
From these beginnings, we formally launched our Women in Cyber initiative last month. We've been on the road ever since, beginning with a launch meeting at RAND in Santa Monica, carrying us through many conversations with interested partners, and the first of a series of webinars this month.
Within our CTC team and a core set of members, we have established stakeholders from education, industry, workforce development and government. We are looking at ambitious goals over the next decade: presenting young professionals with mentorship and enabling pathways into careers within cybersecurity; reaching students in secondary education to stimulate interest and reduce barriers to choosing majors which will lead to professions in cybersecurity; reinforcing growth potential for existing information technology professionals, raising awareness of and delivery solutions for cybersecurity certifications and skills.
While we see profound opportunity to make contributions to this field, we also see a daunting task. Frankly, this is going to take a lot of work and commitment of time. It is a generational issue that will not be solved in a couple of meetings over several months. We will need tremendous effort, many contributors, and volunteer strengths of every imaginable kind. With modest generosity of each contributor's time, we can come together to move mountains.
That's what it's going to take. Hundreds/thousands of volunteers working together to change the landscape.
We need you in this movement. We want you to be a part of something special, a partner with us in widening the opportunity to move more young women toward careers in cybersecurity.
I look forward to connecting with you in making a difference. Let's change the landscape together.
To get involved, to offer your and time and expertise, please reach me at tolson@californiatechnology.org.