Core Mission
CybHER®’s mission is to empower, motivate, educate, and change the perception of girls and women in cybersecurity. By providing resources for girls from middle school through collegiate programs and into professional careers, CybHER will allow women to foster positive and encouraging relationships within this industry through original and curated content that educates and motivates women. Ultimately, our goal is to increase diversity by introducing more girls to cybersecurity, who will then transition to women in collegiate programs, and finally highly trained professionals.
K-12 OUTREACH
To date, we have reached over 14000 girls with our collective efforts. One of the most notable projects of CybHER is our GenCyber Girls in CybHER Security Camp. The week-long camp, which is supported by the NSA, is the largest girls-only residential camp in the country. The inaugural camp was in July 2015, and each summer the camp has hosted over 125 middle school students. Other outreach efforts to middle school and high school female students include presentation at STEM events, social media outreach, Aspirations award event, parent-support events, and more.
Founders
Dr. Ashley Podhradsky
Founder
Dr. Ashley Podhradsky is an Associate Professor of Digital Forensics and Associate Dean of the Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Dakota State University. Ashley has been an invited speaker at several events and universities including The Pennsylvania State University, Bureau of Justice Affairs, Women in CyberSecurity, InfraGard and DePaul University among others. Her research and work have been published and highlighted in several leading conferences, journals, radio programs, newscasts, and webisodes. Her research teams have received over 4.3M in competitive grants. In addition to her academic and professional work, she has a strong passion for increasing gender diversity in cybersecurity. She is the PI and Camp Director for GenCyber: Girls in CybHER Security, a program sponsored by the NSA. Ashley was the recipient of the EmBe 2017 “Young Woman of Achievement”, The Merrill Hunter Award for Excellence in Research, and is a New America Cybersecurity Fellow.
Dr. Pam Rowland
Founder
Pam Rowland is an Assistant Professor at Dakota State University in Cyber Security, Director of the CybHER MadLabs, Director of the Center of Excellence for Information Systems, and Undergraduate Research Coordinator. Pam’s area of research focuses on recruitment and retention of women in cybersecurity. Pam is the PI and the Director for the GenCyber: Girls in CybHER Security Camp grant sponsored by the NSA and NSF. The grant allows middle school girls to attend a weeklong residential camp allowing girls to explore an interest in cybersecurity through learning about programming, networking, and security. The CybHER program was created by Rowland and Podhradsky because of their passion to encourage girls to explore education and careers in cyber.
CybHER Girl
CybHER Girl is dedicated in memory of Aimée Tabor
Dr. Aimée Tabor (March 3, 1977 – December 8, 2015)
TRUST Education Director at University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Aimée Tabor was a strong force for broadening participation in STEM and an advocate for increasing access to education for women, minorities and underrepresented populations in STEM. Aimée was the Program Manager for UC Berkeley’s TRUST Center and an advocate for Black Girls Code.
Through her work, she impacted and inspired so many people. She will be remembered for her wonderful sense of humor, perseverance, bright smile and optimism. Dr. Tabor was a mentor for Dr. Podhradsky, Co-Founder of CybHER, and CybHER Girl is dedicated to her memory.