Roberta Anderson

I planned to become a doctor. Then I lost my father — my best friend — to a medical error, and I lost the plan along with him. I joined the Air Force looking for the purpose he'd found there, and got placed in a computer lab despite having zero technical background. None of it was the plan. All of it was the path.

Twenty-five years later, I'm a CISO, an author, and a board-level cybersecurity leader — including serving as the City of Colorado Springs' first-ever CISO. I wrote Breaking the Firewall: How Women in Cybersecurity Rise from Entry-Level to the C-Suite to hand other women the roadmap I had to build myself, using a framework I call the Four Firewalls: Confidence, Visibility, Influence, Belonging.

I bring real talk, not theory — grief and reinvention, breaking into male-dominated rooms, AI risk and governance, and what it actually takes to climb from help desk to boardroom. I hold CISSP, CRISC, CDPSE, Security+, and Network+, and I'm active in WiCyS, ISC2, ISACA, and ISSA.

If your audience wants real talk on climbing the ladder, navigating AI risk, or turning obstacles into leadership — I'd love to join your show.