Rooted in Security: Women Who Build, Break & Lead in NYC’s cybersecurity community

In February, Lawrence Harvey’s New York team hosted the first session of Rooted in Security: Women Who Build, Break & Lead, a new community-led series created to bring women in cybersecurity together for honest, practical conversations.

 

The evening brought together senior leaders, technical experts and emerging voices to discuss career pivots, building influence, and navigating leadership within a fast-evolving industry that doesn’t always make it easy. The atmosphere was collaborative, candid and grounded in shared experience.

 

We caught up with Stephanie Zavala, Principal Consultant, Cybersecurity, to hear more about the inspiration behind the event, the conversations that stood out, and what’s next for the series.

 

 

What inspired you to create Rooted in Security: Women Who Build, Break & Lead?

 

The start of my career in security recruitment was in San Francisco/ Silicon Valley and what I saw from the community there really resonated with me. I was in a space where meetups were a weekly occurrence, technical talks and events were the norm and everyone from the 2 year analyst to the CISO were able to be in a room together. Most leaders we also extremely passionate about bringing more diversity into technology. 

 

Moving to NYC and hosting a series of Leadership Roundtables, although successful, mostly brough in men. This sparked a want to create more spaces for women, by women. 

 

 

What gap were you hoping this event would address within the cybersecurity community?

 

When I moved to NYC, I felt there was a space missing for women in security to discuss technical challenges, have a safe space to meet mentors and discuss nuisances of navigating being a leader in a male-dominated field. 

 

 

How would you describe the atmosphere in the room?

 

The atmosphere felt collaborative, engaging and curious. Everyone who attended was genuine and had something to say! 

 

 

What conversations stood out to you most?

 

I valued everyone’s input when we discussed, how you evolve from a technical expert to an influencer inside your organization. This was a subject that created a lot of engagement because moving from being heard to being trusted is how you truly become a leader in a business where everyone usually thinks cybersecurity is a blocker, rather than a team that enables. 

 

 

What were the key themes discussed during the session?

 

We discussed career pivots, the evolution of cybersecurity as we know it today, skills that helped them navigate tactical to strategic impact and how to make this industry more inclusive in practice (not just words!)

 

 

Why is community essential in cybersecurity?

 

Community is important in any sector, as they say when raising a child, ‘it takes a village’. and I would say that within cybersecurity, community is essential because it accelerates trust, learning and shared progress. It also enables an exchange in ideas, lessons learned and other best practices. I also think women have a higher chance of experiencing imposter syndrome and community gives the ability to see someone in a seat you aspire to be in. 

 

 

How does creating spaces like this strengthen both individuals and the wider industry?

 

Think of it like open source software, when more people are contributing to something they are passionate about, there is a greater cause than just ‘you’ and innovation often happens in public, across companies and borders.

 

 

What’s next for Rooted in Security?

 

We will be curating a series of bi-monthly sessions that will cover table top exercises, panels, breakout groups, a ‘day in the life’ and we will also be hosting a session for entry-level professionals or those who’d like to make a pivot into security.