I'm just like, oh, OK, I never thought about it that way.

Yeah, yeah.

So we've been a nonprofit since 2018.

That's when we became a 501c3 member-based nonprofit.

Prior to that, we were solely founded as a conference, and the conference continued to grow.

But in 2018, we really started reflecting on what is the impact that we're making on the workforce.

And how can we make sure that we're looking at retention and career growth and advancement? Because if we're only building the pipeline, but we can't retain the talented individuals, then we're part of perpetuating a problem there.

So with those initiatives that just started, so can people still enroll in those or has that cohort kind of started and now they need to enroll in the next cohort that comes up? How does that work?

Mm-hmm

... for, uh, individuals to stay.

We had some nuggets of information like, um, WiCyS members have that 32% lower attrition rate, and when you're a part of WiCyS, you, you have quicker, um, hiring time, so it reduces that cost associated with hiring.

So those are all good things.

But when it comes to resilience, it's about what are those wraparound services that actually has your workforce stay, to avoid burnout, to have career growth and advancement, and also to build a team that you need necessary.

So when we're looking at skills-based assessments, it's not just doing the assessment with your teams and then tucking 'em away and being like, "That's good information." It's actually utilizing it as a tool.

Let me ask you, like, with- with as rapidly as things are changing, how do you see WiCyS evolving over the next few years to continue to meet these crazy, like, crazy changes in technology, and career path, and things like that?

Yeah.

What causes that?

Well, prior to us doing research on it, we would always base it on hearsay of what we're hearing, you know, a lack of mentors, a lack of career growth and advancement and all of that.

But we really wanted hard data.

And so our mission is to recruit, retain and advance women in cybersecurity.

But in 2023, we kind of peel back the layers and we're like, we could recruit all we want.

We do a very good job of it, getting people into cybersecurity.

But if we really want to make an impact in the workforce, we have to understand what is the retention and what is career growth and advancement.

So what does resilience look like?

What causes that?

Well, prior to us doing research on it, we would always base it on hearsay of what we're hearing, you know, a lack of mentors, a lack of career growth and advancement and all of that.

But we really wanted hard data.

And so our mission is to recruit, retain, and advance women in cybersecurity.

But in 2023, we kind of peeled back the layers and we're like, we could recruit all we want.

We do a very good job of it, getting people into cybersecurity.

But if we really want to make an impact in the workforce, we have to understand what is the retention and what is career growth and advancement.

So what does resilience look like?

And what's the mission of the book? The message of the book?

The message of the book is, you know, just a privacy leader, all the different experiences and how many different individuals in this space are overcoming the challenges and identifying some of the barriers and what they're working on moving forward.

And so it was a great pleasure to be for Valerie and Todd to reach out to me and ask me to be a contributor.

And so I was able to share that.

just a little bit of our experience on the purpose of the Mentor-Mentee Program.

And, you know, for the sake of the listeners, when we just built out our Mentor-Mentee Program, we looked at our programming efforts that weren't working.

You know, we thought we're going to match mentors with mentees and they were going to develop a relationship and people are going to advance in their careers because of it.

Really?