“Although I have 26 years of experience in IT, I am relatively new to cybersecurity. Through my involvement with WiCyS, including the mentorship program, the AI Learning Series, and the Target Cyber Defense Challenge, I’ve successfully transitioned into this next phase of my career while building confidence and meaningful connections. Attending my first WiCyS Conference in 2023 was a joyful and affirming experience. Meeting so many women and hearing stories that reflected my own career journey reminded me that I was not alone after years of often being the only woman in the room.”
—Gloria Zayas, Security Educator, Howard Community College
Gloria Zayas has spent more than 26 years working in technology, but her journey into cybersecurity represents a meaningful pivot, one that required learning, humility and a strong support system. After building a long career in telecom and IT, Gloria transitioned into cybersecurity just over five years ago.
Today, she is an adjunct security educator at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland, where she has taught for the past three years. She also works with Google Cloud Consulting as a Senior Technical Account Manager. While Gloria brought decades of technical experience with her, stepping into cybersecurity meant starting over in many ways—learning new concepts, navigating unfamiliar roles and figuring out where she fit within a fast-evolving field.
As a career changer, Gloria intentionally sought out opportunities to learn from others and connect with professionals who understood the realities of cybersecurity work. She completed courses, explored professional organizations and ultimately discovered WiCyS after landing roles as a Cybersecurity Success Manager at Tenable and later as a Technical Support Account Manager at Splunk.
From the beginning, WiCyS helped answer questions that went beyond career advancement. It gave Gloria a space to talk openly about the challenges of doing the work itself across different roles, industries and stages of experience. The WiCyS community helped her quiet the doubts that often come with entering a new field later in one’s career.
That sense of belonging became especially clear when Gloria attended her first WiCyS Conference in Denver. Walking into a room filled with women, many of whom shared stories that mirrored her own career journey, was both emotional and affirming.
For much of her 26-year career, Gloria had often been the only woman in the room, navigating technical spaces without a built-in community. At WiCyS, she experienced something different: a space where women could openly celebrate their successes, learn from one another and see themselves reflected in the stories on stage. The conference became a turning point, solidifying her connection to WiCyS and inspiring her to become more involved.
Following that first conference, Gloria joined the WiCyS Mentorship Program and helped establish a WiCyS Student Chapter at Howard Community College. Mentorship quickly became one of the most meaningful parts of her WiCyS experience.
She has participated in the program as both a mentee and a mentor, finding equal value in each role. As a mentee, Gloria benefited from conversations with experienced women in cybersecurity who helped her think through next steps and long-term goals. As a mentor, she has guided multiple cohorts, sharing perspective, encouragement and lessons learned from decades as a woman in tech. She often reflects that if she had a community like WiCyS to lean on earlier in her career, the journey might have felt far less lonely.
WiCyS has also supported Gloria’s continued learning as cybersecurity and technology continue to evolve. She participated in the WiCyS AI Learning Series in 2025, drawn to the growing intersection of AI and cybersecurity and the opportunities it presents for professionals in the field. She has also taken part in the WiCyS Target Cyber Defense Challenge, her first Capture the Flag competition, which tested her skills and reinforced her commitment to lifelong learning.
Looking back, Gloria describes the greatest impact of WiCyS in one word: community. Seeing rooms full of women learning, competing, mentoring, and supporting one another left a lasting impression and continues to shape how she shows up as an educator, mentor and cybersecurity professional. For Gloria, WiCyS has been more than a professional organization; it has been a catalyst in her career change, a source of confidence during uncertainty and a reminder that she does not have to navigate cybersecurity alone. She describes her WiCyS experience as an investment in herself, meaning putting herself out there, allowing others to learn from her and showing those coming after her that they can do this too.
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