CybHER Warrior Awards

Recognizing and supporting influential women in cybersecurity is an important aspect of CybHER. Every year CybHER honors a leading woman in the field of cybersecurity with our CybHER Warrior Award. Every recipient is an example of tireless devotion, extraordinary accomplishments, self-less leadership and has made exceptional contributions to cybersecurity. Thank you, CybHER Warriors, for making a better and stronger field for us all.

Do you know a woman who should be recognized?  Email ashley.podhradsky@dsu.edu with your nomination.

Diane Janosek – CybHER Warrior 2020

Diane Janosek, Commandant for the National Cryptologic School, NSA, embodies CybHER’s mission.  She has donated thousands of hours mentoring women and minorities through her civic and professional engagements.  Always available, she supports people’s desire to achieve their highest potential, whether they are just beginning or already have their Ph.D. Rowland and Podhradsky love the impact Ms. Janosek is having in our field and the leadership she is taking to help get more kids and more women in the cybersecurity.

In her professional capacity, she supports the professional workforce development and objectives of the nation to promote and educate K-20 cybersecurity and its criticality to both the economic security and national security of our nation. 

Ms. Janosek is approachable, well-respected, and an enthusiastic champion of all ages in cybersecurity, who is most deserving to be recognized as the 2020 CybHER Warrior. 

Cynthia Hetherington – CybHER Warrior 2019

Cynthia Hetherington is the founder and president of Hetheringon Group, a consulting, publishing, and training form that leads in due diligence, corporate intelligence, and cyber investigations by keeping pace with the latest security threats and assessments. She has authored three books on how to conduct investigations and annually trains over 2000 investigators, security professionals, attorneys, accountants, auditors, military intelligence professionals, and federal, state, and local agencies on best practices.

For more than 25 years, Ms. Hetherington has led national and international investigations in corporate due diligence and fraud, personal asset recovery, and background checks. With a specialization in the financial, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications industries, her investigations have recovered millions of dollars in high profile corruption cases, assisting on the investigations of the top two Ponzi cases in United States history.

Liza Mundy – CybHER Warrior 2018

Liza Mundy is a journalist and author of four books, most recently Code Girls. She is a former staff writer for the Washington Post, where she specialized in long-form narrative writing, and her work won a number of awards. Liza has an AB from Princeton University and an MA in English literature from the University of Virginia. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and two children, just about a mile from Arlington Hall, where the Army code-breaking women worked, and about four miles from the Naval Annex. At various points in her career, she has worked full-time, part-time, all-night, at home, in the office, remotely, in person, on trains, in the car, alone, with other people, in dangerous places, under duress, and while simultaneously making dinner.

Alexis Perez – CybHER Warrior 2017

Alexis works on Facebook’s Infrastructure Strategy team as an Analyst. Some projects she works on consist of forecasting indicators for capacity planning for Facebook’s data centers, automating data-based decision processes, and supporting new product strategic initiatives through data. Alexis codes in R, Python, and SQL for her projects.

She learned to code by first teaching herself Python while working at UC Berkeley in 2013 as an Information Systems Analyst. Ever since she discovered the possibilities from coding, Alexis has strived to improve her technical skills through meetups, conferences, and mentorship. Alexis is passionate about sharing her knowledge and helping others learn to code. When Alexis is not working on solving scaling issues at Facebook or helping students code, she enjoys dancing ballet and skateboarding.